Scaling oncology patient support: How New York Cancer and Blood Specialists transformed customer experience with AWS and Pronetx, now part of Caylent

As one of the United States’ leading oncology and hematology providers, the goal of New York Cancer and Blood Specialists (NYCBS) is to provide comprehensive and compassionate care to patients. The organization handles more than 250,000 patient calls every year across over 100 specialized queues and wanted to optimize its manual call handling process.

This post details how NYCBS partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and AWS partner Pronetx (now part of Caylent) to migrate to Amazon Connect Customer, the AWS cloud contact center service. The migration delivered a 54 percent improvement in patient enrollment and transformed the way NYCBS connects with the patients who need them most.

Solution overview

NYCBS chose to migrate to a dedicated Amazon Connect Customer instance with the help of Pronetx, an AWS partner specializing in Amazon Connect Customer. The 13-week engagement covered three phases: discovery and foundation (2 weeks), build and implementation (8 weeks), and acceptance testing and go-live (3 weeks).

This solution uses Amazon Connect Customer as the core contact center service. At the heart of the customer experience infrastructure lies the call routing and patient communication logic. Within this infrastructure, several key components work together to deliver HIPAA-compliant patient care.

Architecture

The architecture has three main layers, as shown in the following diagram. Each layer is designed to handle a specific aspect of the customer experience operations of NYCBS while maintaining HIPAA compliance throughout.

Figure 1: NYCBS customer experience solution architecture on Amazon Connect, showing the CTR management microservice, core contact center services, and call recording and AI/ML pipeline layers, integrated with shared AWS services and external systems.

CTR management microservice

This layer handles contact trace record (CTR) processing through Amazon API Gateway as the entry point. The microservice uses AWS Lambda functions (Get Disposition Code and Update CTRs) to retrieve and process call disposition codes, with Amazon DynamoDB storing disposition code data for quick retrieval.

Core contact center services

The central Amazon Connect Customer instance manages incoming agent flows and call routing across more than 100 specialized queues. AWS Secrets Manager securely stores credentials and sensitive configuration. Amazon Polly provides text-to-speech capabilities for automated voice responses. Configuration is managed through DynamoDB configuration tables and configuration Lambda functions, with IVR Integration Lambda functions handling IVR workflows.

Call recording and AI/ML pipeline

Call recordings and artifacts are stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). A dedicated Lambda function handles voicemail processing, with Amazon Transcribe converting voicemails to text. A subsequent Lambda function then creates cases from transcribed voicemails. AI capabilities are powered by Amazon Lex for conversational chatbots and other AWS AI services for intelligent automation, with OMS Lookup providing Order Management System integration.

Shared services and integrations

The architecture integrates with external systems including Microsoft Intune ID for identity management and the on-premises systems of NYCBS. Shared AWS services provide the foundation:

AWS CloudFormation templates automate infrastructure as code (IaC) deployment.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) manages identity and access controls.
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) encrypts sensitive data.
Amazon CloudWatch handles monitoring and logging.
Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) provides notification services for alerts.

Together, these components helped NYCBS reduce patient enrollment time by 54 percent. The reduction came through automated multi-language routing in English, Spanish, Russian, and Mandarin. NYCBS also added specialty-based queue prioritization for urgent cases and real-time agent monitoring across the more than 250,000 annual patient calls. The implementation maintains HIPAA compliance through role-based access controls, encryption with AWS KMS, and secure credential storage.

Technical highlights

A key engineering decision was moving from a shared multi-tenant environment to a dedicated Amazon Connect Customer instance. This architectural shift helped NYCBS implement several capabilities that had previously been unavailable:

Multi-language routing (English, Spanish, Russian, and Mandarin) through language-detection flows.
Specialty-based queue prioritization for urgent oncology cases.
After-hours coverage logic with automated callback options.
HIPAA-compliant call recording with role-based access controls.
Real-time agent monitoring and performance dashboards.

Key takeaways

A dedicated Amazon Connect Customer instance gives healthcare organizations the flexibility, security, and native feature access that multi-tenant environments can’t match, including the following:

Multi-language, specialty-based routing (English, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin) directly improved patient access to the right care team.
Migrating from manual workflows to automated IaC-driven continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) deployment removed third-party management fees and reduced operational costs.
HIPAA compliance was maintained throughout using AWS KMS encryption, role-based access controls, and AWS Secrets Manager for credential storage.
A 54 percent improvement in patient enrollment shows that modernizing contact center operations delivers measurable clinical and business outcomes.

Results

Within the 13-week implementation window, NYCBS achieved a 54 percent improvement in patient enrollment, which reflects not only operational efficiency, but also improved access to care. The organization removed third-party management fees through direct AWS consumption, reducing operational costs. NYCBS gained real-time visibility into call quality through Operata and the conversational analytics capabilities of Amazon Connect Customer. In addition, the team established a rapid CI/CD pipeline that deploys new features safely and quickly without disrupting patient services.

Conclusion

If your healthcare organization manages complex, high-volume contact center operations, you can apply what NYCBS achieved. A dedicated Amazon Connect Customer instance provides the flexibility, security, and native feature access that healthcare-specific workflows demand. We recommend the following next steps to get started:

Start with a no-cost trial: Create an Amazon Connect Customer instance and explore its capabilities at no cost for your first 12 months.
Download the reference architecture: Access the AWS reference architecture for healthcare customer experience centers to plan your migration.
Schedule a consultation: Connect with an AWS healthcare specialist or engage an AWS Partner such as Pronetx, now part of Caylent, to scope your engagement.
Explore AWS for Healthcare: Review HIPAA-eligible services, compliance guides, and customer success stories tailored for healthcare organizations.

Learn more

AWS Partner spotlight

Pronetx, now part of Caylent, an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner, specializes in Amazon Connect. Pronetx helps organizations design, migrate, and operate customer engagement systems on AWS, with a focus on resilience and AI-driven customer experience.

Contact Pronetx | Partner Overview | AWS Marketplace

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