Veterinary Emergency Answering Service for Urgent Intake

Our veterinary emergency answering service gathers urgent call details and routes them using your hospital's instructions. Your team gets the owner's account while the caller hears the next step. Test the emergency demo before setting up your own intake and duty contacts.

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A veterinarian examining a cat on an exam table while the owner watches

What the emergency line does in the first minute

Your receptionist identifies itself, gives the recording notice and asks why the owner is calling. It flags urgent concerns using your rules and gives your hospital's next-step instructions.

Clear greetingOwners hear the virtual-assistant disclosure and recording notice before intake begins.
Reason firstAsk what prompted the call and capture the owner's description.
Urgent routeUse your hospital's instructions to direct the call toward the appropriate contact.

The first minute starts with a clear greeting and the reason for the call. Your receptionist answers as your hospital while identifying itself as a virtual assistant and saying the call is recorded. It then follows the intake questions and urgency instructions you provided during setup.

For an emergency or specialty hospital, write those instructions around your actual phone workflow: who should receive urgent calls, which services you provide and what arrival information callers need. The receptionist collects context and starts the configured routing process. It does not replace a clinical triage assessment, diagnose the patient or recommend medication and doses. Your clinical team retains those decisions.

Intake details for your team before arrival

Your receptionist gathers the owner's contact details, patient information and reason for calling according to your intake questions. Your team receives a summary and call record to review before speaking with the owner.

Owner contactCapture who is calling and how your hospital can reach them.
Patient contextAsk your chosen questions about the pet and the reported concern.
Arrival wordingShare the hospital instructions you provide during onboarding and keep current.

Your intake questions determine which details the receptionist asks for. You can specify the owner's name, callback number, patient name and the concern they are reporting. The summary gives your team a starting point, with the transcript and recording available when they need the owner's wording.

For arrival information, provide the directions you want callers to hear and check them in a test conversation. A specialty hospital can also describe its services and what it does not offer, so the receptionist uses that information when answering questions. It cannot confirm hospital capacity or an individual patient's acceptance unless your team has supplied the relevant instruction. Keep arrival wording separate from any promise about treatment timing.

Page or warm transfer to the doctor on duty

Your receptionist can page the designated on-duty contact or attempt a warm transfer in the order you set. The receiving person hears a short summary before choosing to take the call.

Duty contactName the person who should receive urgent calls under your hospital's rules.
Summary firstThe recipient hears context and presses 1 to accept a warm transfer.
Contact orderSet the sequence yourself and review it when your duty coverage changes.

Urgent calls reach your designated person through a page or warm transfer, based on your settings. With a warm transfer, the recipient hears a short account of the call and presses 1 to accept. That handoff gives the person answering context before the owner joins them.

You control the contacts and their order. Review those settings whenever duty coverage changes, and tell the AI your updates in plain words through the settings workflow. The receptionist follows those instructions; it does not select a doctor from a hospital scheduling system. Use the urgent handoff overview to plan your test, including who should receive the first contact attempt and what summary they hear.

How toxin, trauma, bloat and breathing calls are handled

Reported toxin exposure, trauma, bloat or breathing trouble prompts direction to the nearest emergency vet now. Your receptionist flags the call for your team and provides ASPCA Animal Poison Control information for toxin concerns.

Emergency careDirect owners reporting these concerns to the nearest emergency veterinary hospital now.
Toxin resourceProvide ASPCA Animal Poison Control's number, with notice that a fee may apply.
Team contextSend the reported concern and urgency tag with the call record.

These reported concerns receive an instruction to seek emergency veterinary care now, alongside the routing you set for your hospital. For toxin calls, the receptionist also provides ASPCA Animal Poison Control at 888-426-4435 and notes that a fee may apply. The call record preserves what the owner reported.

Do not use an answering conversation as permission to wait for a callback. Your configured wording should make the emergency-care direction clear even when a transfer is being attempted. During the fictional emergency scenario, listen for that direction and review the captured message. The goal is a clear next step for the owner and useful context for your clinical team.

Calm words and clear instructions for frightened owners

Your receptionist uses your hospital's information to give owners a clear next step while gathering their request. English and Spanish support lets callers describe their concern and switch languages during the conversation.

Plain questionsGather the reason for calling using the intake wording your hospital sets.
Language choiceLet owners speak English or Spanish and change language during the call.
Known informationAnswer from your hospital's services, hours and instructions supplied during setup.

Calm call handling starts with questions an owner can answer and instructions they can follow. Give your receptionist clear service information, arrival wording and the questions your team needs asked. An owner can describe the situation in English or Spanish, including changing languages partway through the conversation.

Use your demo review to judge the tone as well as the intake. Does the greeting make the assistant's role clear? Does the next step follow your hospital's instructions? When an answer is not in your supplied information, the receptionist can take the question for your team. It should not fill a gap with an invented hospital policy or a promise about the patient's outcome.

Choose full coverage or support for your front desk

Your hospital can forward all calls or use the receptionist for busy, unanswered or after-hours calls. Choose the route around your staffed desk and check it with a test call before launch.

Staffed desk supportForward busy or unanswered calls when your team is already occupied.
Selected hoursUse after-hours forwarding where it matches your hospital's answering arrangements.
Full coverageForward all calls for intake and urgent routing day and night.

Your staff bring clinical judgment and direct knowledge of what is happening inside the hospital. The AI receptionist can support that team by handling forwarded calls, collecting messages and starting the urgent route you define. Choose busy or no-answer forwarding for desk support, after-hours forwarding for selected coverage, or full forwarding for all calls.

Setup begins with your clinic information and a 10-15 question onboarding chat. We provide a local number, forwarding guidance and a test call before you go live. You keep control of the route and review the resulting call records. Your backup number or voicemail receives calls if the plan lapses. See how to prepare your phone coverage before choosing the option to test.

Questions and answers

Does the receptionist triage veterinary emergencies?

It gathers intake details, flags urgency under your hospital's rules and starts the route you set. That is call intake and routing rather than clinical triage. For the specified emergency concerns, it directs the owner to emergency veterinary care now. Your clinical team assesses the patient and determines treatment.

Can the doctor hear a summary before taking the call?

Yes. A warm transfer begins with a short summary for your designated contact. That person presses 1 to accept the call and speak with the owner. You decide the contact order and can choose paging instead, based on the way your hospital handles urgent calls.

Can it tell an owner how to arrive at our hospital?

It can use the arrival instructions your hospital supplies during onboarding. Include the wording owners should hear, then check it in a test call and update it when arrangements change. The receptionist uses your information rather than independently checking access, capacity or whether a particular patient has been accepted.

What information does our team receive after an emergency call?

Your team receives an email and app push notification with the call summary, urgency tag, transcript and recording. The dashboard also holds call records for review. Use the original transcript or recording when the summary needs clarification, and review the details before making decisions based on the message.

Can it send intake directly into our practice software?

Direct practice-management software connections are not live. Your team can review the call summary and enter the information it needs into your existing system. Direct connections are planned according to demand. Check the current workflow against your hospital's intake process before making it part of your phone coverage.

Is the emergency browser demo based on a real patient?

No. The demo uses a clearly fictional clinic and scenarios so you can assess the greeting, questions and emergency directions yourself. Demo conversations are recorded and transcribed to show the result. Try the emergency routing scenario, then review how the receptionist captures the owner's account and explains the next step.

How do we test our own emergency routing before forwarding calls?

Request a free trial; we'll email your sign-in link when your trial is ready. Then provide your hospital's intake instructions, duty contacts and urgent-call rules through onboarding. A card is required before call forwarding goes live. Make the setup test call to check the greeting, recipient order and handoff, then review the summary your team receives.

Hear emergency intake in the browser demo

Try a fictional emergency call and review the result. Request a free trial to test your hospital's intake questions, instructions and duty contacts.

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