Case Study —RESURGENS ORTHOPAEDICS
How Resurgens Got 20% of Appointments Self-Scheduled
Atlanta, GA area orthopedics group set out to transform their scheduling operations to better meet the needs of providers, staff, and patients.
RESURGENS ORTHOPAEDICS
24 locations · 150 providers · athenahealth
Specialty
Orthopedics
Locations
24
Providers
150
EHR
athenahealth
Key Wins
83%
Physician Utilization Rate
20%
of Appointments Are Self-Scheduled
40%
of MRI Referrals Are Self-Scheduled
29%
of Appointments Are Self-Scheduled After Hours
The Platform
What Is Relatient and the Dash® Platform?
Relatient is a patient engagement platform that helps healthcare organizations automate scheduling, streamline communication and reduce inbound call volume.
The Dash® platform combines intelligent scheduling, automated messaging and AI-powered voice technology to improve patient access and operational efficiency across every channel patients use to reach you.
Intelligent Scheduling
Rules-based engine across every channel.
Automated Messaging
Confirmations, reminders and recalls.
AI Voice Technology
Agentic Voice AI for inbound calls.
The Stakes
Why Patient Access Failures Hurt Growth
When patients can’t get an appointment quickly, the cost compounds — across revenue, retention and team capacity. The math behind broken access is unforgiving.
15–30%
of appointments go unfilled
Churn
Patients leave if access is delayed
Bottleneck
Call centers become a chokepoint
Burnout
Staff turnover and fatigue rise
01 — Context
The Goal
Resurgens Orthopaedics, with over 150 providers across 24 locations in the Atlanta area, has grown to be one of the largest and most respected orthopedic practices in the country. However, as the organization grew, scheduling complexities increased. Managing diverse provider preferences across multiple locations led to inefficiencies, higher patient call abandonment rates, and extended hold times. Patients seeking quick access to care often faced challenges booking appointments. Their staff relied on manual processes like binders and sticky notes to manage provider schedules, which became unmanageable as the practice grew. Resurgens aimed to streamline its scheduling process, improve patient access, and reduce the burden on staff by finding a more scalable, automated solution.
“
We know we provide great care but how do we make sure patients are drawn to us and we’re responsive to them quickly?
– Grace Riepe, VP of Business Operations
The Challenge
- Increased scheduling complexity as organization grew
- Managing diverse provider preferences across multiple locations led to inefficiencies
- Extended hold times led to higher patient call abandonment rates
- Staff relied on unmanageable manual processes like binders and sticky notes to manage provider schedules
02 — Approach
The Solution
They began by implementing intelligent scheduling within their contact center to boost efficiency, followed by patient self-scheduling to improve access, and finally, referral self-scheduling to automate next appointment tasks for both staff and patients.
01
Contact Center Scheduling
Centralized scheduling allowed the entire organization to have an automated and intelligent solution that tracks all provider preferences and rules in real-time.
- Improved scheduling accuracy
- Reduced staff complexity
- One source of truth across locations
02
Online Self-Scheduling
An important reason for choosing Relatient’s Dash® solution was its seamless integration with their athenahealth EMR solution.
- Introduced new channel for patient self-scheduling
- Phones relieved during peaks
- Always-on patient access
03
Referral Self-Scheduling
Finding a new patient is about 5x as expensive as retaining one, it’s important for healthcare practices to optimize the patient experience & maintain loyalty.
- Improved operational efficiency
- Introduced new channel for referral scheduling
- 40% of MRI referrals are self-scheduled
“
Real-time integration and modification allow us to get appointments scheduled in Dash® and have them almost immediately appear in athena,” says Grace Riepe, VP of Business Operations at Resurgens Orthopaedics, “and any changes we make to our scheduling rules happen in real-time and flow in a bi-directional way.
– Grace Riepe, VP of Business Operations
03 — Outcome
The Relatient Difference
Resurgens Orthopaedics adopted Relatient’s Dash solution for patient scheduling. In an age where finding a new patient is at least 5x as expensive as retaining an existing one, it is important for healthcare organizations to optimize the patient experience and maintain loyalty. “We know we provide great care,” says Riepe, “but how do we make sure patients are drawn to us and we’re responsive to them quickly?”
Centralized scheduling allowed the entire organization to have an automated and intelligent solution that tracks all provider preferences and rules in real-time. Resurgens expanded their strategy to include online self-scheduling and proactive referral self-scheduling.
“
Our team was spending a considerable amount of time making outbound scheduling calls to patients referred for an MRI.
– Grace Riepe, VP of Business Operations
Executive Summary
As Resurgens Orthopaedics expanded across 24 locations and more than 150 providers, managing increasingly complex scheduling workflows became a barrier to patient access and operational efficiency. By implementing Relatient’s intelligent scheduling platform, the organization standardized scheduling processes, expanded online self-scheduling, and improved provider utilization. The result was a more scalable patient access strategy that increased digital appointment adoption, reduced scheduling burden on staff, and made it easier for patients to access orthopedic care on their schedule.
50K+
Providers
24/7
Access
1
Platform
