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The vet clinic playbook for after hours emergency calls
How three animal hospitals triage urgent calls overnight without burning out their staff.
Sofia Alvarez
Head of Voice,
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The overnight problem
A simple triage model
What changed
How to set it up
The overnight problem
Veterinary clinics get emergency calls at every hour, but most cannot staff a phone overnight. The result is either a stressed on-call vet answering every call or worried owners stuck with voicemail.
A simple triage model
The three hospitals we worked with all landed on the same approach: answer every call, sort it by urgency, and only wake a person when it truly matters.
Urgent: breathing problems, bleeding, toxins, collapse. Connect to the on-call vet or the nearest emergency hospital
Soon: vomiting, limping, not eating. Book the first slot tomorrow and send care notes
Routine: refills, records, vaccines. Log the request for the morning team
Our on-call vet now gets three calls a night instead of fifteen, and every one of them matters.
What changed
Across the three clinics, overnight calls handled without waking a vet rose to 80%. Owners got an answer in seconds, and the morning team started each day with a clear list instead of a full voicemail box.
How to set it up
Start with your clinic's existing triage sheet. Hollis can follow the same questions your team already asks, and you can adjust the urgent list at any time.
Written by Sofia Alvarez
Head of Voice at Hollis. Sofia works with veterinary and specialty clinics on how Hollis sounds, triages and hands off calls.
