Kirby Medical Center in Illinois, US, has entered into an enterprise partnership with Switchboard, MD for automating patient communication workflows.
The collaboration aims to support Kirby’s service standards, improve access to care, and enhance operational efficiency.
Earlier in 2025, Kirby engaged with Switchboard, MD’s Contact Center solution with a targeted assessment focused on prescription refill request intake.
The team routed recorded calls to an AI voice agent and assessed the way classification, sentiment analysis, and transcription could accelerate and streamline communication.
The assessment identified clinical urgency, opportunities to improve response times, and reduce repeat calls.
Under the latest collaboration, Kirby will deploy Switchboard, MD’s platform organisation-wide to improve service access and further streamline patient communication.
The solution includes multi-agent orchestration and conversational AI to direct callers, enable self-service for routine needs such as scheduling, and route requests.
Further capabilities include wayfinding assistance, autonomous scheduling for high-volume visit types, and appointment reminders and confirmations.
Kirby Medical Center chief operating officer and chief information officer Mark Fred said: “In the critical access hospital world, teams are accustomed to wearing many hats.
“Switchboard, MD will enable us to reduce unnecessary administrative burden while preserving the level of care our patients deserve. This partnership will help ensure that our patient communications and EHR work as hard as our talented people do.”
Switchboard, MD chief commercial officer Ankit Tiwari said: “The past several months collaborating with Kirby have shown us how extraordinary their team truly is. They approach their work with a deep sense of mission and an unwavering commitment to their patients and staff, and we’re honoured to be part of their continued journey.”
The partnership will continue to focus on building sustainable automation, improving operational throughput, and expanding staff capacity to support Kirby’s initiative and patient care priorities.
