Healthcare workflow automation
Give your front office its week back. Leave every clinical call alone.
Healthcare automation pays off fastest in the back office: logging referrals, sorting shared inboxes and chasing what is outstanding, so nothing depends on who remembered to copy whom. I build it inside the Google Workspace your practice already owns. It never talks to patients and never makes a clinical decision.
By Jimmy Hackett, founder of Playground Giants · Updated September 27, 2026
Back office only. Never patients, never clinical decisions.
Safe to automate
- Logging a referral in one step instead of by hand
- Sorting intake and records inboxes so mail reaches the right person
- A weekly list of what is outstanding and who to chase
- Cleaning up provider names so reports stop being quietly wrong
Off the table
- Anything patient-facing, in any channel
- Anything clinical: no triage, no prioritizing by medical urgency
- Any decision a clinician is accountable for
- Moving patient information anywhere it was not already held
Referral management without new referral management software
Most practices do not need another vendor to stop referrals slipping. They need the mail they already get to land in one log, and a list of what nobody has chased yet.
Inbox sorting in your own Workspace
Copies of mail from your intake and records inboxes land in one account you own. Referrals, records requests and surgery mail are logged as they arrive, one row per email thread.
Routing to the right person
Once your team writes down who handles what, each kind of message goes to that person automatically, so nothing depends on remembering to copy someone.
Follow-ups that do not rely on memory
Referrals with no appointment get a nudge, and a sender who keeps asking is escalated to a person.
Reads everything, sends nothing until you say so
New steps run in shadow mode first, writing to a copy of your log. They act for real only after your team approves them.
Patient intake software that works with your EHR, not around it
Your EHR is usually fine. The cost is in the gaps around it, where a person retypes what the EHR already knows.
Read from the EHR, never write to it
Where your EHR vendor offers a standard API such as FHIR, a later phase can read new patients so they appear on the log without being typed twice. It is scoped only after the earlier phases have earned it.
Built inside agreements you already hold
I read your existing agreements before designing anything. Often the first phase fits inside a business associate agreement you already have, which removes the slowest step from the project.
A website that feeds the same log
If your site needs rebuilding, new-patient inquiries can land in the same place as your referrals, instead of in another inbox.
Everything in the practice’s name
The accounts, the log and the scripts are yours. If you replace me, your team keeps operating.
Running today
A specialist physician practice
Phase one has run unattended in the practice's own Google Workspace since September 22, 2026, logging referrals, records requests and surgery mail as they arrive. It uses no AI: plain rules the practice can read, with no calls to any outside service. Phase two, the follow-ups, was installed in shadow mode on September 25, 2026 and writes only to copies of the practice's log until they approve it.
The practice is not named, and there are no outcome numbers yet because nothing has been measured. The case study shows what the audit found and why the work was ordered the way it was.
Read the full case studyHow it starts
With a two week Workflow Audit. I map how referrals and mail move through your practice today, mark what is safe to automate and what has to stay with a person, check it against the agreements you already hold, and price the build in phases. It is a $2,500 fixed fee, credited in full if you build within ninety days, and the plan is yours either way.
The stages after that are on the packages page.
Questions practices ask
What is healthcare workflow automation?
Taking the repetitive work between your systems off your staff: logging referrals, sorting shared inboxes, chasing what is outstanding, and keeping one list everyone can see. It is back-office work only. It does not talk to patients and it does not make clinical decisions.
Does it use AI?
Only where it helps, and never for a clinical call. Often the first phase needs none: plain rules the practice can read are enough to stop referrals slipping. Where a later phase adds a model, its only job is to pull facts out of an email, and a person or a written rule decides what happens next.
Is it HIPAA compliant?
It is built to work inside the agreements you already hold. Before anything is designed, I read them. Often the first phase can run inside a platform your practice already has a business associate agreement with, such as its Google Workspace, so patient information does not move anywhere new. I sign a business associate agreement with the practice before touching real mail.
Will it send anything without our say-so?
No. New steps start in shadow mode: the system writes what it would do into a copy of your log, and your team compares it with what actually happened. It only starts acting for real when you approve it.
Do we have to buy referral management software or patient intake software?
Usually not. The system is built on accounts you already own, and the log is a sheet in your own Workspace. If your EHR vendor offers an API, a later phase can read new patients from it so nothing is typed twice. That is scoped once the earlier phases have proved themselves.
What is off the table?
Anything patient-facing, anything clinical, any decision a clinician is professionally accountable for, and moving patient information anywhere it was not already held.
What does it cost to start?
Nearly every engagement starts with the Workflow Audit: two weeks, a $2,500 fixed fee, and a written plan that is yours either way. If you go ahead with a build within ninety days, the full fee comes off the build price.
Find out what your front office could hand off.
Fifteen minutes is enough for me to tell you whether there is anything worth building. If there is not, I will say so.