Anmol Oberoi is Co-founder & CEO of Emitrr, providing an AI employee that works 24/7 for your business.
The healthcare industry is facing its greatest challenge yet: a severe shortage of staff. According to WHO’s “Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health” report, there will be a staffing shortage of over 11 million healthcare workers by 2030. Although this shortage is of patient-facing roles, such as doctors and nurses, the hard truth is that a large part of the problem is regarding administrative staff and front-desk workers, who are the first touch point for patients.
Many clinics and medical practices see over 50% turnover in administrative staff and clinicians over a two-year period. Unlike technology companies, where they have dedicated staff for various roles, in a healthcare practice, administrative staff turnover impact goes beyond HR—it impacts the patient experience, overall operational efficiency and, ultimately, the practice’s revenue.
As the CEO and founder of Emitrr, an AI front desk used by over 1,000 healthcare practices, I’ve witnessed firsthand how administrative challenges are impacting efficiency in healthcare. Every day, we see admin staff stretched thin, patient calls going unanswered and scheduling errors costing practices significant revenue loss.
In this article, I share how AI can meaningfully address the healthcare staffing crisis not by replacing people but by helping clinics do more with the teams they already have.
The Hidden Bottleneck At The Front Desk
As mentioned above, when front-desk staff constantly churn, healthcare operations suffer. And the impact trickles down to every part of the practice workflow. Let’s take a look at some examples:
• Missed phone calls lead to lost revenue opportunities.
• A lack of documentation due to staff shortages results in incomplete records for the providers.
• Inconsistent post-treatment follow-up affects patient outcomes.
• Scheduling breakdowns mean that patients often can’t book appointments, even when doctors have availability.
And the issue gets worse because front-desk staff are expected to manage multiple systems, from electronic medical records (EMRs) to insurance portals and third-party scheduling tools. Instead of focusing on patient needs, they’re buried under repetitive, time-consuming tasks.
The Turnover Problem And Why AI-Empowered Humans Can Be The Key
From what I’ve seen, healthcare practices have tried everything—higher pay, better training and multilayer management—but the turnover persists. The reality is that front-desk jobs are stressful, repetitive and difficult to scale without technology.
The problem is two-fold:
• A lack of technology that meets the practice’s needs.
• A lack of understanding of technology at a practitioner level, leading to manual work for front-desk staff.
Adding more people doesn’t always solve the underlying problem. The operational burden keeps increasing as the number of patients increases because now more patients want faster access to care and faster communication. Without rethinking the model, clinics have remained stuck in the same loop for decades: hire, train, lose staff and hire again.
In many industries, AI is being used to reduce the dependency on people, such as AI sales development representatives, AI copywriters in marketing and AI coders in tech. But healthcare is different. Trying to replace staff in healthcare is a recipe for disaster because it’s already starved for staff.
Attempting to fully automate or eliminate roles would create more problems, not fewer. Instead, AI’s role in healthcare is to augment humans, filling the operational gaps caused by staff turnover and administrative overload.
Real-Life Examples
Some companies are already addressing this gap. For example, Emitrr is helping clinics handle front-desk loads through AI-powered agents that can answer phones, schedule and reschedule appointments, verify insurance and follow up with patients. These agents can reduce pressure on staff and make communication with patients faster and more consistent.
Similarly, platforms like Hippocratic AI and Assort Health are building AI agents for care coordination and post-care follow-ups to check on a patient’s condition. Although different companies target various stages of the care journey, whether pre-care or post-care, their shared goal remains the same.
The Road Ahead
AI won’t and can’t solve the healthcare front-desk staffing problem overnight, but it represents one path forward. Training and hiring take years. But AI can help right now by reducing the burden on the people already doing the work.
The next decade of healthcare won’t be defined by AI replacing humans. It will be defined by AI working alongside humans, helping the industry navigate one of its biggest crises.
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