The United States healthcare system uses Electronic Health Records (EHR) to store and manage patient medical information. Among these systems, Epic Systems is the most common. Over 250 healthcare organizations across the country use it. This means about 45% of Americans have their medical records in Epic’s system. Epic invests about 32% of its operating costs into research and development. This helps improve how the software works, how well it connects with other systems, and how it can grow.
Epic’s software can be used by small clinics and large hospitals like Johns Hopkins Medicine. It works for many types of healthcare workflows. But handling scheduling, patient questions, and updates for millions of patients can be hard for healthcare workers. Doing these tasks by hand can cause delays, higher costs, and mistakes in data entry.
Conversational AI programs talk with people using voice or text. When linked to phone systems or patient portals, these AIs can do tasks like scheduling appointments, answering common questions, checking patient identity, and passing difficult calls to human staff.
Non-intrusive AI means the AI can connect to the EHR without changing the core software. For example, Hyro’s AI platform connects to Epic through a simple plug-and-play API. This means it does not disrupt current workflows or require big IT changes. This makes it easier for healthcare groups to use the AI with less risk and keeps the system stable.
The AI gets data like doctor profiles, patient records, and schedules through APIs. It updates this data in real time. So, if a patient books or cancels an appointment, the EHR system is updated right away. This stops duplicate records, lowers data entry mistakes, and lets healthcare staff spend more time on patient care instead of paperwork.
Appointment scheduling is one part of healthcare where conversational AI helps a lot. Usually, calls to schedule take over 11 minutes. Each call costs about $17.50, based on a cost of $1.60 per minute. This puts pressure on call centers and front-office teams because they get many patient calls every day.
With conversational AI, call times drop by over four minutes on average. This saves about $6.50 per call. Over time, this can save medical offices a good amount of money. It also means patients wait less and that call backlogs shrink.
The AI looks up doctor information by specialty, location, language, and availability. Patients get easy options. They can also book appointments for services like COVID-19 shots or blood tests without waiting on hold. The AI checks patient identity, finds out which services they can get, and gives instructions before tests. This lowers no-shows and helps patients follow instructions better.
After scheduling or rescheduling, the AI updates the patient’s record in Epic immediately. This keeps front-office records and the EHR data in sync. This stops common mistakes and missed appointments.
How well conversational AI fits into a healthcare group’s way of working is very important. After adding the AI, teams work with hospital leaders, doctors, and IT staff to set up how the AI works.
Customization means choosing which tasks AI does alone, setting the tone and language style, creating safe handoffs to human staff, and setting who can see patient data to follow privacy laws. This ensures AI handles routine work without getting in the way of doctor decisions or patient privacy.
Healthcare groups in the US must also follow HIPAA and privacy rules. Non-intrusive APIs that don’t change the EHR’s main data keep things simpler for staying within the rules and help make the AI easier to accept.
Conversational AI helps with front-office tasks. But agentic AI, a newer kind, offers more. Agentic AI works on its own more. It learns and changes over time. It can use many types of data at once.
In healthcare, agentic AI helps with things like diagnostics, planning treatments, watching patients, and even robot-assisted surgery. It looks at different data like images, genetics, and medical history to give advice based on each patient’s needs. It can be used in big hospitals and smaller clinics.
Cloud computing helps run these AI systems. Cloud platforms give the power needed to process data quickly and update AI tools regularly. This keeps AI tools up-to-date as medical knowledge changes.
Using agentic AI also raises questions about ethics, privacy, clear explanations, and following rules. Healthcare leaders and IT managers in the US need to work with doctors, ethicists, and lawyers to set up rules for safe AI use.
One main benefit of conversational and agentic AI is automating workflows. Many routine tasks take up staff time. This can cause delays and pull help away from patient care.
Conversational AI lets patients manage appointments, refill prescriptions, and get basic answers by themselves. This lowers call volumes and lets staff focus on harder or urgent work. Simbo AI is a company that offers phone automation for healthcare.
Besides phone tasks, AI tools bring together patient data, scheduling, billing, and resource management. This reduces manual errors and speeds up checking insurance or preparing for tests. Alerts and reminders from AI help patients keep appointments and treatments.
For IT managers, using non-intrusive AI APIs means these improvements can happen without changing the whole EHR. Plug-and-play APIs offer a low-cost, easy-to-scale option that fits current IT systems.
Cost Savings: Automating scheduling calls and routine questions cuts labor costs for front-office staff.
Operational Efficiency: Shorter calls and 24/7 availability raise patient throughput and reduce wait times. This helps keep patients satisfied.
Data Accuracy: Syncing with EHRs like Epic in real time stops delays and errors from typing mistakes. It improves health records quality.
Regulatory Compliance: Non-intrusive integration helps follow HIPAA and data security rules with less risk.
Scalability: This technology can be used by different sized practices, from urban hospitals to rural clinics.
Improved Patient Engagement: Patients get easier access to appointments through voice or text. Answers to common questions come quickly.
Adding conversational AI to large EHR systems needs good planning and teamwork among healthcare leaders, IT teams, and front office workers. Hyro’s AI platform shows that plug-and-play, non-intrusive connections can improve workflows and keep data synced without problems.
Agentic AI could change healthcare even more in the future by helping with diagnostics, surgery, and more. For now, healthcare groups in the US should see conversational AI as a useful tool to modernize work, lower costs, and improve patient experience. It also helps keep patient data correct and safe.
Medical leaders and IT managers who plan carefully will be ready to use AI tools well. This will help healthcare services meet more patient needs and follow rules.
Hyro’s conversational AI platform integrates seamlessly with Epic EMR through a plug & play, non-intrusive API. This integration allows healthcare organizations to embed voice and text virtual assistants on websites and call centers to automate tasks such as appointment scheduling, patient FAQs, and vaccination management, fully syncing data into the Epic system.
Epic EMR is the preferred system for over 250 healthcare organizations in the U.S. and holds 45% of the nation’s medical records. It is known for reliability, integration capabilities, certified consultants, proven performance, and scalability, making it a trusted leader for managing healthcare IT infrastructure.
Hyro’s AI platform automates patient eligibility verification and scheduling of COVID-19 vaccinations through conversational interfaces. It connects with Epic’s vaccination records, enabling zero-human-intervention appointment booking and automatic updating of schedules within the healthcare provider’s EMR system.
Research shows an average scheduling call costs about $17.50. Hyro’s conversational AI reduces call time by over 4 minutes per inquiry, saving approximately $6.50 per interaction by automating physician search, appointment booking, and updating schedules in Epic systems.
Hyro’s AI scrapes physician data from databases and APIs, allowing patients to search by specialty, location, language, and other filters. It then offers available time slots and books appointments, updating the Epic EMR system in real-time, enabling fully automated scheduling through voice or text interfaces.
Patients can schedule blood tests via Hyro’s conversational AI after identity verification. The AI accesses EMR data in Epic to suggest appropriate tests, times, locations, and gives pre-test instructions like fasting, streamlining laboratory scheduling with direct Epic system updates.
Hyro’s platform integrates via a plug & play API that requires no intrusive changes to Epic’s core infrastructure. It scrapes physician profiles and patient EMRs securely, allowing customization per organization without disrupting existing workflows or compromising system integrity.
In addition to scheduling, Hyro’s AI ingests broad organizational data to answer patient FAQs quickly and accurately, assist with prescription refills, IT help desk inquiries, and other routine tasks, thereby reducing call center load and improving patient engagement.
By automating repetitive tasks such as appointment scheduling and FAQs, Hyro’s AI reduces patient wait times and call duration, allowing call centers to operate efficiently with fewer resources, lowering labor costs and improving patient satisfaction.
Post-integration, Hyro’s deployment and customer success teams collaborate with stakeholders to tailor the AI’s capabilities, data ingestion, and workflows to meet specific organizational requirements, ensuring alignment with operational processes and patient engagement strategies.
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