Case Study: Detroit Medical Center achieves reduced readmissions and higher patient satisfaction with Optum's RelayCare solution

Call Center Outreach Helps Improve Readmission Rates, Patient Satisfaction

Detroit Medical Center (DMC), a nine‑hospital, 2,000‑bed urban health system, needed to strengthen patient outreach to improve ED follow‑up, post‑discharge satisfaction and reduce preventable readmissions while managing care for 15,000 ACO patients. To address these challenges, DMC deployed Optum’s RelayCare contact‑center solution to support physician referrals, appointment scheduling, nurse triage, care management and outreach workflows.

Optum implemented RelayCare with skill‑based routing, automated ACO and CHF follow‑up calls, web‑based appointment requests and data integrations into DMC’s CRM, enabling the call center to handle about 65,000 incoming calls per month and reach all 15,000 ACO patients for scheduling verification. The deployment freed clinical staff for care improvements, supported a roughly 400% growth in web activity, reduced mailing costs via targeted messaging, and delivered more consistent ACO scheduling and closed‑loop feedback to nurses—improving patient satisfaction and resource utilization under Optum’s solution.

Detroit Medical Center

Kathy Ingalls-Hefni

Corporate Director