CUSTOMER STORY · COMMUNITY HEALTH
A five-clinic safety-net group in New Orleans was about to hire three more call-center agents. Instead, every call now gets answered on the first ring — in English and Spanish.
At a glance
Organization
Baptist Community Health Services
Type
Multi-specialty group, 5 clinics
Population
Medicaid, sliding-fee & uninsured
Geography
New Orleans, LA
Go-live
March 2026 · 5 clinics
Agent language
English · Spanish
0 min
hold time — every call answered on the first ring
was ~3–4 minutes
42%
of calls resolved end to end with no staff involvement
booked, answered, or cased in the EMR
2–3
planned front-office hires avoided, capacity added instead
~2 FTEs added to a 4-person team
Why they came to Kouper
BCHS was about to solve a technology problem with three new hires
BCHS runs a centralized call center for five New Orleans clinics serving a largely Medicaid, sliding-fee and uninsured population. On a normal day, roughly one call in five went unanswered — worse on Mondays — and at 5pm the phones rolled to an answering service that couldn’t schedule anything. Facing a staffing deficit, leadership was preparing to hire two to three more agents.
But headcount wasn’t really the problem. Call volume spikes don’t respect schedules, and for patients working hourly jobs, a 3–4 minute hold or an after-hours dead end often meant no appointment at all. The COO’s bar was specific: every call picked up, appointments booked correctly the first time against each provider’s real rules, an agent that could handle New Orleans accents and Spanish — and any frustrated caller reaching a person immediately.
“It is rare to find a vendor whose delivery truly matches the promises they make, yet Kouper has exceeded our expectations at every step. As this is our organization’s first venture into AI, we could not have asked for a better partner.”
Teresa Bovia
Chief Operating Officer, Baptist Community Health Services
What we implemented
Primus answers on the first ring, in the patient’s language, against the EMR’s real rules
Kouper deployed Primus, our inbound voice agent, integrated directly with the BCHS EMR. It answers in English or Spanish, identifies the patient against the chart, applies each provider’s visit-type and duration rules read live from the EMR, not a printed cheat sheet - and books directly into the system of record.
Medication refills, records requests and provider messages become patient cases in the EMR with the full transcript attached, so staff get a complete handoff rather than a sticky note. Dynamic transfers route callers to the right clinic and queue; behavioral health calls and any sign of frustration escalate straight to a live person.
Outcomes
Every call answered, 42% fully automated and the three hires never happened
The ~20% of calls that used to go unanswered are now picked up on the first ring, including outside business hours. Hold time went to zero — for a Medicaid population calling on narrow windows between shifts, that’s the change staff noticed first. About 42% of calls are handled end to end with no staff involvement, and the agent adds roughly two FTEs of capacity to a four-person call center, so the planned hires were never made.
Patients rate the experience 90%+ on post-call satisfaction, Spanish speakers get the same experience on the same number with no separate queue, and scope keeps widening: primary care and pediatrics first, behavioral health scheduling next, with refills, records and billing following.
Results recap
0 min
hold time (was ~3–4 min)
<2 min
handle time (was ~5 min)
42%
of calls fully automated
90%+
post-call satisfaction
2–3
FTE hires avoided
Use case
Scheduling
Medication Refill
How it works at BCHS
1
Answers on the first ring
English or Spanish, including after hours — identifies the patient against the chart before anything else.
2
Books against real rules
Provider visit-type and duration rules read live from the EMR; refills and records become cases with full transcripts.
3
Escalates like a human would
Behavioral health and any sign of frustration route immediately to a live person at the right clinic.
See what your call center’s answer rate could be
A 30-minute walkthrough with our team — with your call volumes, not hypotheticals.
*Figures reflect BCHS operating data before and after the March 2026 Kouper deployment across five clinics. Results vary by call mix, EMR configuration and coverage hours.