AI Agents in Healthcare: Patient-centered care starts at the first call
Authored by: Kyle Howard, Enterprise Solutions Consultant, Omilia
Healthcare has long championed the philosophy of patient-centered care. Yet for many patients, their first interaction with a provider – a simple phone call – is often a frustrating experience. Long hold times, confusing menus, and outdated interactive voice response (IVR) systems leave patients frustrated, anxious, and underserved.
A 2024 study by the National Institute of Health found that 56.4% of respondents used phone calls as their primary method for scheduling appointments, demonstrating the continued strength and reliability of the voice channel in healthcare. Even amid digital transformation in the healthcare industry, voice remains the preferred and most trusted method of communication for patients and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Conversational AI is transforming patient experiences at the first call, with personalized, 24/7 support. Today, AI-powered virtual agents can deliver seamless, natural, context-aware service for patients, eliminating the friction they often face with antiquated IVRs. And effective automation of service calls reduces the operational inefficiency and costs for providers. To fully realize how AI can transform patient experiences, healthcare organizations must first understand the barriers to adoption and scale - and how to overcome them.
Tight security and “always on” compliance
Healthcare patient data is as regulated as it gets, with HIPAA and other compliance frameworks requiring tight security and privacy layers. Implementing conversational AI into healthcare contact centers can actually improve security and ensure compliance adherence by authenticating patients’ identities before they are connected to a service or reach a human agent - reducing fraud risks and protecting patient information. The best conversational AI providers will have custom-built solutions for the healthcare industry that ensures it meets HIPAA and Protected Health Information (PHI) continuously.
Healthcare organizations also face challenges effectively deploying AI due to legacy infrastructure and fragmented electronic health record (EHR) systems. Data must be able to be accessed or exchanged in real time, or else data silos will cause headaches for both patients and providers. The key is the Conversational AI application needs to integrate with the most widely used EHRs such as Epic, Cerner and eClinical Works, so patient interactions can be personalized and properly documented.
Improve patient care at the first call
Meeting patients where they are, on their preferred communication channel, improves the patient experience. With so many patients still relying on phone conversations as the primary method to getting in contact with their healthcare provider, exceptional call center experiences are a foundational element of patient-centered care.
Implementing Conversational AI that is specifically designed and built to handle the unique healthcare service tasks, that can be personalized and can easily scale for the organization, enables healthcare providers to provide the highest level of accessibility for patients, with 24/7 availability across phone, web, and mobile, and the ability to communicate in multiple languages. This allows patients to schedule appointments, get test results, refill prescriptions, or ask billing questions, in their native language, without being transferred or put on hold.
Automating with AI creates a smoother, more connected patient experience. Smarter workflows affect more than just the patients: improving administrative automation in healthcare with AI can substantially reduce strain on staff when integrations are properly optimized.
The automation opportunity in healthcare
A recent American Medical Association survey revealed that 57% of physicians see reducing administrative burden as AI’s most valuable contribution today. Considering burnout rates in healthcare are among the highest across professions, capitalizing on the opportunity to automate areas in patient service without losing the needed contextual understanding is essential.
Further illustrating this point, an estimated 40% of calls to healthcare call centers are repetitive inquiries. These questions – often capable of being answered through FAQs and online portals - don’t require the human touch and care that is needed throughout the other areas of the patient journey, thus presenting an opportunity to be automated with AI to reduce agent handling times and reduce service costs. Through the necessary integrations with EHRs, it’s possible to respond at scale to peaks in demand without raising operational costs by automating routine administrative tasks and questions.
The future of patient-centered communication
Improving patient-centered care in healthcare begins with reimagining the first interaction, which for many, is still a phone call. Yet outdated systems, siloed data, and stringent privacy requirements have made healthcare one of the slowest industries to adopt modern communication technologies.
Conversational AI is improving patient experiences by delivering fast, accurate, and empathetic service at scale, resulting in reduced call volume and administrative burden, and as a result, supporting exhausted care teams. The path forward is not just about automation, but rather, it's about building smarter, connected systems that empower both patients and staff, starting from the very first call.