Across healthcare, the first interaction with a patient begins with a phone call. For decades, those calls have been the front door of patient access, the place where care begins. Yet phones have become a source of strain rather than connection, with call volumes rising faster than staffing.
Healthcare leaders are now turning to automation to reimagine this first point of contact. In a recent Becker’s survey, 36% of healthcare executives said they are already using agentic AI to support workflows.
Instead of asking schedulers to do more, organizations are designing systems that automate what can be automated and personalize what cannot.
Three healthcare organizations, TSAOG Orthopaedics & Spine, Complete Health, and Western New York Dermatology, are showing what this shift looks like in practice. Each faced different complexities but reached the same conclusion: automation does not remove the human element from care. It gives it more room to thrive.
From Staffing Shortages to Intelligent Scheduling
At TSAOG Orthopaedics & Spine, phones once rang without pause. “We found ourselves in a staffing shortage and in tandem with that, our overflow call center was also short-staffed,” said Gabbie Rebolloso, Director of Marketing & Communications. “They were no longer a viable option for us.”
The organization manages more than 30,000 calls each month. When their team analyzed the data, they discovered “30% of them were actually non-appointment-related calls. Those were cancel, confirm, and reschedule requests.”
TSAOG introduced a voice AI agent named Dash that integrates directly with its EHR system. “Our AI agent is fielding 30% of those calls that we were getting through our scheduling lines,” Rebolloso said. “It is able to cancel, confirm, and reschedule appointments directly into our EHR.”
Scaling Access Without Adding Headcount
For Complete Health, one of the largest primary care networks in the Southeast, the challenge was complexity.
“We were on eight different phone systems at the time,” said Erin Sandoval, Senior Director of Support Services. “We had our front desk still scheduling and answering calls. We had patients going to voicemail.”
Using Relatient’s Dash® platform, Sandoval led an effort to bring every location onto a single rules-based scheduling system that captured each provider’s preferences and localized workflows. Once that foundation was built, the organization expanded its capabilities through agentic AI, extending automation to phone-based interactions through Voice AI agents.
Access scaled dramatically, with 45% of inbound calls being handled autonomously by the AI.
“We are not trying to reduce staff,” Sandoval said, “What I am trying to do is to make sure we do not need additional staff.” By removing repetitive tasks, her team now absorbs new practices and higher call volume without new hires.
Keeping Schedules Full Around the Clock
At Western New York Dermatology, the challenge was volume. “We have over 142,000 patients and keep adding over a thousand every month,” said Hillary Diegelman, Administrative Supervisor. “We cannot get enough people to answer the phone.”
After introducing online self-scheduling, the organization added agentic AI. “If they call at 11 on a Sunday night, they can easily cancel or reschedule,” she said. “It is nice that with our AI and other things that we have implemented, they all hold hands and work together.”
Their AI now handles about 32% of appointment-related calls. “Mondays used to tank,” Diegelman shared. “Now, this helps combat trying to make sure our schedule is full.”
Restoring the Human Connection
Each organization started from a different point: one in a staffing challenge, another standardizing access, and one keeping up with growth. Yet all found that automation gave their teams more time for what only people can do.
“It is not about removing the human element,” Diegelman emphasized. “It is about helping patients help themselves.”
“AI does not replace the human connection,” Sandoval added. “It restores it by taking care of everything else.
Across healthcare, phones still ring, and patients still call. The difference is that now those calls reach a system that can respond at any hour, with accuracy, consistency, and empathy. Powered by Relatient’s Dash® platform, the evolution of call center operations is underway, marking a new era for patient access.
