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“Everyone is selling AI for scheduling, but that isn’t where our biggest bottlenecks are. Automating scheduling is helpful, but automating clinical communication is transformational. OhMD and Nia are solving the complex, high-volume medication and triage workflows that actually bog down our practice. That’s where the real impact is, and we feel it every day.”
Summary
Dermatology Associates of Western Connecticut (DAWC) is a large, multi-site dermatology practice managing high volumes of medication questions, refill requests, and clinical follow-ups every day. Like many specialty practices, these workflows were handled almost entirely through nurse-line calls and voicemails, creating delays, rework, and heavy administrative load on clinical staff.
This case study examines how DAWC used AI-powered clinical communication with OhMD and Nia to remove voicemail-based intake, standardize clinical requests, and return meaningful time to nurses without adding staff.
DAWC first implemented OhMD in late 2023 to support secure patient texting. In fall 2025, the practice expanded its use of OhMD with Nia, an AI assistant that now handles intake and routing for the practice’s highest-volume clinical communication workflows.
Results within the first 60 days included:
- 67% reduction in time-to-resolution for refill and medication-advice cases
- 31% reduction in nurse-line voicemails
- About 650 nursing hours recovered annually
These gains came from removing manual intake work, not from nurses working faster, while improving response times, documentation quality, and patient experience.
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The Challenge
Before implementing OhMD, DAWC’s medication-advice and refill workflows relied entirely on phone calls and voicemails. Nurses spent substantial time checking multiple voicemail boxes, transcribing messages, looking up patients in Nextech, returning calls, and navigating repeated phone tag.
Patients often struggled to reach the office. Messages lacked structure. Photos could not be submitted. Critical medication questions were delayed by slow communication loops. This created inconsistent triage, higher clinical risk, staff frustration, and operational bottlenecks. These nurse-line workflows represented some of the highest-volume and highest-risk clinical communication in the practice.
The OhMD Solution
Nia functions as an AI intake layer for clinical communication, collecting required patient and medication details before routing messages to nurses for review and response. DAWC adopted OhMD to allow patients to text the practice for medication advice, prescription refill requests, post-procedure concerns, image sharing, and chronic condition support (Accutane, eczema, psoriasis).
In 2025, DAWC added Nia, which now supports:
- Prescription refill intake
- Medication-advice triage intake
All patient messages — whether initiated by Nia or direct text — flow into a single unified inbox. The unified inbox now serves as the nursing team’s communication command center, replacing fragmented voicemail boxes with a centralized, structured, fully documented message queue.
This standardized intake dramatically reduces manual work, accelerates triage, and ensures every case begins with complete information.
| Before OhMD + Nia | After OhMD + Nia |
|---|---|
| Patient calls and navigates menu | Patient calls and navigates menu |
| Caller sent to voicemail | No voicemail – intake is automated |
| Nurse checks voicemail manually | Nia collects structured info (name, DOB, medication, pharmacy, preferred contact method) |
| Nurse transcribes message | Summary automatically appears in OhMD |
| Nurse searches Nextech manually | All patient info is pre-validated and ready |
| Multiple rounds of phone tag | Nurse replies via text or call – no tag |
| Repeated calls → repeated voicemails | Single complete thread per request |
| High variability, missing details | Consistent, complete intake every time |
| High nurse workload | Reduced workload and faster turnaround |
Hard ROI: Time and Cost Savings
This analysis focuses on measurable reductions in manual nursing time across refill and medication-advice workflows. DAWC evaluated the impact of Nia on its highest-volume clinical communication workflows, prescription refills and medication-advice triage, which previously relied on voicemail-based intake and manual documentation. These workflows were combined for analysis because both now follow the same automated intake structure and flow through a single unified inbox.
Time Savings Methodology
Prior to Nia, each nurse-line call required multiple manual steps:
- Checking and listening to voicemail messages
- Transcribing unstructured information
- Searching for the patient in the EHR
- Returning calls and managing phone tag
- Repeating documentation across systems
With Nia, these steps are eliminated. Each request arrives with structured, complete intake (name, DOB, medication, pharmacy, preferred contact method) and is immediately actionable within OhMD.
DAWC conservatively estimates that this automation saves ~2.5 minutes per clinical call by removing voicemail handling, transcription, chart lookup, and repeated follow-ups.
Annualized Time Recovered
Average Nurse Line Calls/WK
302Average Time Saved per Call
2.5 MinWeekly Nurse Time Recovered
12.6 hrsAnnualized Nurse Time Recovered
654 hrsThis represents the equivalent of ~31% of a full-time nurse’s annual capacity (based on a 2,080-hour FTE), redeployed without hiring additional staff.
Importantly, these gains do not come from nurses working faster, but from removing low-value administrative work entirely, allowing nurses to focus on clinical decision-making, patient education, image-based triage, and faster resolution of complex cases.
This graph is a comparison of nurse time to resolve refill and medication advice cases before and after AI intake. These represent the highest-volume clinical messaging categories in the practice and reflect verified reductions in manual labor time.
Soft ROI: Clinical and Operational Improvements
A. Nurse Satisfaction and Workflow Impact
Nurses rated OhMD an 8 out of 10 for workflow improvement.
Key feedback:
- “Faster — much faster.”
- “Communication with patients is so much easier now.”
- “Getting images has been a real improvement.”
- “OhMD just makes calls and communication a lot easier.”
Nurses also emphasized the value of having all OhMD messages appear in a single unified inbox, allowing them to work from one central queue instead of fragmented voicemail systems.
B. Patient Experience and Communication Access
Patients report a markedly improved communication experience following the implementation of OhMD and Nia. Key improvements include faster response times, fewer repeat calls, and clearer, more consistent instructions delivered in a format that patients prefer.
Text-based communication reduces friction for patients by eliminating phone tag and providing a written record they can easily reference. Feedback has been consistently positive, particularly around speed, clarity, and ease of use.
Representative patient feedback includes:
- “I got an answer the same day without playing phone tag.”
- “I liked that everything was in writing — I didn’t forget what they told me.”
Note: Patient quotes are anonymized and representative of common feedback received through OhMD message threads and post-interaction surveys.
C. Clinical Documentation and Risk Reduction
OhMD supports secure photos, written instructions, and complete message history, strengthening documentation and reducing clinical risk, especially in Accutane management, biologic monitoring, rash triage, and post-op care.
Conclusion
DAWC’s experience shows how AI-supported clinical communication can scale nursing teams without increasing headcount. By removing voicemail-based intake and standardizing how clinical requests enter the workflow, the practice shifted nursing time away from administrative cleanup and back to patient care.
The combination of structured intake, a unified inbox, and AI-supported routing allowed DAWC to reduce delays, improve documentation, and respond faster to medication and triage needs. Just as important, the system fit naturally into existing workflows and proved safe, reliable, and easy for staff to adopt.
As clinical message volume continues to rise across healthcare, this model offers a clear path forward. Practices can reduce nurse workload, improve patient access, and maintain clinical oversight by automating intake while keeping nurses firmly in control of decisions and communication.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does AI clinical communication differ from AI scheduling?
AI scheduling focuses on appointments. AI clinical communication handles medication questions, refills, triage, image review, and follow-up, which require structured intake and clinical review.
Is AI replacing nurses in this workflow?
No. AI collects structured information and routes messages. Nurses review, decide, and respond. The system removes administrative steps, not clinical judgment.
How long does it take to implement OhMD and Nia?
Most practices can deploy OhMD quickly, then layer Nia into specific workflows without disrupting existing operations.
Is this approach safe for clinical use?
Yes. Structured intake, secure messaging, complete documentation, and nurse review reduce risk compared to voicemail-based workflows.
Download the case study
Learn how Dermatology Associates of Western Connecticut reduced clinical message resolution time by 67% with OhMD + Nia.
