MIAMI, Aug. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Most answering services can tell a practice that a call happened. They can't tell it what happened on the call, whether a patient in real distress got through, or whether an on-call provider was actually paged. PerfectServe® closes that gap today with the launch of Intelligent Answering powered by ConnectiveIQ, the AI engine that drives every PerfectServe AI product. Built on 30 years of clinical workflow expertise, Intelligent Answering gives practices a virtual agent, Sloane, that doesn't just answer the phone. It tells you what the caller needed, where the call went, and whether the issue was resolved.
“With Intelligent Answering, we’re taking decades of historical knowledge and supercharging it with the power of agentic AI,” said PerfectServe Chief Innovation Officer Ben Moore. “We’ve been monitoring the rapid expansion of AI in healthcare for the past three years, and after extensive conversations with customers and a rigorous development and testing process, we’ve got a new product offering that meets both the needs of the moment and our high standards for quality. It's AI delivered in a way that only PerfectServe can accomplish.”
What Intelligent Answering Actually Does
Instead of leading callers through phone menus or leaving them to a live operator's variable judgment, AI agent Sloane facilitates a natural conversation, works out what the caller means, and routes the call by intent. The ConnectiveIQ AI engine uses the same real-time on-call schedules, coverage chains, provider directory, and secure care team messaging that PerfectServe has deployed for tens of thousands of practices for the past three decades. The platform brings baked-in certainty, and the new AI layer brings the judgment.
Here’s what Intelligent Answering delivers for each customer:
- Conversational, multilingual answering: Full conversations in the caller's preferred language, with English and Spanish at launch and 70+ more coming soon.
- Safety layer with multiple AI models: Because these are high-stakes clinical calls, Sloane uses multiple AI models to check each other's work in real time. A dedicated safety layer reviews every response before action is taken, and every call is monitored, so mistakes are caught and corrected seamlessly. Sloane identifies itself as a virtual agent and never gives medical advice.
- Intent-based understanding and emergency detection: Sloane distinguishes real clinical urgency from caller anxiety, so the right calls get through with the right priority. Potential emergencies are flagged immediately, and callers are directed to dial 911.
- Dynamic on-call routing: Routing runs on real-time schedules, coverage rules, and urgency protocols configured to each practice without requiring the caller to know exact details. That includes multi-location groups, shared provider names, and specialty-based routing. Sloane always knows who's on call.
- Intelligent data capture and FAQ handling: Sloane automatically collects caller type, name, date of birth, callback number, and reason for calling. It can also resolve routine questions like hours, directions, and accepted insurance to free up staff time.
- Complete call visibility: Every call is transcribed, classified, and dispositioned with full routing rationale, and measured against each practice's pre-launch baseline to turn improvement into a definable metric.
- Full-suite communications: Intelligent Answering comes with PerfectServe’s full communication functionality, including clinician-to-clinician messaging, masked callback numbers, a unified provider directory, and secure notifications via app, SMS, pager, or phone.
To ensure the ConnectiveIQ knowledge base is fully formed, each new customer goes live on the core Intelligent Answering platform for a training period. During that time, non-PHI data about calls, after-hours patterns, and even the way patients talk is used to fine tune the AI engine. When Sloane is deployed, it knows the customer’s actual workflows rather than working from a one-size-fits-all template.
Results from Early Deployments
In deployments with early customers, Intelligent Answering has:
- Resolved 70% of routine calls with no staff involvement.
- Directed callers to the right place 40% faster than a typical live agent.
- Driven a 100% improvement in identification rate (properly collecting name, date of birth, and callback number).
- Prevented 100% of non-urgent calls from interrupting providers based on customer routing rules.
- Documented 100% of calls with a reason and a result.
After deploying Intelligent Answering in early June, a Midwestern multispecialty clinic has seen 100% routing logic accuracy with zero misroutes, 100% success with message delivery, and zero uncorrected mistakes thanks to PerfectServe’s built-in safety layer.
“Healthcare providers have responsibilities and commitments outside of their professional roles, and it’s important to respect their time away from practice," said the clinic's Patient Experience Manager. "No provider wants to be interrupted during a family event for an issue that could have been addressed through a routine process. I’ve seen providers step away to answer what was presented as an urgent call, only to discover it was a patient who needed clinic directions. Intelligent Answering helps distinguish genuine emergencies from routine inquiries to make sure providers are only contacted when their immediate expertise is needed. And for patients, it’s an altogether better experience too. Instead of navigating multiple phone prompts in search of assistance, their calls are directed to the right place immediately.”
To learn more about Intelligent Answering powered by ConnectiveIQ and PerfectServe’s virtual agent, Sloane, visit the AI medical answering service page on the PerfectServe website.
About PerfectServe
PerfectServe uses 30 years of expertise, AI, and advanced rules engines to simplify and automate care team communication, provider and staff scheduling, call handling, contact center workflows, and other key clinical processes. Our cloud-based software works in all settings of care and integrates with 270+ clinical, IT, and telecom systems to dynamically route important messages, calls, alerts, and other information to the right person at the right time. PerfectServe was founded in 1997 and is a trusted partner to 100+ health systems, 500+ hospitals, and 30,000+ medical practices.
PerfectServe Contact:
Matt Kothe | Director, Corporate Marketing
865.776.9824
mkothe@perfectserve.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/83cf5060-56d3-43ad-ad8d-49fa66e1d59f
