Ophthalmology · East Tennessee · ModMed
About 120 calls a day.
An estimated one in five was being missed.
When call volume outran the available staff, patients reached voicemail and follow-up became inconsistent. Reeves Eye Institute now uses Caesar Health's Phone Agent to answer calls, schedule in ModMed, and keep the front office from carrying every conversation alone.
“The biggest positive is the assurance that each call is being answered.”
- ~120
- calls each day
- ~30%
- handled by the AI
- 2
- practice locations
- After hours
- scheduling coverage
The challenge
Call spikes turned a staffed front desk into a voicemail queue.
Reeves Eye Institute serves patients across two East Tennessee locations with three providers. Around four staff members shared the phones while handling the rest of the front-office workload.
When several calls arrived at once, the available lines filled up. Patients went to voicemail, and a busy day could make follow-up inconsistent. Dr. Reeves estimated that roughly one in five of the practice's 120 daily calls might be missed.
“Sometimes those voicemails would be returned and sometimes not. That was the impetus for us to look for change.”
- Practice
- Comprehensive ophthalmology and eye care
- Locations
- Johnson City and Kingsport, Tennessee
- Clinical team
- 3 providers
- Phone team
- Approximately 4 staff members
- EMR
- ModMed
- Time using Caesar
- About 4 months at the time of recording
The solution
A Phone Agent configured around the way the practice actually schedules.
Caesar Health connected the Phone Agent to ModMed and tuned it around Reeves Eye Institute's provider rules, locations, and after-hours workflow. When the practice found a problem, the team could trace the call and adjust the setup from the transcript.
- Answers every inbound call before a patient reaches voicemail
- Books and reschedules appointments directly in ModMed
- Routes children under age five to the correct provider schedule
- Keeps after-hours scheduling open when the front office is closed
- Creates a transcript and audit trail for every AI-handled call
- Moves appointments between locations through a custom cancel-and-rebook workflow
“I felt like it was a customized personal experience. It addressed some of the issues that we have within our practice.”
The results
Fewer ringing phones, with every AI call open to review.
- About 30% of inbound calls handled by the Phone Agent
- Fewer phones ringing for the front-office team
- More consistent answers when staff are busy or out
- Mostly positive patient response, with only a small group asking for a person
- After-hours patients can reschedule without waiting for the office to reopen
- Call transcripts make communication problems easier to trace and correct
“We definitely stand behind the product. It's made a positive impact on our practice.”
Dr. Reeves believes more consistent appointment booking has helped revenue indirectly, but he said the change was not yet measurable. The result he could stand behind was simpler: fewer patients slipping into voicemail and more peace of mind after hours.
In his words
“The phones are not ringing as often, and therefore their workload has been improved.”
What's next
From the phone line to online and text scheduling.
Reeves Eye Institute plans to add simple web scheduling for campaigns such as LASIK consultations, followed by two-way text scheduling. Those features were not live at the time of recording, so this case study treats them as the next phase rather than current results.
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