Intake IVR menu for a clinic or law firm: emergencies, data and prompts

An intake IVR menu for a clinic or a law firm must do three things before anything else: send emergencies to 112 without holding the call, give notice of recording if there is any, and take each person to a new or existing appointment while asking only for what is necessary. The menu should not ask about symptoms or case details: an authorised person collects that information, when it is needed and through a suitable channel.

The general structure of a menu is covered in the guide to designing an IVR phone menu. This article covers the decisions specific to the healthcare and legal sectors in Spain. It is not legal advice: validate the wording with your data protection officer or your professional association. The sources cited were consulted on 22 October 2026.

Three rules before writing the first option

Emergencies first and outside the menu. 112 is the general emergency number in Spain, free from landlines and mobiles, for medical emergencies, accidents or situations of risk. The sentence that refers callers to it must play first, before the recording notice and the options, and must not be followed by waiting or ask the caller to press anything.

Data minimisation. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 requires data to be limited to what is necessary (Article 5(1)(c)) and defines health data as data relating to physical or mental health, including the provision of health care services, that reveal information about a person's health status (Article 4(15)). The Spanish data protection authority (AEPD) points out that the general rule in Article 9 is a prohibition on processing special categories of data, health among them, subject to the exceptions provided. A menu that says "press 4 if you have chest pain", or a voicemail that invites callers to describe symptoms, creates that data before anyone needs it.

Confidentiality. For a law firm, the General Statute of the Spanish Legal Profession extends professional secrecy to facts, communications, data and documents (Article 22) and requires staff and collaborators to respect it. That affects who listens to voicemails, what the agent sees on answering and what is written down in the phone system.

What not to ask in the menu

A conflict-of-interest check at a law firm needs the name of the other party, but a person asks for it when the enquiry begins, not the recorded prompt.

Example tree for a clinic

A fictitious clinic with a reception desk open Monday to Friday. The wording is a template to adapt.

Example tree for a law firm

A fictitious law firm that does not record its intake line. If you decide to record, replace the second row with a notice like the clinic's and restrict access using the guide on recording permissions.

Opening hours, public holidays and overflow follow the logic of the guide on out-of-hours calls; what is sector-specific is that the 112 sentence is repeated in the closing prompt and that voicemails ask only for a name and phone number.

Recording and information for the caller

The AEPD guide on the duty to inform proposes, for telephone interviews, a clear and concise recorded message with the basic information, and offering the additional information through another channel. Its first layer covers the controller, purpose and rights, among other headings. An intake recording can end up containing health data or details of a legal matter even if the menu does not ask for them, because the caller says them while talking. That is why you should decide whether the intake line needs recording at all, who can access the recordings and how long they are kept.

Fictitious example: how long until the 112 message is heard

Assume a reading speed of 150 words per minute, that is, 2.5 words per second, and count the words in the Spanish prompts of the fictitious clinic:

Someone calling about an emergency finishes hearing the instruction at 6.8 seconds. If that sentence played after the notice and the menu, it would finish at 26.4 seconds (8.8 + 10.8 + 6.8), almost four times later. Check the real duration of the recorded audio with the guide on phone greetings.

Acceptance tests

• The 112 sentence is the first thing heard, both in and out of hours, with no music or pause before it.
• No option, no speech recognition and no voicemail asks for symptoms, the type of matter or identifiers.
• The notice to the agent shows only the option chosen and the number.
• If there is recording, the notice plays before it starts and the additional information is available on the website or by phone.
• With no key pressed and with an invalid key, after two attempts the call reaches a person or an identified voicemail.
• With everyone busy, the law firm's priority route reaches the second destination.
• Only authorised profiles listen to voicemails, and they are cleared according to the retention policy.

Mark each test as passed only after a real call logged with date, route and result. If any test fails, fix that branch before publishing the menu.

Sources and limitations

Documentary review: 22 October 2026. Content type: Documentation-based guide with original resource.

Linked sources describe the terms and capabilities each provider publishes. Examples that use fictional data are labelled in the text.

• 112administracion.gob.es
• Regulation (EU) 2016/679www.boe.es
• Spanish data protection authority (AEPD) points outwww.aepd.es
• General Statute of the Spanish Legal Professionwww.boe.es
• AEPD guide on the duty to informwww.aepd.es

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