Should a patient's first conversation before surgery be with AI?

We built an agent that reads a patient's complete medical history from EMRs across the country, then calls them to complete their pre-operative assessment.

[Visual asset: Screenshot of Orthopedic PAT Agent — voice transcript interface]

Our customers are split on it.

Half say it's the future. Nurses shouldn't be spending hours on data gathering before they've even spoken to a patient. The other half say the pre-op call is clinical work — it's where you catch the anxiety, the hesitation, the things patients don't put on forms.

Both are right.

[Pull quote: "The pre-op call is where you catch the things patients don't put on forms."]

What we know from working inside surgical centres is that the problem isn't the call itself — it's everything that has to happen before it. Hunting records across four provider portals. Faxing requests and waiting. Building a picture of a patient that should have been available from the start.

If AI handles that part, the nurse's call becomes what it should be — clinical, not administrative.

Would you deploy this in your practice? And would you want to be on the receiving end as a patient? Let us know in the comments.