Reducing the Burden of Pre-Op Calls While Improving Patient Experience

Pre-operative calls are a cornerstone of safe, effective surgical care. They ensure patients are properly prepared, screened, and informed before their procedure. But for surgical facilities, these calls also represent a major resource drain — staff spend countless hours on the phone collecting medical histories, reviewing medication lists, and walking patients through pre-op instructions.

We estimate that a typical pre-op call costs surgery centers $30 - $40 per patient. For lower-margin procedures like cataracts or endoscopies, that can take a significant bite out of your margins.

While digital portals offer a partial solution, they fall short for a significant segment of the patient population — especially older patients or those less comfortable with technology — who still prefer to talk to someone. As a result, facilities are often forced to maintain time-intensive manual processes alongside their digital tools, creating operational inefficiencies and potential gaps in care.

Closing the Gap: Procision's AI Voice Assistant for Pre-Op Calls

To address this challenge, Procision has launched a new AI-powered Voice Assistant purpose-built to execute pre-op calls with patients — efficiently, reliably, and with a humanlike touch.

The assistant contacts patients directly by phone and walks them through key parts of the pre-op process:

• Medication and allergy collection
  

• Medical history intake
  

• Delivery of pre-operative instructions

All collected information is compiled into a clean, structured summary page that can be reviewed, printed, and uploaded into the patient's chart. If a patient needs extra support or has a concern that requires a nurse’s input, the assistant automatically flags the interaction for a follow-up call — ensuring clinical staff stay focused only on complex cases that truly require their attention.

Seamless with Portal-Based Workflows

The pre-op voice assistant is designed to work in tandem with Procision’s patient portal. Facilities can first invite patients to complete their assessments online via secure text links. If a patient doesn’t respond in a timely manner, the AI assistant automatically steps in to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

This dual-channel approach delivers high completion rates while respecting patient preferences — whether digital or voice-based — and helps surgical teams scale their pre-op process without scaling staff hours.

Ready to Rethink Pre-Op Communication?

With Procision’s new AI Voice Assistant, surgery centers can reduce manual workload, lower per-patient costs, and ensure a better patient experience across the board — all while maintaining clinical quality and compliance.

Interested in learning more? See a short clip our AI Voice Assistant in action below and contact us to see more details