Rothman Orthopaedics is the nation’s largest private orthopedic practice delivering comprehensive musculoskeletal care across 30+ locations. Their integrated model spans non-operative and surgical care, physical therapy, diagnostics, and more, supporting millions of patient encounters each year.
The Challenge
Increased Volume Exposed a Critical Bottleneck in Patient Flow
After the pandemic, Rothman Orthopaedics faced a familiar healthcare reality: rising patient volumes, increasing operating costs, and declining payor reimbursement. Leadership was tasked with reducing overhead while improving speed and accuracy across operations.
Rothman quickly identified document intake as a critical barrier to efficiently move patients through their care journeys. Rothman receives up to 6,000 inbound faxes on any given day from outside facilities. Backlogs for routine, non-time-sensitive processing stretched from 4–7 days, delaying scheduling readiness, contributing to missing information at the time of visits, and increasing patient drop-off, creating operational strain across the organization.
“Before Tennr, the team was extremely vulnerable to swings in volume,” said Bryant Stetz, Chief Information Officer at Rothman Orthopaedics. “If one person was out for a day, we’d be catching up for multiple days.”
Rothman evaluated solutions against three core criteria: cost, accuracy, and long-term stability. Understanding that automation only creates value if it can be trusted to move patients forward without introducing new delays or rework, Rothman sought a partner willing to commit to 95%+ accuracy while delivering sustainable operational efficiency.
Automating Workflows
Tennr Autopilot Puts Rothman's Patient Flow on Rails
Tennr met Rothman’s requirements where previous solutions fell short. Together, the teams implemented a disciplined Quality Assurance (QA) framework, benchmarking human performance against clearly defined QA standards within the technology.
The results were immediate.
Before Tennr, 15-minute appointments could stretch beyond an hour, searching for and processing documentation at the time of the appointment. Patients would arrive expecting to review MRI results only to learn the report was missing, resulting in rescheduled visits, frustrated patients, and lost capacity.
“Autopilot has allowed us to be more efficient,” said Bryant Stetz. “We’re now able to see more patients, decrease their wait times to see a physician, and reduce the amount of time they spend in our clinics, making them much more satisfied."
The Results
Life with Tennr
In practice, outcomes exceeded expectations.
Within one month of enabling Autopilot:
- Median document review time reduced from more than two minutes to just 23 seconds.
- Document processing throughput per staff nearly tripled, and backlogs that once stretched up to a week were eliminated, with all documents processed within 24 hours of receipt.
- Daily manual validation work fell by nearly 40%, dropping from 34 hours to 21 hours per day.
- Average monthly processing volume increased by 51%, absorbing growth without expanding staffing costs or increasing overhead.
“Tennr has enabled us to evaluate efficiencies across the business that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.”
– Michael Loke, VP of Patient Access and Support Operations
By stabilizing the front end of the patient journey, Rothman improved care progression and cost control, all while strengthening the patient experience. Intake became a reliable engine that moved patients predictably through scheduling, authorization, and visit readiness.
Front-line staff with little to no technical background quickly learned and managed workflows within Tennr independently of constant IT and vendor support. “I think the best thing about Tennr is how supported I feel in my role” said Amber Martino, Patient Access Quality Supervisor at Rothman Orthopaedics.
As Rothman continues to evolve its operations, Tennr remains a trusted partner in supporting ongoing optimization of the patient journey that keeps pace with the growing demand.