From Referral to Appointment. Automatically

How a large health system used automated patient outreach to close referral gaps, reduce no-shows, and accelerate time-to-care.

A large, multi-hospital health system was relying on manual follow-up to move patients from referral to scheduled care, creating gaps that contributed to delayed scheduling and no-shows. The organization needed a more proactive approach to patient engagement that could automate outreach, reach patients through the right channels, and keep the EHR updated throughout the process.

The Challenge

Manual referral and appointment follow-up was slow and inconsistent. And without an automated mechanism to close the loop after a referral was placed in Epic, patients could fall between referral and scheduled care.

Key challenges included:

• Manual outbound follow-up for referrals and appointments
• Patients falling through gaps between referral and scheduled care
• No-shows and delayed care
• High staff effort required for routine outreach
• Limited automation tied to real-time referral and scheduling events

The Solution

The health system implemented SpinSci Patient Notify on its Five9 contact center platform, integrated with Epic to automate proactive outbound patient engagement.

The solution enabled:

• EHR-triggered voice and SMS notifications
• Automated outreach for referrals, appointments, orders, bills, and prescription     reminders
• Real-time logic tied to EHR scheduling events
• Automatic removal of patients from outreach once they scheduled
• Outreach disposition writeback to the EHR for visibility and auditability

The Results

Automating routine patient outreach helped the organization reduce manual workload while improving the patient journey from referral to care.

• Reduced manual outbound call volume
• Faster time-to-care for high-priority referrals
• Fewer no-shows and scheduling gaps
• Full Epic auditability of patient outreach

What changes when patient outreach is triggered automatically by the events already happening in the EHR?

Download the case study to see how a large health system used proactive, EHR-connected patient outreach to automate referral follow-up, reduce manual calls, and help patients move more quickly from referral to scheduled care.

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