Patient engagement · Patient access voice AI
Keona Health
Keona Health makes CareDesk, call-center and nurse triage software with Schmitt-Thompson protocols, scheduling, and an AI agent named Kara that answers routine patient calls.
Strong fit
- Health systems and specialty groups that run a central nurse triage line
- Orthopedic and multi-site groups that want call scripts, triage, and scheduling in one desk
- Call centers going through an EHR change that need scheduling to stay stable
Weak fit
- Small practices without a dedicated phone team
- Buyers who want an AI agent priced per call with no staff desktop
- Buyers who need a published price list
Bottom line
Keona Health sells CareDesk, call-center and nurse triage software for health systems and specialty groups. Nurses work from Schmitt-Thompson triage protocols inside it, and its Kara AI agent answers routine calls around the clock. It fits organizations that run a central phone team and want triage, scheduling, and AI call answering in one system.
Score breakdown
Weights: Outcomes 35% · Product 30% · Implementation 20% · Pricing clarity 15%.
Keona Health is based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Oakkar Oakkar co-founded it in 2010 while earning a master's degree in clinical informatics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, at the invitation of UNC professor Javed Mostafa, who became its chair. Its first product let students at UNC's Campus Health Services describe symptoms online through an interview built on Schmitt-Thompson triage protocols, and nurses there handled each case five times faster. Today its CareDesk product puts nurse triage, guidance for non-clinical agents, and scheduling in one desk. Kara answers repetitive calls on its own, Engage lets patients book online, and Elevate guides staff through complex calls.
Keona connects CareDesk to Epic, Cerner, athenahealth, NextGen, eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, and Greenway, and to phone systems including Avaya and RingCentral. At Intermountain Healthcare, a centralized team of 40 triage nurses has used CareDesk since 2022, and the Avaya link finds the caller's record automatically for more than half of calls. EmergeOrtho, North Carolina's largest physician-owned orthopedic practice, went from handling 11,000 to 25,000 calls without adding phone staff during a move from NextGen to athenahealth. In 2023 Keona raised a $7 million Series A-1 led by Riverside Acceleration Capital.
Compare Hyro when a health system wants AI agents across phone, web, and text, Assort Health when a specialty group wants an AI agent to resolve most calls, PatientPrism when the main need is call analytics for coaching, Hello Patient when a smaller outpatient group wants a managed service, and Parakeet Health when a dermatology group wants pay-for-performance pricing.
Competitor landscape
| Vendor | Overall | Ease of implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Assort Health | 8.2 | 7.6 |
| Hyro | 7.9 | 6.4 |
| PatientPrism | 7.7 | 7.1 |
| Keona Health | 7.4 | 7.7 |
| Hello Patient | 7.2 | 8.4 |
| Parakeet Health | 6.9 | 7.0 |
Pricing
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | Custom quote from Keona Health. |
| What usually drives cost | Number of agent and nurse seats, which modules are used (triage, scheduling, Kara AI calls, online booking), and EHR and phone integrations. |
| What to ask in diligence | The price per seat and per AI-handled call, what integrations cost, and price protection for later years. |
| Published pricing | No public list price. |
Prerequisites for purchase
| Need | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What you need to get Keona Health to function | |
| Triage nurse lead | Protocols need a clinical owner. |
| EHR integration for scheduling and notes | Triage notes should land in the chart. |
| Phone system connection | Caller lookup depends on it. |
| Scheduling rules by provider | Agents and Kara book from these. |
| Training plan for new agents | Guided scripts work only if staff use them. |
| What will maximize your value | |
| Turn on caller lookup first | Saves time on every call. |
| Add Kara for repetitive calls after triage is stable | Keeps nurses on clinical calls. |
| Track first-call resolution monthly | Shows whether callbacks drop. |
| Deal-breakers | |
| No clinical owner for triage | |
| No phone system integration | |
| Wants a pure AI agent only | |
Value creation time frame
| # | Stage | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contract and integration setup | 4-8 weeks |
| 2 | Triage and scheduling live | 2-3 months |
| 3 | Kara and online booking | 3-6 months |
Leadership
Methodology
| Weight | Factor | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 35% | Customer outcomes | Whether buyers get measurable operational or clinical-workflow results after go-live |
| 30% | Product | Capability depth, reliability, and fit for the job the category buys |
| 20% | Implementation | How hard it is to stand up, integrate, train, and stabilize |
| 15% | Pricing clarity | Whether a buyer can model total cost without a mystery quote |
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Highly recommend | Strong outcomes and product with manageable caveats |
| Recommend | Solid fit for the right buyer; know the tradeoffs |
| Conditional | Only with a specific use case or heavy caveats |
| Not recommended | Avoid for most buyers in this category |
Read our full methodology for how we weight scores and assign recommend labels.