According to Becker’s Healthcare, C-suites across the United States are highly focused on improving patient access to care in 2025. As the demand for healthcare services rise, organizations must figure out ways to solve capacity issues. Between constructing new facilities and launching hospital-at-home/patient monitoring programs, many hospitals are taking an approach that expand access to on-site care. Other health systems are looking at the step that comes first: the digital front door.

Many healthcare leaders believe that adopting online portals and web chats is enough to improve patient access. However, these digital transformation initiatives often inadvertently result in the neglect of the voice channel. When conversational AI and IVAs (intelligent virtual assistants) aren’t integrated into a health system’s telephony environment, long hold times and confusing phone trees persist, resulting in patient frustration.

Healthcare organizations cannot afford to abandon the voice channel. For some consumers, such as baby boomers, speaking on the phone is the preferred method of communication with a hospital or clinic. For other portions of the population, the phone is the only option.

Online portals act as a significant barrier to many people, including those with hand disabilities, poor eyesight, or an inability to read English. Portals are completely inaccessible to the 24 million American households without an internet connection, but 99% of Americans own a phone. A large percentage of patients call their healthcare providers.

How to Improve Patient Access by Modernizing the Phone

There are many reasons healthcare organizations let the voice channel deteriorate, but the biggest may be poor talent retention in the patient access center. With an average annual turnover rate of around 40%, contact centers struggle to keep up with caller demand, which is why many VPs of patient access have looked to portals and web chats as a way to alleviate the workload for their team.

The solution to an overwhelmed contact center is not to hire additional workforce. The solution is to integrate conversational AI into the voice channel with an IVA.

IVAs verify callers, manage appointments, and handle FAQs, thereby absorbing the brunt of heavy, repetitive workloads that weigh down contact centers. This benefits health systems in three ways:

1. Improved patient experience – Callers no longer have to suffer through long hold times. People who have routine questions are instantly answered by the IVA, while those with urgent, complex requests reach agents more quickly.
2. Improved agent experience – The IVA removes repetitive calls from agent workloads, curbing burnout and enabling staff to attend to the most urgent requests.
3. Cost savings – Voice assistants generate strong ROI for health systems. A smooth, personalized patient experience results in brand loyalty and positive reviews, while a streamlined workflow for agents minimizes turnover and maximizes efficiency.

Lastly, IVAs promote easy access to care. For those who choose the phone, whether due to circumstance, disability, or preference, voice assistants make the journey simple. The voice is the most natural means of communication. When callers can self-serve by speaking, barriers to access are removed.

About Parlance

For more than 25 years, Parlance has been a leader in the healthcare IT space. Our conversational AI solution accelerates access to care for hundreds of health systems across the U.S. by improving caller navigation and removing barriers to access. Healthcare consumers easily connect to people, information, and services they need, no matter the volume of patient demand.