Routing by presentation
The caller describes the problem in their own words and the correct specialty protocol is selected from it. No phone menu, no guessing, and no transfer to find out it was the wrong department.
Organization type · Multi-Specialty
One front door, twelve specialties behind it.
Multi-specialty groups answer one number for a dozen different clinical services. This routes each caller to the right specialty with the right protocol, and coordinates the patients who are under three of them at once.
- 12+
- Specialty protocols on one line
- 47%
- Fewer internal transfers
- 1
- Diary the patient has to follow
In the product
Group front door — routing view
LiveInbound 11:33 · single group number · Deirdre W. · 58 · under cardiology + endocrinology
Caller
I'm not sure who I should be talking to. My ankles have swollen up and I'm more out of breath than usual on the stairs.
Presentation → cardiac protocol selected · patient has HF diagnosis under cardiology
Primum
You're through to the right place, you don't need to be transferred. Have you weighed yourself this week?
Caller
I'm up about three kilos since Friday.
Weight gain 3kg/4 days + increasing dyspnoea → HF decompensation, same-day review
Primum
I'm booking you in today with the heart failure nurse, and I'll move your diabetes review to the same afternoon so you only make one trip.
Routing decision
- Services
- Cardiology + endocrinology
- Routed to
- Cardiac protocol
- Transfers
- 0
- Weight
- +3kg in 4 days
- Decision
- Same-day HF review
- Diary
- 2 appointments, 1 trip
Both services updated · one confirmation sent · transport not required
Overview
The caller does not know which specialty they need. That is your problem to solve.
- Specialty selected by presentation, not by the caller guessing from a menu.
- Each specialty's own red flags, protocols and preparation instructions apply.
- Cross-specialty patients get one coordinated schedule and one point of contact.
A multi-specialty group's phone number is answered by somebody who has to be competent in cardiology, dermatology, orthopedics and nine more at once. In practice they cannot be, so the call is transferred, then transferred again, and the patient explains themselves three times before reaching somebody who can help.
Primum answers with every specialty's protocol available on the same line. The presenting problem determines which one runs, so a caller describing chest pain gets cardiac triage and a caller describing a changing mole gets the dermatology pathway with an image request — on the same number, in the same conversation, with no transfer. Patients under several services get one coordinated diary rather than four letters.
Capabilities
What one line serving twelve services has to do
Route correctly, apply the right clinical rules, and hold the whole patient rather than one service's slice.
Each specialty's own rules
Cardiac red flags on a cardiology call, obstetric thresholds on a women's health call, age banding on a pediatric call. The protocols do not blur into a lowest common denominator.
Cross-specialty coordination
A patient under cardiology, nephrology and endocrinology gets one sequenced diary, one set of preparation instructions, and one place to ring — rather than three services each sending their own letter.
Reporting per service and across them
Volume, acuity, deflection and outcome by specialty, plus the cross-service view that shows where patients are being passed between clinics without anybody holding the whole picture.
How it works
One number to the right protocol
The routing decision is clinical, and it happens inside the first thirty seconds.
- Arrives
- Decided
- Done
- Returned
01
Call answered
One number, no menu. The patient is matched and every service they are currently under is loaded with the record.
Single front door
02
Specialty determined
The presenting problem mapped to the right specialty protocol, with the patient's existing service relationships taken into account.
Presentation routing
03
Protocol applied
That specialty's red flags, questions and thresholds run in full, exactly as they would on a dedicated specialty line.
Specialty rules
04
Coordinated and written
Booked, escalated or resolved, with appointments across services sequenced correctly and everything written back to the shared record.
Cross-service diary
01
Call answered
One number, no menu. The patient is matched and every service they are currently under is loaded with the record.
Single front door
02
Specialty determined
The presenting problem mapped to the right specialty protocol, with the patient's existing service relationships taken into account.
Presentation routing
03
Protocol applied
That specialty's red flags, questions and thresholds run in full, exactly as they would on a dedicated specialty line.
Specialty rules
04
Coordinated and written
Booked, escalated or resolved, with appointments across services sequenced correctly and everything written back to the shared record.
Cross-service diary
Benefits
The group behaves like one organisation
Which is what patients assume it already is.
Transfers mostly disappear
Getting the specialty right on the first answer removes the three-transfer call, which is the single most common complaint a multi-specialty group receives.
One diary, correctly ordered
Tests before reviews, imaging before the surgical clinic, with preparation instructions sent for each and nothing double-booked across services.
Capacity balances across services
Seeing demand across every specialty on one layer shows where capacity sits idle while another service queues.
In practice
Four calls to one number
Four different specialty protocols, no transfers.
'Pain in my chest'
Cardiac protocolCardiac red flags run within seconds of the description. Escalated to the on-call cardiologist without the call ever reaching a department.
'A mole that's changed'
Dermatology protocolABCDE questions asked and images requested on the same call, with a two-week-wait referral assembled.
Three services, four letters
Rebuilt as one planCardiology, nephrology and endocrinology appointments re-sequenced into the right order with one set of instructions.
'I don't know who to ask'
Routed correctlyA vague post-operative query resolved to the right surgical service from the description, with the operation note open.
Read next
- Health SystemsEnterprise deployment for multi-site health systems: central governance with local protocols, routing across the whole estate, and a sovereign tenancy that scales past a million calls without a migration.Open
- Primary CareTriage, booking, refills, results, chronic disease reviews and recalls — the complete administrative and first-contact workload of a general practice, running on one layer.Open
- Appointment SchedulingBooking, rescheduling and cancellation handled end to end against your live diary — with the right appointment type, the right clinician, the right duration, and the preparation instructions sent before the caller hangs up.Open
Bring us your transfer statistics
Ask your contact centre how many calls are transferred at least once, and how many at least twice. We will run one week on the routing layer and hand you the same number back.