Rush University System for Health set out to modernize how patients access care, knowing that most interactions begin at moments of stress, urgency or uncertainty. By improving self-service, streamlining routing and better equipping agents with context, Rush has reduced handle times, improved service levels, and created more empathetic experiences for both patients and employees.
~15% reduction
in average handle time across 37 queues
39-second decrease
in average speed of answer
2X increase
in self-service success rate
Rush University System for Health is a three-hospital system serving Chicago, its western suburbs and northwest Indiana — supported by a broad network of satellite locations. Rush is widely known for its focus on high-quality specialty care and a deep commitment to health equity.
Unlike many customer interactions, healthcare conversations often begin at a moment of vulnerability. For Rush, patients most often reach out seeking clarity, reassurance and immediate help because they have a health concern. They might need assistance scheduling the right appointment or understanding the next steps, or they might need a referral. That reality shapes the health system’s view of its patient experience as comprising both clinical and emotional elements.
“When someone contacts us, we want it to be a positive experience,” said Scott Blanchard, Director of Digital Patient Experience at Rush. “We don’t want to overburden somebody who has a health concern. We want them to feel heard and know that we understand the urgency of why they’re contacting us.”
Rush relies on the Genesys Cloud CX® offering to help accomplish this by connecting key systems, streamlining agents’ access to information, and supporting both self-service and agent-assisted care.
“We needed a modern, omnichannel platform that could interact with our other core systems like Epic, Salesforce and ServiceNow,” added Blanchard. “Genesys Cloud offered a scalable solution with minimal hardware requirements. Further, their focus on innovation and willingness to partner with us for problem solving set them apart from other technology vendors in the CX space.”
“We needed a modern, omnichannel platform that could interact with our other core systems like Epic, Salesforce and ServiceNow. Genesys Cloud offered a scalable solution with minimal hardware requirements. Further, their focus on innovation and willingness to partner with us for problem solving set them apart from other technology vendors in the CX space.”
Scott Blanchard
Director of Digital Patient Experience, Rush University System for Health
Behind the scenes, Rush focuses on simplifying patient journeys. That means providing the convenience of digital self-service, as well as the reassurance of speaking to a live agent.
It also means using the conversational IVR capabilities of the Genesys Cloud™ platform to understand why people are calling — and then either recommending a self-service option or using predictive routing to direct calls intelligently to the right agent with the right skills. The health system rolled out Genesys Cloud Predictive Routing across 37 queues and has seen a decrease in handle time ranging from 9% to 15% across those queues.
“If patients want to use self-service, we can offer it. And if they don’t, then we want to get them to the right agent as quickly as possible,” said David Rick, Digital Enablement Manager at Rush.
“Ideally, all interactions would be at our patients’ preference,” added Blanchard. “We offer some self-service functions at all hours; for example, appointment management and prescription refills. We’re exploring additional self-service functions, like MyChart password resets and appointment rescheduling, to enhance patient choice. We want to be a health system where a patient with a concern has options to engage with us at all hours.”
For those patients who choose to speak directly with an agent, Rush is making enhancements that will alleviate stress and streamline interactions for both patients and agents. Reducing transfers, passing along context from previous interactions, and avoiding repeated questions all signal respect for a patient’s time and emotional state and provide vital support for agents.
For example, Rush integrated Genesys Cloud with Epic to streamline activities like appointment management and prescription refills, with billing payments and MyChart access in the production queue. The organization also uses Salesforce integration to pass context to agents and screen-pop cases — reducing the need for patients to repeat themselves.
“Let’s make sure if we gather information about you, that we pass that along so the agent doesn’t have to re-ask for that information,” said Blanchard. “The conversational IVR sets a higher standard of what people expect coming out of that system. So, we want to make sure that we’re making each experience as good as we possibly can.”
“All the major metrics have improved since we went live with Genesys Cloud.”
David Rick
Digital Enablement Manager, Rush University System for Health
Since implementing Genesys Cloud, Rush has seen consistent improvements across key metrics: Average handle time (AHT) and average speed of answer decreased about four and 40 seconds per call, respectively. Service level performance trended strongly upward, increasing from 53.3% pre-deployment to just over 68%, closing the gap toward the goal of 70% in 30 seconds.
Customer experience indicators showed equally positive momentum. Abandonment rates fell sharply from 12.6% before deployment to 4.6% in November 2025 and 3.7% in December 2025. Customer survey scores improved from 83.1% at deployment to 86.6%.
In parallel, the self-service success rate nearly doubled to 12.5%, while overall containment improved from about 2%. Together, these results demonstrate both improved efficiency and a stronger customer experience following deployment.
But those changes weren’t immediate. “Metrics like AHT, ASA and abandonment rate did initially increase at go-live as our agents adjusted to a complete overhaul of their CX tools,” said Blanchard. “With training and staffing investments to add agents, we recovered sharply and have seen improvements from our baseline.”
While those investments and operational changes like improved coaching and fewer queues have played key roles in those improvements, Rush sees Genesys as a foundational enabler. “It is all part of that success story,” added Rick. “I’d say that, in general, all the major metrics have improved since we went live with Genesys Cloud.”
All that is just the beginning of the health system’s success story. Rush will continue to refine authentication flows, a key driver of customer satisfaction, and plans to explore AI-driven quality and coaching tools. It also will investigate sentiment analysis to better understand how conversations are unfolding in real time. The organization is also looking at journey analytics to pinpoint where patients struggle and where experiences can be further simplified.
“We’re not all the way there yet,” concluded Blanchard, noting that the organization plans to deploy additional capabilities, such as AI-powered post-call auto-summarization. “But with Genesys Cloud, we now have more tools to continually optimize our experiences.”
To learn more about the solutions featured in this case study, visit www.genesys.com.
