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As Elite DNA grew across 40+ locations, patient demand grew right along with it. Rather than let hold times stretch, the practice gave its admissions team the capacity to answer every caller instantly — and the room to keep growing.
The Results at a Glance
After deploying Sarah, mdhub's AI Admissions Coordinator, here's what changed for patients, the team, and the bottom line.
Growing Faster Than the Phones
Elite DNA is one of the fastest-growing mental health providers in the Southeast — delivering psychiatry, therapy, and integrated care across more than 40 locations in Florida, Virginia, and Alabama. It has built its reputation on pairing high clinical standards with a willingness to innovate, all in service of one mission: make quality mental healthcare accessible throughout the communities it serves. As that mission scaled, so did the number of people reaching out for the first time.
The admissions team was working hard — the challenge was simply that demand was growing faster than any phone line could keep up with. At peak hours, more patients were calling than even a great team could answer at once. And Elite DNA knew how much that first moment of contact matters: when someone reaches out for mental health support, they wanted that person met right away and guided with care, no matter how many called at the same time.
Each call was also its own puzzle. A coordinator had to understand a patient's clinical needs, verify insurance, match the patient to a provider by credentialing and availability, and handle referrals arriving by phone, email, and fax — often all at once.
A Generic Fix for a Specialized Problem
Elite DNA had already tried a more conventional fix — a traditional call-center approach. Despite real investment in training and process, it couldn't keep up with the nuance of behavioral health intake: generalist agents simply weren't equipped for the clinical and insurance complexity each call carried. The capacity gap stayed open.
The conventional way to keep up would be to keep scaling the team in step with demand — but hiring and training enough people fast enough, for work this specialized, is slow and expensive. Elite DNA wanted a better answer: a way to add real capacity that could handle the complexity of behavioral health intake, feel human to every patient, and protect the patient-first experience the team had spent years building.
Meet Sarah, the AI Admissions Coordinator
mdhub deployed Sarah directly into Elite DNA's intake workflow — trained on Elite DNA's own SOPs, credentialing rules, provider preferences, and payer nuances, so she could handle end-to-end intake with the precision of a seasoned coordinator. mdhub built and managed the rollout end to end, so the practice gained capacity without adding work for its own team.
Sarah — AI Admissions Coordinator
The front door that never closesSarah works 24/7, handles unlimited simultaneous calls with zero wait time, and escalates to human staff the moment a patient asks for a live agent or a case falls outside her defined parameters. Rather than replacing the patient-experience team, she takes on the high-volume, first-contact work. With Sarah handling first contact, Elite DNA now:
- Answers 100% of patient inquiries — by phone or web, the moment they arrive, with no hold time
- Schedules well over 2,000 appointments a month, with web-initiated inquiries converting 50% more often
- Handles intake end to end on most calls — over 40% fewer now need a staff member to step in, so the team's time goes to the conversations that need a human
- Adds around 20 coordinators' worth of intake capacity, available instantly and around the clock — at roughly half the cost of staffing it — giving Elite DNA room to keep growing
That reception wasn't a given. Bree came to the project from a marketing and customer-experience background, and she was candid about her initial skepticism — she worried an AI solution would feel robotic and chip away at the patient-first brand the team had built.
"I didn't want it to be robotic in nature. But I've been pleasantly surprised at all of the changes in growth from the AI tool that we've been able to put in place, and the success we've seen."
— Bree Rondina, Chief Performance Officer, Elite DNA Behavioral Health
Beyond Intake: Lighter Documentation with Emma
Emma — AI Clinical Assistant
A head start on every noteWith the front door working, Elite DNA began extending mdhub further into the clinic. Emma helps providers complete their documentation faster, turning a time-consuming task into a lighter one. Adoption is still growing — clinicians are trained and given the tool, and they choose when to lean on it. Around half the clinical team uses Emma today, and the early signal is encouraging: Elite DNA reports passing more internal audits than ever.
It's an honest snapshot of a rollout in motion — and a preview of what a fully connected clinic looks like, where the context Sarah captures at intake flows into the record so documentation starts with a head start rather than a blank page.
The Team Was Elevated, Not Displaced
Change management was a deliberate priority from day one. Coordinators were told plainly that AI was being brought in to expand their capacity, not to replace them — and that promise was kept. Reps no longer field routine first-contact calls under time pressure; they take the complex escalations, have deeper conversations, and do higher-value work. Sarah also surfaced call and scheduling insights Elite DNA simply didn't have before — now informing marketing and operations decisions.
And the people who matter most feel it first. When someone works up the courage to reach out, they're met right away — no queue, no voicemail — and guided toward the right provider in a single conversation. A faster, calmer first contact means more people actually begin the care they reached out for.
"AI for us has been an additive to the organization. It didn't change who we are as an entity or our mission. It just enabled us to serve the community more largely, and at the growth rate that we continue to press on ourselves — without breaking teams, structures, or our patient experience."
— Bree Rondina, Chief Performance Officer, Elite DNA Behavioral HealthWhy It Worked
Built for behavioral health complexity. Sarah was trained on Elite DNA's own SOPs, credentialing logic, payer mix, and triage pathways — not a generic call script.
Process first, then AI. Elite DNA redesigned its intake workflows before deploying Sarah, building on a solid foundation rather than papering over a broken one.
Transparent change management. The team was brought along with clear context on what Sarah would and wouldn't handle — capacity, not replacement — which is why adoption went smoothly.
Humans always in reach. Sarah escalates to live staff on request or for any edge case, so the patient-first experience stays intact.
Safe and compliant by design. The deployment is HIPAA-compliant with a BAA in place, conversations are monitored for quality, and a human is always a step away — so trust and the patient-first experience hold as volume grows.
Built for the Next Stage of Growth
With intake handled, Elite DNA's roadmap keeps expanding: more of Sarah's capabilities — including outbound and concierge workflows — and deeper use of the analytics layer that now shapes how the organization grows. The throughline stays the same: technology in service to people, helping a mission-driven team reach more patients without losing what makes their care human.
Results reflect Elite DNA Behavioral Health's experience with mdhub's AI Admissions Coordinator and may vary by practice. Figures and quotes are shared with Elite DNA's permission. HIPAA-compliant · BAA included. mdhub — better operations, elevated care.
