Mackenzie Health Improves Patient Experience, While Avoiding ~$110K in Potential Operating Costs with Automated Patient Communications

In 2017, after implementing Epic, Mackenzie Health adopted a suggested vendor for patient appointment reminders, starting with robocalls (automated voice calls). As their health system expanded to two sites, some patients began arriving at the wrong hospital for imaging procedures. The contributing factor? Robocalls were lengthy, making it easy for patients to miss the location details.

Mackenzie Health sought to improve the appointment reminder experience for patients by adding SMS. However, after months of implementation, hidden costs and little room for customization, it became apparent that a new vendor was needed to scale.

Mackenzie Health turned to PocketHealth, a trusted partner that had historically enhanced its patients’ access to imaging records.

We spoke with Lindsay Lankin, Director of Patient Access and Logistics Services, to learn how PocketHealth improved the patient experience while reducing costs and scaling beyond basic reminders.

The Challenge

An inflexible and costly vendor blocked scalability, negatively impacting patient engagement and contributing to wrong-site arrivals.

How did Mackenzie Health send reminders before implementing PocketHealth?

Lindsay Lankin: “We initially implemented a suggested vendor for appointment reminders, starting with robocalls. But we found that patients sometimes missed key information in the automated reminder call—such as site location—especially when the messages were lengthy.

When we opened Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital in 2021, the issue compounded. And it didn’t help that Google was still defaulting patients to the Richmond Hill Hospital address. We were seeing up to 500 patients a month showing up at the wrong hospital. There’s a huge impact on the patient experience when this happens. From an operational perspective, if we can’t get the patient to the other site, then we’re trying to accommodate them at the current site. This is particularly challenging when other patients are already scheduled to arrive at that exact time.

We decided to add SMS messaging, and the vendor promised an 8-week turnaround. It took 9 months. There were ongoing technical issues that they were slow to respond to and there was little room to make simple, dynamic message changes.

The final straw was the vendor’s SMS-character-based pricing. It wasn’t transparent and the effective cost per patient ballooned to the equivalent of multiple messages, essentially breaking the budget.”

The Solution

PocketHealth provided a scalable, cost-effective patient communication service.

What factors did Mackenzie Health consider when choosing PocketHealth?

Lindsay: “Our decision to move to PocketHealth was two-fold. First, it was less expensive to implement. Second, I had worked with PocketHealth before on implementing Patient Connect. I trusted them as a vendor and knew they would create more financial bandwidth. In essence, I would be at the same price point but now be able to turn on organic growth, planned growth and more net new functionality. That was my long-term thought process.”

The Results

After implementing PocketHealth, Mackenzie Health saw an 80% reduction in wrong-site arrivals, while avoiding approximately $110K in potential operating costs.

What impacts have you seen since implementing automated patient communications?

Lindsay: “We immediately saw $5K in savings per month after moving from our legacy vendor to PocketHealth. We were able to absorb those costs into our organic and planned growth, as well as scale to other SMS opportunities.

With the recent implementation of automated voice calls and the upcoming implementation of booking confirmation, patient communication is clearer than ever before. As a result, we’ve seen a noticeable improvement in patient preparedness and fewer missed steps. This directly impacts the number of manual reminder calls staff need to make and the time spent per call, helping us avoid approximately $110K in potential annual operating costs.

Now, we have a fully integrated patient communication system across our patient portal, Epic’s MyChart and PocketHealth.

We’re excited for the next stage of growth. In the coming weeks, PocketHealth will be rolling out booking confirmations to help us better support our patients at all stages of their appointment journey.”

About PocketHealth

PocketHealth is the workflow automation platform transforming health system operations. With three interconnected solutions—Image Exchange, Patient Connect and Conductor—PocketHealth automates manual, non-clinical tasks across the patient journey, from requisition processing to seamless image sharing to patient access and education. As a result, providers can redeploy staff, expand margins and deliver safer, more seamless care, while patients gain the knowledge and guidance they need so follow-ups don’t fall through the cracks. PocketHealth is SOC2- and HIPAA-compliant, and is trusted by more than 900 hospitals and imaging centers across North America, serving over 2 million patients. Request a demo today.