$200,000 Payroll Reduction + Improved Patient Experience

Maryland Center is a four-location oral surgery practice with five oral surgeons — and, before Clinic Lab AI, 11 staff whose job was just answering and routing the phones.

The problem

The practice was fielding 300–400 inbound calls a day across three front-line operators and an eight-person scheduling call center — and still missing over 100 calls daily. Missed calls became voicemails, and clearing those voicemails ate into the time available to answer new calls, creating what the practice described as an endless catch-up loop.

"It was overwhelming — we would be getting calls while [staff were] on with a patient and trying to direct them to the correct department... we were having a hard time keeping up with the volume." — Kathy, Maryland Center

What changed

A single AI operator — the practice named her Ava — took over answering every line simultaneously, live-transferring callers to the right department, and packaging anything that couldn't be transferred into a prioritized email summary instead of a raw voicemail. Urgent situations (a patient with post-surgical bleeding, for example, or someone waiting at the pharmacy for a prescription) get flagged and routed immediately instead of sitting in a queue.

"We get the full name of the patient, the date of birth, the description of their call... that's really helpful when you're making a call back." — Kathy, Maryland Center

The results

• Call center staff reduced from 11 to 6 — a net reduction of 5 full-time positions
• Roughly $200,000/year in payroll savings (before benefits and tax liability, which push the real figure higher)
• Zero missed calls, 24/7, including weekends and after-hours
• The practice can now add 3–4 new doctors without hiring additional front-desk staff to support them

"I would say you'd be crazy not to try it. I don't know how we would have continued without it." — Lisa, Call Center Manager, Maryland Center (11 years with the practice)

Lisa's other observation summed up the operational case as well as any metric could: "Ava never calls out sick."