---

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Health faced an operational challenge: high demand often left them 30 full-time employees (FTEs) underutilized in patient engagement. With call volumes increasing by nearly half a million every year, leadership realized they could no longer hire their way out of the problem.

“Our staff was overburdened, we had long wait times, and we weren’t meeting our internal service level agreements,” said Crystal Broj, Enterprise Chief Digital Transformation Officer, at MUSC Health.
MUSC’s solution came in the form of a healthcare-optimized AI agent, named Emily.

Emily was built to support a range of patient access and prescription-related interactions from foundational patient access to complex prescription handling, allowing MUSC Health to handle its rapid volume increases while maintaining patient satisfaction metrics consistent with internal benchmarks.

And she’s still early in her capability journey. 

The foundation: AI-first patient access

Emily was built to be fully integrated with Epic on SoundHound AI’s platform, allowing her to offload live agents’ routine, high-volume patient support tasks such as appointment confirmations, cancellations and rescheduling, parking logistics, and other general inquiries.  

MUSC Health reported early measurable results:

• Volume Offloaded: Emily quickly scaled to handle 2.2 million annual interactions.
• 24/7 Capacity: With Emily handling routine traffic 24/7 across both voice and chat, MUSC quickly stabilized its internal service level agreements (SLAs). 
• 4.3 out of 5.0 NPS: Emily delivered high patient satisfaction
• Multilingual: Emily often received perfect 5/5 NPS marks with Spanish speakers

Creating self-service for billing

Emily was also built to give patients instant access to personalized billing information with a custom integration to Epic’s MyChart (e.g., confirming balances), expanding self-service options and reducing the need for live support. Patients could resolve their issues on their own terms, more quickly in many cases, often without needing to wait on hold for a billing specialist.

“A lot of our patients like self-serve,” said Cory Kirkland, Program Manager, Digital Transformation at MUSC Health. “They’re comfortable using apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Amazon. By offering a modern interface through voice we can satisfy patients while also reducing call times.”

This quickly improved MUSC’s previous system, with abandonment rates improving up to 40%. 

Beyond improving the customer experience, it also accelerated financial assistance requests by intelligently routing patients to the right service.

“A lot of our patients like self-serve; they’re comfortable using apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Amazon. By offering a modern interface through voice we can satisfy patients while also reducing call times.”

Cory Kirkland
Program Manager, Digital Transformation at MUSC Health

AI pharmacy: faster refills at the right location

MUSC Health expanded Emily to handle more complex, high-sensitivity patient needs—interactions that don’t follow a linear path or often involve multiple intents, like checking a schedule while paying a bill. This goes beyond the limits of traditional automation.

In 2026, MUSC Health launched its first agentic use case for pharmacy refills. 

This enabled patients to request refills, check prescription status, and get routed to the right pharmacy through Emily – without waiting on hold. 

Before agentic, automation wasn’t an option. For example, beyond security concerns, many patients couldn’t easily identify which of the system’s 13 retail pharmacies was their “home” location. Instead of relying on rigid prompts, Emily adapts in real time by asking simple clarifying questions, such as whether a building is “concrete” or “glass,” to help route requests based on user input.

“Agentic provides much more flexibility. I can say, ‘I want to schedule an appointment, and I need to pay my bill.’ And Emily will come back, ‘Okay, let’s talk about rescheduling your appointment,’ and then, ‘Oh, and did you want to pay your bill now?’ She can switch modes and remember what you wanted to talk about, and then complete that action for you.”

Crystal Broj, Enterprise Chief Digital Transformation Officer

Patient Satisfaction

4.3

out of 5.0 NPS Emily delivers high patient satisfaction

Annual Interactions

2.2

m

Emily handles rapid volume increases while maintaining customer service metrics

The roadmap: expanding enterprise-wide with agent to agent

MUSC is continuing to think beyond traditional automation — toward a future where AI can handle multi-step, goal-oriented patient interactions, not just single tasks.

They are now expanding agentic use cases across the organization, leveraging Emily’s orchestration capabilities to connect and coordinate with AI agents across multiple platforms.

HR and IT Ticketing: A planned internal employee portal will integrate with Workday to handle benefits-related questions and with ServiceNow for IT support and ticketing. Built on an open orchestration architecture, Emily enables MUSC Health to extend these capabilities across systems to support interoperability across systems.

Facilities Management (Fred): Currently in a phased pilot, Fred (Facilities Response and Engineering Dispatch) manages internal work orders and coordinates vendor-driven requests, such as pest control, streamlining facilities operations.

Protecting the human connection

The efficiency gains have directly impacted staff morale. Pharmacy staff, Broj noted, are “over the moon” with the platform’s efficiency. Press Ganey scores in the “ability to contact my provider” category have improved as hold times dropped.

“You don’t want the agent to work on ‘is my appointment at one or at two o’clock,’” Broj said. “Emily handles those calls now.”

By providing a high-quality self-service option, MUSC Health has protected the human element of medicine, allowing care teams to provide focused attention to complex medical issues without feeling rushed.

Interested in starting your own AI journey with SoundHound AI?

Talk to a SoundHound AI expert and see what’s possible with an enterprise AI agent platform.