Multi-national dialysis network resolves 1 in 3 patient calls without clinic involvement, maintains 100% quality attainment
Multi-national dialysis network resolves 1 in 3 patient calls without clinic involvement, maintains 100% quality attainment
Industry
The client operates one of America's largest dialysis networks and needed a centralized patient access for a medically fragile ESRD population, where call volume was pulling clinical staff off the dialysis floor and a generic call center model couldn't safely handle the severity gradient. Patient access is managed as a strategic capability rather than an overhead function, because for the patients this provider serves, the phone is often the first clinical touchpoint in a crisis.
The Results:
4.9 M+
Calls vetted across the engagement, keeping clinical staff off the phones
1 in 3
Calls fully resolved on first touch with no clinic involvement
100%
Quality goal attainment, every quarter of 2025
0
Involuntary departures in Q4 2025; the team chose to stay
The Challenge
Our client operates one of the largest dialysis networks in the United States, providing life-sustaining treatment to ESRD patients who require dialysis three or more times a week. Without centralized support, over 47,000 patient calls per month landed directly on clinics, pulling nurses and front-desk staff off the floor and away from patients in the chair. The call mix spans routine scheduling, coverage verification for therapies costing tens of thousands of monthly, symptom escalation, and acute crisis. A generic call center model, optimized for handling time, routinely mishandles the severity gradient this population requires.
The Solution
ResultsCX deployed a dedicated healthcare-trained patient access team built around a simple principle: every call we handle is a call the clinic doesn’t. The team operates a “switchboard-plus” model – most calls route to the right clinical or administrative function, but every call is first triaged with specific protocols, a third are fully resolved on first touch, and the rest are handed off with context.
- ESRD-Specific Agent Curriculum: Agents onboard into training built around the dialysis patient journey – treatment scheduling, coverage for life-sustaining therapies, common medical concerns, and crisis recognition.
- Crisis Recognition and Escalation Protocol: Agents trained to identify markers of medical emergency or psychological crisis and execute a defined escalation protocol, including engaging authorities or initiating 911 on the patient’s behalf when needed.
- Servant Leadership Culture: A field-trip program brought new hires to a dialysis clinic before their first call—building the patient-advocacy mindset that today drives zero involuntary attrition.
- Continuous Performance Governance: A 20-second Average Speed of Answer (ASA) target, AHT benchmarks, and quality scoring reviewed continuously to maintain a consistent patient experience across the full network footprint.
The Customer
A global leader in dialysis services, operating a national network of clinics serving tens of thousands of patients whose lives depend on regular treatment. Its model demands both clinical excellence and operational discipline, a combination most vendors can deliver one side of, but not the other.
