Intake agent helps City of Hope extend cancer care beyond the clinic.

For patients facing a cancer diagnosis, getting the right care starts with finding the right support. At City of Hope, that means understanding each patient's unique needs, making the intake process as seamless as possible, and helping them move toward treatment quickly.

Previously, City of Hope's Southern California patient access team primarily supported prospective patients over the phone. The organization’s offices in other markets, including Atlanta, Phoenix, and Chicago, offered chat, but those interactions relied on available call center support during daytime business hours.

City of Hope wanted to give patients another way to connect with the organization without pulling staff away from phone support or requiring additional resources to manage a new channel. The need was especially clear after hours and on weekends, when patients continued to reach out through voicemails.

“Knowing how busy life can be, we recognized that patients seeking cancer and diabetes care need flexible, convenient ways to access our services,” said Keerthi Subbarao, Vice President of Southern California Patient Access at City of Hope.

The organization wanted to make it easier for patients to take the first steps toward care whenever they were ready, whether throughout the week, at night, or over the weekend.

Because City of Hope already used Salesforce to support its patient intake processes, implementing an agent was a natural extension of its existing technology. The intake agent provides new patients with an automated, chat-based intake experience. Instead of requiring patients to call during business hours, the agent gives them another way to safely share the information needed to get started when they’re available.

The experience is designed around what each patient needs to move forward. The agent collects preliminary demographic and registration information and provides instructions to help them complete tasks such as uploading an insurance card. Since implementation, City of Hope has continued to refine the agent's prompts, instructions, and language to make interactions clearer and more compassionate.

“It would not be a good patient experience to ask them the same 100 questions,” said Saima Asad, Director of Business Systems at City of Hope. “We’re trying to keep it to precisely what is needed for them to move forward."

By automating the initial information-gathering process, Agentforce helps City of Hope extend access to patients without requiring staff to manage every chat interaction manually.

Patient access representatives also need the context to help patients take the next step without making them repeat what they've already shared. Because the agent connects with City of Hope’s Salesforce environment, information gathered during the chat flows directly into the platform. Patient responses are saved as records and a conversation summary gives representatives a clear view of what the patient has already input.

“It was very seamless and easy for us to implement with Agentforce and plug it into our existing intake process, which runs through Salesforce,” said Asad.

City of Hope also uses Salesforce Marketing Cloud to nurture patient relationships through automated journeys, welcome kits, and follow-up communications. When appointments are created or patient information enters Salesforce, it triggers relevant patient communications in Marketing Cloud, helping them stay informed and continue moving toward care. Tableau then provides analytic capabilities to help City of Hope understand performance across its operations.

By building on its existing Salesforce investment, City of Hope can extend support to another channel, reduce reliance on manual chat interactions, and give patient access representatives the information they need to continue the conversation.

After initial intake with the agent, a member of the patient access team can contact the patient to continue the process, including scheduling an appointment. If additional information is needed, reps can follow up directly rather than asking the patient to start over.

This connected approach reduces repetitive information gathering and helps staff spend less time retracing steps or tracking down information. It also gives patients a more personal experience when they connect with a representative for the first time, particularly during an already difficult time.

Going forward, the organization plans to implement Agent Script and extend Agentforce further into the intake journey, including appointment scheduling.

For City of Hope, implementing AI was never just about automating a process. The patient experience had to remain at the center of every decision.

During the initial rollout, City of Hope's patient access, operations, and Salesforce teams worked closely together, meeting multiple times a day and making adjustments based on what they observed. This close collaboration helped them refine the agent's instructions, improve guidance for patients with different levels of technical experience, and make its responses more reassuring.

The blended team also focused on making sure patients weren't burdened with unnecessary questions or exposed to internal process issues. Now, when the agent encounters a situation that requires additional support, it directs the patient to the contact center or arranges for the patient access team to follow up.

For City of Hope, speed to care isn't just a metric. It's about helping patients feel supported from the moment they reach out, making it easier to take the first steps toward treatment, and ensuring they don't have to navigate an uncertain time alone. With Agentforce, the organization can create more ways for patients to connect with care while keeping compassion at the heart of every interaction.