The Future of Scheduling in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

The Future of Scheduling in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

From PAC's All Access Pass Podcast by Elizabeth Woodcock

December 15, 2025 · 36 min · Season 1 · Episode 37

About this episode

This episode explores how AI is transforming scheduling in healthcare and the evolving role of human schedulers.

AI may automate the “what” of scheduling, but the “why” still belongs to humans. In this episode of All Access Pass, host Elizabeth Woodcock sits down with Aramis Cherrington , Vice President of Patient Access at RWJBarnabas Health to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the work of access centers, shifting them from reactive call hubs to predictive, omni-channel orchestrators of the patient journey. They discuss why AI will likely handle most routine transactions while elevating human schedulers into empathetic care navigators, what it means to design access around the patient rather than the process, and how traditional metrics like abandonment rate and average speed of answer fall short of capturing true accessibility. In this episode, we cover AI’s impact on scheduler roles, the rise of omnichannel digital front doors, new outcome- and experience-based access metrics, and why investing equally in people and platforms is essential to delivering frictionless, timely, connected care.

People in this episode

Host: Elizabeth Woodcock

Guest: Aramis Cherrington

Topics covered

  • artificial intelligence
  • scheduling
  • patient access
  • healthcare technology
  • omnichannel care
  • human interaction in healthcare

Keywords

  • AI scheduling
  • patient journey
  • access centers
  • care navigators
  • digital front doors
  • access metrics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: RWJBarnabas Health

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