Phone volume can look like a staffing problem. But sometimes, the call itself is only the symptom.
Paulita Barron uses Phreesia VoiceAI not only to help manage calls, but to understand why patients are calling in the first place.
Are they calling about refills? Referrals? Appointments? For Barron, those patterns can reveal where the practice needs to improve staffing, workflows, patient communication or access.
Q: How do you use VoiceAI beyond simply answering more calls?
Paulita: We have full visibility on the dashboards. We can measure turnaround time and see how many calls we’re getting.
Our goal is actually to reduce patient phone calls to the office because they received everything that they needed while they were at the office.
If we’re getting a ton of phone calls, that helps us pinpoint where the issue is.
Q: What can those calls tell you?
Paulita: Are they calling a lot about refills? Are they calling a lot about referrals? Are they calling a lot about appointments?
That helps us figure out where the breakdown is in the clinic.
Q: And what do you do once you see a pattern?
Paulita: We start asking why patients are calling in the first place. Are they getting the information they need when they need it? Is there an easier way for them to complete what they need without calling us? Can we use technology, like Phreesia, to fix the issue somewhere else in the workflow?
Or do we actually need another staff member? The data helps us make better operational decisions around staffing, inefficiencies, workflows and protocols.
Q: How does VoiceAI help when the problem really is staffing?
Paulita: Think of Phreesia as another front-desk staff member that can help support the clinical operations.
If you are short staffed and you don’t have the staff to answer all the phone calls, they’ll pick up the phone for you.
Then you can get back to them as you’re available.
For us, a 30-minute turnaround time is non-negotiable. We have staff checking the Phreesia VoiceAI messages routinely to make sure calls are returned on time. As long as the callbacks are timely, patient dissatisfaction really goes down because they know someone is going to call them back.
Q: What about calls that come in after hours?
Paulita: All of our office managers have the PhreesiaOnCall application on their phones.
If there is something urgent, they can review it before it’s escalated to a practice provider.
Most after-hours calls can be screened before they reach a provider, so the team can determine what needs immediate attention and what can wait until the next day.
Q: What’s the bigger operational goal?
Paulita: Better patient access—and fewer unnecessary calls.
If we can understand why patients are calling, we can look upstream and ask whether they had the right information, an easier way to complete what they needed or a workflow that could have prevented the call in the first place.
That’s how we use call data to make better operational decisions across the practice.
Key takeaway
VoiceAI can help absorb phone volume, but the bigger opportunity comes from listening to the patterns behind those calls.
Repeated calls about the same issue can expose a breakdown somewhere else in the practice.
For Metroplex, that means using the data to decide whether the answer is better communication, a workflow change, technology or additional staff.
