Case Study
Taking on admin and communication so UI Health can focus on patient care.
For over a decade Lighthouse Enterprises has handled patient scheduling, registration, insurance verification and helpdesk support for UI Health. What began as a small pilot is now a fully integrated contact center operation that streamlines patient access and takes administrative work off clinic teams across more than 85 clinics and departments.
At a glance
- Client
- UI Health
Large public hospital and clinic network based in Illinois, spanning a wide range of specialties. - Services Lighthouse provides
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- Outpatient scheduling and rescheduling
- Registration and insurance verification
- Helpdesk: enrollment, proxy access, password resets, record retrieval
- After-hours messaging and paging
- Systems and routing
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- Integrated with UI Health’s EMR (Epic)
- 85 custom call queues, over 40 of them medication-specific
- Escalated-concern handling for clinic staff
- Program facts
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- Supporting UI Health since August 2014
- Grew from a pilot to a fully integrated operation
- Support in English and Spanish
- 24/7 line stood up within days during COVID-19
Program growth
Growth since the pilot
The program has scaled with UI Health rather than ahead of it: each new clinic, specialty and patient population was added to the same operation.
4to130
Staffed agents
From the initial pilot to the program as reported in June 2026
2to85+
Clinics and departments supported
Scheduling, registration and communication across the UI Health system, as reported in June 2026
85
Custom call queues
Over 40 are medication-specific, routing patients to the right clinic team
Program figures as reported in June 2026.
01 The challenge
Administrative tasks were overshadowing patient care
As UI Health’s footprint and patient population grew, so did the complexity of patient communication and administrative coordination. Clinic teams were absorbing non-clinical work that pulled time away from care.
UI Health needed a trusted partner with a reliable, scalable way to handle patient communication across multiple clinics and specialties, so its teams could focus on delivering high-quality care. From the beginning it was also drawn to Lighthouse’s mission of creating meaningful employment for people who are blind or visually impaired, a shared commitment that shaped the partnership.
02 Our approach
Integrate with Epic, then grow in step with the clinics
Lighthouse grew its support structure incrementally alongside UI Health’s needs. Working with UI Health’s leadership and IT team, we integrated with its EMR system, Epic, so agents can message clinics on patients’ behalf and use direct communication lines to resolve problems faster.
- Helpdesk supportPatient enrollment, proxy access, password resets and medical history retrieval
- SchedulingOutpatient scheduling and rescheduling for office visits and procedures
- Insurance verificationCompleted through electronic provider portals
- After-hours coverageMessaging and paging services
To handle the many types of calls, we built customized routing with 85 queues, over 40 of them medication-specific, so a first-time appointment, a specialty referral, a telehealth registration or an urgent triage need each reaches the right clinic team. Agents also take escalated concerns to reduce the burden on clinic staff.
A 24/7 call center within days of the pandemic
When COVID-19 hit, Lighthouse launched a round-the-clock line for patients and employees, tracked staff illness and helped the hospital navigate the crisis without compromising care.
03 Results
Major growth through outsourced admin and registration
What started as four agents supporting two clinics had grown to 130 agents and more than 85 clinics and departments as reported in June 2026, in both English and Spanish. Playing a critical role in scheduling, registration, insurance verification, referrals and clinical communication, the partnership has allowed UI Health to:
- Improve operational efficiencyClinics save time and resources by outsourcing scheduling, registration and call center services
- Open more clinicsAs UI Health adds locations, Lighthouse scales with it, supporting new specialties and patient populations
- Enhance EMR accessUI Health adapted its EMR to support call center agents who are blind or visually impaired
Overall, UI Health has saved money and time by outsourcing call center staffing to Lighthouse Enterprises, and its teams can focus more on patient care.
A shared mission
Inclusive employment and operational excellence, together
UI Health shares Lighthouse’s commitment to inclusion. Although it was not required, UI Health created an adaptive enhancement of its EMR for blind and visually impaired agents and formed a team to support them. The result is a scalable operation with improved patient access and strong operating performance.
Partnership timeline
From a small pilot to an integrated patient access operation
How the program grew alongside UI Health, one clinic and one need at a time.
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Aug 2014
A small pilot begins
Lighthouse starts taking non-clinical calls off UI Health’s clinic teams.
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As it grew
Built into UI Health’s systems
Integration with Epic lets agents message clinics on patients’ behalf and resolve problems through direct lines.
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COVID-19
A 24/7 line within days
When the pandemic hit, Lighthouse stood up round-the-clock support for patients and employees, including staff illness tracking.
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Ongoing
Scaling with every new clinic
New clinics, specialties and patient populations join the same operation, in English and Spanish.
Your operation
Managing patient access across dozens of clinics?
Tell us about your scheduling, registration and after-hours volumes. We will walk through how a program like UI Health’s was staffed and integrated, and whether the same model fits your system.