Call Flows

Call flows unlock the power of Vocera and opens the door to improved communications and productivity. A call flow is the movement of calls and/or information through a particular department or group. The call flows discussed in this section are found in the settings made under the Forward tab when editing/adding a group.

The best way to identify the optimal call flow for a group is to ask the question of the group, “If I call the <Vocera Group Name> and no one answers, where you do want the call to go?” You generally do not want a call to a group to go to voicemail. This question should be asked for every group. The goal of group calling is for all groups to end with the caller reaching a live person. It is easy to set up a default call flow and will typically meet more than 85% of almost any department’s needs.

Before setting up call flows for groups, you must first make a few assumptions about acceptable call flow behavior:

When a call is placed to a group, the person calling often does not know or care which person they connect with. However, they expect to reach someone.
If a call to a staff member is made by name, the person calling explicitly knows who they want, and it is acceptable for the call to go to voice-mail if that person does not answer.
If a call is placed to a department group, it’s likely that the caller doesn’t know who or what role they really need to talk to and reaching the first random person in the department group would slow the flow of information. An explicit forward to the unit secretary will ensure the information gets to the right person to receive it.

Based on the previous assumptions, the following call flows are recommended:

Department groups – Forward all calls to the main desk extension of the department.
Common role-based groups – Forward unanswered calls to the main desk extension of the department or to the “charge” role-based group for the department. Be sure to ask this question when you interview the department about their call flow preferences.
Role-based groups with dynamic membership (such as a charge nurse role) – Forward unanswered calls to the main desk extension of the department.
Managerial role-based groups – Forward unanswered calls to the member of this group’s desk extension or to the main desk extension of the department. By default, forward unanswered calls to their desk extension if an office extension is provided. This allows voicemail to be checked in one location if desired.

Note: The managerial role-based group must have a single person as the member. If the managerial role-based group contains more than one member that does not share an extension, forward unanswered calls to the main desk extension of the department.

The Vocera Voice Server has a timeout value on the length of time allowed for a call to be connected. The call must complete in less than 50 seconds. This timeout value can affect any forwarding you set up. If a call made to a group searches through a group or groups of staff (in the case of nested groups) for longer than 50 seconds before being answered, the caller will be asked to leave a message to the original group they placed the call to. This will occur regardless if you have forwarded unanswered calls to a desk extension. This timeout exists on purpose—would you wait longer than 50 seconds to talk to someone?