For the families of pediatric patients, getting through to schedule an appointment isn’t a minor inconvenience. It’s the first signal of whether a health system can be trusted to care for their child. When that experience starts breaking down, everything else follows.

That’s where one of the largest West Coast children’s specialty hospitals found itself. Families were struggling to get appointments. Clinics were overwhelmed. A fully remote operating model had quietly hollowed out the communication and accountability structures that keep a Patient Access Center running. Leadership knew something was wrong. They just didn’t know how deep it went.

CH Consulting Group was brought in to find out. 

What the Assessment Showed

The problems weren’t isolated. They were everywhere at once.

Workforce management automation wasn’t enabled, making forecasting and scheduling inconsistent. Quality assurance tools lacked AI capabilities and full screen capture, limiting visibility into coaching opportunities and workflow breakdowns. Skill-based routing didn’t exist, which meant calls were frequently misrouted and reporting lacked accuracy. 

Patient outreach was entirely manual. There were no standardized workflows, no performance metrics, no structured onboarding. Agents had been there for years, but foundational gaps were still showing up because there was no system to catch them.

Schedule adherence had hit an all-time low. Service levels were at 68%. Families were waiting too long and clinics were losing patience.

Rebuilding From the Ground Up

The approach didn’t start with new technology. It started with getting the operation ready to support it.

Workforce management was activated and automated within Calabrio, improving forecasting visibility and scheduling accuracy. Quality assurance was upgraded with AI-driven monitoring and full-screen capture to strengthen coaching consistency across the remote workforce. Skill-based routing improved call handling visibility and reporting accuracy, while automated patient outreach helped accelerate scheduling and reduce manual workload. Digital huddles replaced scattered communication and gave teams back time each day for patient-facing work. 

The CH Consulting Group team also uncovered a significant cost discrepancy within an existing technology vendor contract and renegotiated the agreement, reducing unnecessary spend before additional investments were made. 

What Changed for Patients and Clinics

By the end of the 6-month operational improvement pilot, service levels increased from 68% to 75.1%. Average speed of answer improved from 102 seconds to 51 seconds, cutting patient wait times in half. Schedule adherence rose from 81.8% to 88.4%, surpassing the 85% industry benchmark. Faster response times and improved scheduling consistency also helped stabilize relationships between the Patient Access Center and clinic teams. 

Technology played a role in the turnaround, but the larger shift came from rebuilding accountability, standardizing workflows, and creating the operational structure needed to support long-term performance. 

Patient access centers are the front door of the patient experience. When they’re under-resourced and under-managed, patients feel it first. This engagement was a reminder that operational discipline isn’t a back-office concern. It’s a patient care issue.

The work was later recognized with a 2026 Silver Stevie® Award for Innovation in Customer Service.

About CH Consulting Group

CH Consulting Group is a business strategy consulting firm specializing in AI maturity, customer experience, and operational performance. We work with healthcare systems and customer experience centers to identify performance gaps, align people, processes, and technology, and build the operational conditions required to drive measurable results. Learn more at chconsultinggroup.com.