Mile Bluff Medical Center sits within an hour of several competing health systems. The team works hard to keep specialty care close to home. But getting patients from referral to appointment meant up to three phone calls, then a mailed letter. That follow-up pulled schedulers away from patients calling in to book care.

Today, Luma coordinates referrals so schedulers can focus on patients who need personal assistance.

“Patients get a text with a link to self-schedule,” said Janie Jones, Patient Access Manager at Mile Bluff Medical Center. “Our schedulers aren’t spending their time trying to track people down.”

• 90% of eligible referrals converted to scheduled appointments
• 200+ referred patients scheduled per month, on average
• 15+ staff hours saved monthly

Learn more about referral management at Luma and book a call with Luma’s AI experts.

As a specialty practice in the competitive Nashville market, KCA Neurology relied heavily on new patient referrals to fuel growth. But as referral volume grew, the fax backlog grew with it. On a typical day, the backlog reached up to 200 faxes.

“We were losing patients and revenue to referral scheduling delays,” said Ernie Campbell, CEO at KCA Neurology. “Getting referrals moving was a top business priority.”

With Luma’s Fax Transform, KCA automated nearly the entire referral workflow. Fax Transform writes information directly into eClinicalWorks, reaches out to patients to schedule, and routes only incomplete referrals to staff. What once consumed most of two employees’ workdays now requires only a few minutes of staff attention each day. KCA’s backlog is also 90% smaller, so referrals aren’t lost to delays.

• 2,200+ faxes handled each month, saving a full FTE’s time
• 90% reduction in fax backlog, from up to 200 on a typical day to nearly zero
• 132+ hours saved monthly

Learn more about Luma’s Fax Transform AI and book a call with Luma’s AI experts. 

DENT Neurologic Institute is the largest private outpatient neurology center in the United States, and sees many of its patients for life. The growing demand for DENT’s services means that even with a robust digital front door and automation, “we get around 1,500 faxes a day,” said Emily Smythe, EMR & Technology Systems Manager. “And this isn’t unique to DENT – faxes are something we just can’t get away from in healthcare, from referrals to prior auth requests.”

Each fax took up to 10 minutes for staff to manually process, so the backlog only continued to grow. Meanwhile, each fax in the queue represented delayed care and revenue. “We were thinking of hiring more staff just to handle the backlog,” said Smythe. “But we didn’t want to just throw more people at the problem.” With Luma’s Fax Transform, AI processes faxes, routes them appropriately, and kicks off workflows like referral management. DENT sees outcomes like:

• – 15x more faxes processed each day, cutting down on the backlog and getting important faxes like Rx refills and referral requests to the right place faster.
• – 2 weeks sooner processing for faxes in the queue — and 2 weeks sooner care for patients.
• – 70% faster fax processing, so staff can focus on face-to-face interactions with patients over rote fax approvals.

-$53,718 saved in external call center costs since go-live

-2x referrals processed daily, earning an additional $412k in completed referrals since go-live

-$5.7M in completed appointments facilitated by Luma since 2023

Want to learn more? Book a quick call with a Luma + athenaHealth expert.

Make connecting referred patients with your specialists simple with text-first, EHR-integrated outreach.