# Call Center Automation for Home Health and Hospice | QliqSOFT > Call center automation for home health and hospice: an AI voice agent answers, captures referrals, and routes clinical calls to your staff by schedule. Use Cases / Call Center Automation Use case ยท Home Health and Hospice # Call Center Automation *for Home Health and Hospice* [SOC 2 TYPE II](https://www.qliqsoft.com/security/) [HIPAA COMPLIANT](https://www.qliqsoft.com/security/) [Request a demo](https://www.qliqsoft.com/request-demo/) **Call center automation for home health and hospice takes routine calls off your intake and scheduling lines. An [AI voice agent](https://www.qliqsoft.com/platform/ai-voice-agents/home-health/) answers in your agency's name, resolves logistical questions, captures referrals, and routes clinical calls to your staff by your live schedule. Callers can switch to a HIPAA-compliant text thread, and your team handles the calls only people can.** ## What your lines actually carry An agency's phones carry a mix of calls, and most of them need an answer, not a nurse. - **Referrals.** A discharge planner with a patient going home and a short list of agencies to call. - **Scheduling.** A patient asking what time the nurse is coming, or calling to move tomorrow's visit. - **Clinical concerns.** A family member describing a symptom, a wound, or a medication question. - **Everything else.** Records requests, directions, billing questions, vendors. When every one of those rings the same phone, the referral waits behind the billing question, and the clinical call waits behind both. ## What to automate, and what to keep human | Call | Automate? | How | | --- | --- | --- | | Hours, directions, where to send records | Yes | The agent answers the question and logs the call | | Visit times and rescheduling requests | Capture, then route | The agent captures the request with the patient already identified and routes it to your team | | New referrals | Capture, then route | The agent takes the referral details and connects the caller to intake | | Clinical concerns | Route only | The agent captures who, which patient and how urgent, then connects the caller to the clinician on your live schedule | The rule underneath the table: automation handles the routine part of every call, and a person handles every judgment. ## How a call moves **The agent answers and sorts.** Every call is answered in your agency's name, day and night. The agent separates clinical concerns from logistical ones, resolves the logistical questions it can, and gathers who is calling, about which patient, and how urgent it is. **The agent routes by your live schedule.** Calls that need a person go to the right one: intake for a referral, the on-call nurse for a clinical concern. The agent checks your QliqCHAT schedule, so it always reaches whoever is actually covering. **Callers can switch to text.** A caller who would rather text can move to a HIPAA-compliant thread and keep the conversation going without waiting on hold. **Every call is documented.** The full call is logged to the patient's thread in QliqCHAT, so the next person to pick it up starts from what was already said. ## What makes a call center HIPAA compliant A caller who gives a patient's name and symptoms is disclosing protected health information. Any outside service that handles those calls for you is a business associate under HIPAA and needs a business associate agreement with your agency ([45 CFR 160.103](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-C/part-160/subpart-A/section-160.103)). Beyond the agreement, ask three questions: where the call record is stored, who can see it, and whether it reaches the clinical record or sits in a separate portal. QliqSOFT is HIPAA compliant, with a BAA included, and calls are logged to the patient's thread. ## What to measure Track the calls that matter most to a home-based care agency: - Referral calls answered live, during and after office hours - Time from a referral call to a conversation with intake - Clinical calls that reach a clinician on the first try - Calls resolved without staff, by type - Repeat calls from the same caller about the same request ## What it is not It is not a nurse triage service: the agent does not assess symptoms or make clinical decisions. It does not replace your intake or scheduling team; it takes the routine calls off their lines so they can work the ones that need them. For a broader look at call center software across healthcare, see [the ultimate guide to healthcare call center software](https://www.qliqsoft.com/ultimate-guide/to/healthcare-call-center-software/). For nights and weekends specifically, see [after-hours triage for home health agencies](https://www.qliqsoft.com/use-cases/after-hours-triage-home-health/). Frequently asked questions **What is healthcare call center automation?** Healthcare call center automation uses technology such as AI voice agents to handle the routine parts of patient and referral calls: answering, identifying the caller and the patient, resolving simple questions, and routing the rest to the right person. In home health and hospice, it keeps intake and scheduling lines open for the calls that need staff. **Which calls can a home health agency automate?** Calls about hours, directions and where to send records can be answered fully. Visit-time questions, rescheduling requests and new referrals can be captured and routed with the details already collected. Clinical concerns should always reach a clinician; automation only captures the concern and connects the caller. **What makes a call center HIPAA compliant?** Any outside service that handles calls containing patient information is a business associate under HIPAA and needs a business associate agreement with the agency. Beyond that, the call record should be stored securely, access should be limited to the staff involved in the patient's care, and the record should reach the clinical record rather than sit in a separate portal. **Does call center automation replace intake staff?** No. It takes routine calls off the intake line and captures referral details before a person picks up, so intake staff spend their time on the conversations that win referrals. Every referral and every clinical call still reaches a person. ## See it live on your own workflows. In a 30-minute demo, we map QliqSOFT to your workflows, live in the product.