Clinical Call Center
At Yale Health, our Clinical Call Center is more than an answering service—it's a team of dedicated Patient Navigators committed to helping you get the care you need.
What do Patient Navigators do?
Our more than a dozen onsite Patient Navigators are experts in Yale Health services and are ready to assess your needs and quickly and efficiently direct you to the right department or healthcare team.
- Schedule appointments: Whether routine or specialized, they’ll help you easily schedule your care.
- Assess urgent situations: Navigators work with clinical teams to prioritize your concerns and connect you to nurses when appropriate.
- Answer questions: Have general questions about services or appointments? They’ve got you covered.
The Call Center's telecom platform uses updated technology to improve your experience:
- The Call Queue shows you how many callers are ahead of you across all clinics, not just the one you're trying to reach.
- A call-back option allows you to leave your phone number, hold your place in line, and receive a call when it's your turn. If your expected wait time is over 5 minutes, the system will immediately offer you the call-back option.
Future upgrades will include multi-channel communication options like instant messaging, text, and email, as well as an AI voice agent to answer simple questions and route calls to the correct navigator.
Is the Call Center a third party answering service?
No, it’s staffed by Yale Health employees with deep knowledge of Yale services, ensuring you're in expert hands. Many of our patient Navigators have been employed with Yale Health for 10 or more years.
Some navigators specialize in particular clinics and share their expertise with colleagues. With this centralized knowledge, they can quickly direct your concerns to the right department and provider team the first time. Most navigators are trained across all clinics, so even if you’ve reached the wrong department, they can still assist you effectively.
Is the Call Center/Patient Navigators new at Yale Health?
No, our Call Center has assisted patients for over 20 years, handling around 900 calls daily for 22 clinical departments and serving 50,000 members annually.
As services and membership expanded, the Clinical Call Center evolved to guide patients through the complex healthcare system, which is why it was rebranded as "Navigators" to better reflect its role.