Giving 120,000 patients instant answers without adding staff
A patient support agent across chat, SMS and email that reschedules visits, answers billing questions and handles refills, escalating clinical questions to nurses.
- Client
- Meridian Health Partners
- Industry
- Healthcare
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Services
- AI Agent Development, System Integration, Deployment & Optimization
- Average first response
- 40s
- Requests resolved automatically
- 68%
- Patient satisfaction
- 4.8/5
- Fewer missed appointments
- 31%
Where the work was stuck.
Meridian’s contact center fielded more than 30,000 patient messages a month across phone, email and its patient portal. Most were routine: appointment changes, billing questions and prescription refills.
Response times stretched to nine hours, missed appointments rose and staff burnout was becoming a retention problem.
- Average first response
- 9 hrs
- Patient messages every month
- 30k+
- Appointments missed
- 18%
What Cortex built.
We built a patient support agent connected to Meridian’s scheduling, billing and pharmacy systems. It verifies identity, understands intent and urgency, and resolves routine requests on the spot.
Clinical or sensitive conversations are routed instantly to the nursing team with a full summary, under strict guardrails designed with Meridian’s compliance office.
How the system works, step by step.
- 01Trigger
Patient message
Chat, SMS or email
- 02AI agent
Intent and urgency
Classifies and prioritizes
- 03System
Verify and fetch
Identity, records, availability
- 04AI agent
Resolve request
Reschedule, billing, refills
- 05Human
Nurse escalation
Clinical cases with full context
- 06Action
Confirm and record
Patient notified, EHR updated
Patients get answers in seconds at any hour. Two thirds of requests are resolved automatically, missed appointments fell sharply, and nurses now spend their time on the conversations that need them.
Our patients noticed the difference in the first week. Our nurses noticed it too: they are back to caring for people instead of clearing inboxes.
Kestrel Capital
Turning a research backlog into same-day investment memos
Facing a challenge like Meridian? Let’s talk.
Book a 45-minute consultation. We will map your highest-value automation opportunities and show you what a first system could look like, at no cost.
