TLDR: Primary Health Solutions (PHS) has partnered with SoundHound AI to deploy an advanced AI-powered patient engagement platform, named ‘Denise’. This initiative aims to significantly enhance patient experience by automating appointment management, reducing wait times, and freeing up staff for more complex inquiries. PHS is among the first Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers to implement such AI Agents, with plans to expand functionalities to include referrals, billing, and proactive patient outreach.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and [PHS Location, e.g., Butler and Montgomery counties] – September 4, 2025 – Primary Health Solutions (PHS), a leading Federally Qualified Healthcare Center serving Butler and Montgomery counties, today announced a strategic partnership with SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice and conversational AI. This collaboration marks the deployment of SoundHound’s cutting-edge AI Agent Platform, designed to profoundly enhance the patient experience and streamline operational efficiencies within the healthcare provider.
The new conversational AI platform, affectionately named ‘Denise’ in tribute to a cherished PHS call center employee, is set to revolutionize how patients interact with healthcare services. Initially, ‘Denise’ will focus on automating routine tasks such as scheduling, confirmations, and cancellations of appointments, accessible to patients via both voice and text interactions. This move is expected to drastically reduce the time patients spend on hold, addressing a common point of frustration.
Steven Roller, CEO of Primary Health Solutions, emphasized the forward-thinking nature of this partnership, stating, “Our partnership with SoundHound AI demonstrates a commitment by PHS to better serve our patients by being a true innovator at the cutting edge of what’s next in care.” He further elaborated on the expansive potential, adding, “While we’re starting with the basics, the use cases for this technology are expansive, and we see a huge opportunity to improve the overall quality of our engagement, create efficiencies, and support our call center employees. This is the future of healthcare.”
Michael Anderson, Executive Vice President of Enterprise AI at SoundHound AI, highlighted the growing patient expectations in healthcare. “Patient expectations are rising when it comes to the care they receive, and they aren’t prepared to spend long stints on hold for simple requests. Our AI Agent platform takes the friction out of the system,” Anderson said. He also outlined the platform’s ambitious roadmap, which extends beyond appointment management to include referrals, refills, billing inquiries, and proactive outbound conversations to increase patient touchpoints and promote health. “This is about giving patients what they need and allowing staff to focus on more complex inbound inquiries,” he added.
The ‘Denise’ platform is engineered with sophisticated Voice AI Agents capable of quickly and accurately understanding multilingual requests, all while strictly adhering to HIPAA guidelines to ensure patient privacy and data security. By offloading routine administrative tasks, the technology aims to free up PHS’s call center operatives and office staff, allowing them to concentrate on more involved or sensitive patient queries, thereby providing more personalized and empathetic support.
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Andrea Merick, COO of Primary Health Solutions, noted that naming the platform ‘Denise’ symbolizes the organization’s commitment to maintaining a personal touch while embracing technological advancements. This initiative positions PHS as one of the first Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers in the nation to leverage AI Agents for a more seamless and engaging patient journey, reinforcing its broader mission to ensure quick and easy access to information and care for all its patients.
