- Founded by a physician
- 1995
- Live agents, every call
- 24/7/365
- English & Spanish agents
- EN · ES
- Plans start at
- $33
Physician-founded since 1995
A physician answering service built by a physician
Southern Voices was founded by a physician in 1995 and is still physician-owned today. That shapes how we answer your phones. We know the difference between a refill request that can wait until morning and a post-op patient with a fever who can’t. We know what it costs a practice when the on-call doctor gets woken up for a billing question, and what it costs a patient when a real emergency sits in a voicemail box.
Whether you call it a medical answering service, a physician answering service or a doctors answering service, the job is the same: a trained, live person answers every call in your practice’s name, follows your protocols exactly, and gets urgent messages to the right provider fast. We’re a US company headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Our agents work from our office and remotely, every call runs through our US-hosted systems, and we answer in English and Spanish around the clock.
Who we answer for
An answering service for medical offices of every size
From solo practitioners to large healthcare networks and insurance agencies, we answer the way your own team would, whether you need a clinic answering service for one location or coverage across dozens.
Healthcare networks
Health systems and large provider networks with many locations, specialties and on-call schedules.
Insurance agencies
Member and policyholder calls answered in your agency’s name.
Primary care
Family medicine, internal medicine and general practice offices.
Pediatrics
High after-hours volume from worried parents, where every call feels urgent.
Specialty practices
OB/GYN, orthopedics, cardiology, dermatology, ENT, gastroenterology and more.
Surgical practices
Surgeons and surgery centers handling post-op patient calls.
Urgent care
Hours, location and wait-time questions answered while your staff treats patients.
Behavioral health & therapy
Behavioral health practices and physical therapy offices.
Running a hospital, home health agency or hospice? See our healthcare call center services. Dental offices have their own page: dental answering service.
What we handle
Calls our medical answering service handles
Urgent clinical calls
Routed to your on-call provider by your rules, with the details they need to act.
Hospital & physician calls
Patched through live or relayed to the right doctor.
Appointments
Requests, changes and cancellations, taken as messages or booked directly in your EMR.
Prescription refills
Captured completely, so your staff isn’t calling patients back for missing details.
New patient inquiries
Answered live instead of lost to the next practice on the search results page.
Lab, billing & general
Logged and sorted for your team to handle during office hours.
Working inside your EMR
When you give us access, our agents log in and work directly in your EMR or practice management system the way your own staff does: booking and rescheduling appointments, checking provider schedules, and routing calls by the rules you set. If your EMR offers API access, we can also build an integration so messages and call details flow straight into it. You decide what our agents can see and do, and agents with direct access to your EMR or scheduling system are US-only staff.
Your protocols, never our advice
Our agents don’t diagnose and don’t give medical advice. They follow the scripts and escalation rules you approve. Where you want clinical triage, we work with nurse triage partners that cover nearly all 50 states.
Nights, weekends & holidays
After-hours medical answering service
Most practices start with nights, weekends and holidays. When your office closes, calls forward to us, and a live agent answers with your practice name. Emergencies go to your on-call provider. Everything else waits for your staff in the morning, sorted and complete. Your on-call rotation lives in our system, and you can update it yourself through the client portal, so a schedule change on Friday afternoon doesn’t need a phone call.
We also answer during the day: lunch-hour coverage, overflow when the front desk is on other lines, and full-time answering for practices that would rather not staff phones at all. See after-hours answering and overflow answering for how those setups work.
- Your front desk: 8 AM–5 PM
- Southern Voices: nights, weekends, holidays
- Southern Voices: lunch hour
- Overflow backup whenever your lines are busy
Example schedule. You choose exactly which hours we cover.
How patient calls are handled
What happens when a patient calls
Day, night, weekend or holiday, a live agent answers in your practice’s name, works out what the patient needs, and handles it exactly the way your protocols say.
- Urgent Your on-call provider, reached now Live phone patch to the provider, a call to their cell, or a secure text
- New patient New patient inquiry captured Your intake questions asked, then sent to your front desk right away
- Booking Appointment booked Booked directly in your EMR or scheduling system when you give us access
- Question Question answered Office hours, locations and common questions, answered from your information
Want the patient’s view? Read what happens when a patient calls after hours.
Hablamos español
Bilingual answering for your Spanish-speaking patients
Our bilingual agents answer in Spanish live. That’s not a “press 2” menu and not a translation line. For practices with Spanish-speaking patients, that’s the difference between a complete, accurate message and a callback nobody can act on.
More on why it matters: bilingual after-hours calls in medical practices.
Getting started
How it works
- Map your callsWe walk through your call types, office hours, on-call rotation, and which calls should wake a provider.
- Approve your scriptWe write the script and escalation rules. You approve them, and agents are trained on your account before your first live call.
- Forward your lineAll calls, after-hours only, or overflow. Messages reach you by secure text, email or the client portal.
- Adjust as you goChange scripts, on-call schedules and routing whenever your practice changes.
Protecting patient information
What to look for in a HIPAA compliant answering service
Any answering service that takes patient calls handles protected health information. Compliance is shared between your practice and your vendor, so look for facts about how a service works, not a badge. Here’s how we handle it:
- We sign a business associate agreement (BAA) with medical clients.
- Our agents are trained on HIPAA privacy requirements before they take patient calls.
- Messages go through secure channels (secure texting and the client portal) instead of plain SMS.
- Access is limited to the agents and staff who work on your account.
- US-only staff when you need it. Agents with direct access to your EMR or scheduling system are always US-only staff, and any practice can request a US-only team for all of its calls.
For a fuller checklist, read what a HIPAA compliant answering service is and is your after-hours answering service actually HIPAA compliant?
Real people, every call
Live agents, not a phone tree
Patients calling a doctor’s office after hours are often worried, sick, or calling for someone who is. An automated menu or an AI voice that mishears a medication name doesn’t help them. A calm, trained person does.
We cover the trade-offs in live agents vs. AI for medical office phones.
Pricing
Medical answering service pricing
Pricing is usage-based, so you only pay for the time you use: it follows how many calls you get, how long they run, and how much each call involves. Plans start at $33, and the larger the organization, the larger the volume discount, so healthcare networks and multi-location groups get a lower rate. Most practices know their cost within one conversation.
See answering service pricing for what goes into a quote, or ask us for one.
Plans start at
$33
Your plan is built around your call volume, and larger organizations get volume discounts.
Questions
Medical answering service FAQs
Don’t see your question? Call and ask a live agent, any time.
Is Southern Voices HIPAA compliant?
HIPAA compliance is shared between a practice and its vendors, so here is what we do on our side: we sign a business associate agreement with medical clients, train our agents on HIPAA privacy requirements, deliver messages through secure channels, and limit account access to the people who work on it.
Do your agents give medical advice?
No. Agents follow the scripts and escalation rules your practice approves and route urgent calls to your on-call provider. If you want clinical triage, we work with nurse triage partners that cover nearly all 50 states.
How do urgent calls reach our on-call physician?
Your on-call rotation is loaded into our system, and agents reach the provider on call by the method you choose: a live phone patch that connects the caller directly to the provider, a call to their cell, or a secure text. You can update the rotation yourself through the client portal.
Can we have US-only agents answer our calls?
Yes. Agents who work directly in your EMR or scheduling system are always US-only staff, and any practice can request a US-only team for all of its calls. We’ll walk through whether that changes your pricing before you decide.
Do you integrate with our EMR?
It depends on your EMR. If it offers API access, we can build an integration so messages and call details go straight into it. Either way, with your permission our agents can log in and work directly in your EMR or practice management system to schedule appointments and route calls, just like your front-desk staff.
How much does a medical answering service cost?
Plans start at $33 and scale with call volume and complexity. Larger organizations, like healthcare networks and multi-location groups, get volume discounts. See our pricing page or contact us for a quote.
Also serving
Related healthcare answering services
Hospitals, home health & hospice
Healthcare call center services for larger organizations.
Dental offices
Appointment requests, dental emergencies and after-hours calls.
Veterinary clinics
After-hours pet emergencies triaged and routed.