How to Use AI Agents to Stop Losing Patients to IVRs and Hold Queues

Patients call when they are anxious, in pain, or trying to get care before a worrisome symptom turns into something worse. They’ll consult Dr. Google (or Dr. ChatGPT, these days) and then find a nearby provider that can see them. In the process of getting an appointment, they’ll probably spend more time navigating IVRs and waiting on hold than actually talking to someone and scheduling an appointment. This isn’t an ideal patient experience.

Your IVRs were built with the best intentions and, at the time, with the best technology available. The instant answers that AI provides have shifted consumer expectations—including in healthcare—and punching buttons on the phone and waiting on hold doesn’t cut it. 

Patients are Impatient

Most patients prefer to book their appointments by phone, but if they encounter any resistance, they will just book elsewhere. The data from our recent research backs this up. 

• 39% of patients will switch providers after a single negative experience, according to Invoca's 2026 Healthcare Consumer Experience Report. Remember, this is demand you already paid to drive.
• 46% of calls to healthcare providers go unanswered, according to the Invoca Healthcare Lead Conversion Report, and 43% of these calls are leads. That’s a lot of demand that will never be realized,
• 45% of digital marketing leads convert on the call. Again, this is demand that you literally paid to drive. When calls go unanswered, it directly impacts your ROAS.

Reducing the friction between when a potential patient picks up the phone and when they set an appointment is key to improving your ROAS, patient acquisition, and access to care. Here’s how you can use AI agents to do it. 

How Invoca's AI Agents Turn Inbound Calls Into Booked Appointments

You can instantly engage, qualify, and acquire more new patients with Invoca’s AI Voice and Messaging agents. Here’s how it works. 

1. Engage, qualify, and set appointments 24/7

Invoca's AI Voice Agent enables patients to have a simple conversation to get what they need without navigating a phone tree. It can schedule appointments or quickly route them to the right department when they need to speak to a person or get clinical advice.

The AI agent handles calls 24/7 so patients get what they need, on their schedules. It also relieves your staff of handling simple inquiries, such as rescheduling appointments, so they can focus on more urgent matters. All of this adds up to faster access to care and a better patient experience.

2. Text Patients Instead of Putting Them On Hold

Are there times when a patient would like to wait on hold to talk to a person? Sure. Is it more likely that they’d rather hit themselves over the head with a frying pan? Probably. Would they much rather take care of things by texting? Definitely. Invoca’s AI Messaging Agent lets patients avoid the hold queue—or just avoid talking to a person if that’s their preference—and moves the conversation into a two-way SMS conversation. 

The agent can answer non-clinical questions, schedule a callback at the patient’s convenience, or get an appointment on the calendar. This increases the number of new patients you can acquire and releases them from the drudgery of waiting on hold. 

3. Qualify, book, and tie every appointment to revenue

Invoca links ad clicks, web page visits, phone conversations, and AI chats to resulting appointments, so you can finally tie the entire digital journey—and your ad spend—to revenue.

This data can also be sent back to digital ad platforms like Google Ads to optimize for conversions, improving your ROAS and providing a complete view of the patient journey.

Case Study: University Hospitals 

One health system, University Hospitals, offered callers an SMS option when live agents weren't available and trained the AI on thousands of hours of real patient conversations. Here’s what happened:

• 70% of callers who opted into SMS engaged with the AI agent
• 90% who scheduled a callback completed the call
• 39% of patients who called back booked an appointment

"In the first night of launching our Invoca AI agent, it recovered 25 appointments."

-Matt Eaves, VP of Digital Marketing, University Hospitals

Drive More Revenue Without Compromising Compliance

Healthcare marketers can’t cut corners on compliance and patient privacy. Invoca's AI agents are built with the healthcare industry’s needs in mind:

• HIPAA-compliant, alongside TCPA and GDPR alignment.
• Automatic redaction scrubs sensitive information from transcripts and logs.
• Consumer-initiated by design — every SMS exchange honors opt-in and opt-out, so the patient is always the one who starts the conversation.
• Trained only on your data — Invoca’s agents are trained on your first-party conversation data, so they align with your brand and your standards. .

Patients who reach out via phone are high-intent prospects, and you can’t risk losing them to the hold queue or an old-school IVR. With AI agents, you can engage and acquire more patients and improve access to care.

Book a demo to see how Invoca's AI Voice Agent and AI Messaging Agent help patient access teams turn more calls into booked appointments.