Tennr has announced that Dr. William H. Morris, former executive at Cleveland Clinic and Google, has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer. Tennr focuses on helping health systems intelligently triage and route patient orders and referrals to ensure individuals receive the right care at the right time and in the right setting.
Across the United States, demand for specialty care continues to exceed supply. Each year, approximately one in three patients is referred to a specialist, but only around 35 percent of those patients are actually seen. Health systems face a critical challenge in determining which patients require immediate specialist attention and which could be managed in other care settings. This often results in patients waiting months for appointments for conditions that could be addressed more quickly through virtual care or routine follow-ups. At the same time, patients with serious conditions may face delays because high-acuity cases are lost in the backlog.
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For specialty providers, the accumulation of referrals creates inefficiencies and strain. Manual workflows leave clinicians managing queues instead of spending time with patients, while organizations struggle to determine whether incoming demand is appropriate. Dr. Morris has observed these issues from multiple perspectives throughout his career. At Cleveland Clinic, he served as Chief Innovations Officer and Associate Chief Information Officer, leading projects such as the eICU and remote telemetry systems to shift care from reactive to proactive models. As Chief Medical Officer at Google Cloud, he oversaw the implementation of advanced language and imaging AI models in healthcare delivery and life sciences. He recognized that order and referral management remains a powerful yet underutilized tool to improve patient access and care triage.
Dr. Morris said that access to high-quality, affordable care is critical but increasingly strained when demand surpasses available resources. He explained that improving the “Five Rights” of care—delivering the right care in the right place, at the right venue, for the right cost, at the right time, and in the right format—requires intelligent systems that allow providers to work efficiently while maintaining empathy, judgment, and human oversight. He believes technology should support clinicians, freeing them to focus on high-value patient care rather than administrative tasks.
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In his new role at Tennr, Dr. Morris will collaborate with health systems to develop a comprehensive triage infrastructure, ensuring that specialist appointments are prioritized for the patients who need them most. This approach will automatically route urgent cases, reduce unnecessary delays, and allow clinicians to practice at the top of their licensure.
Trey Holterman, CEO of Tennr, stated that the company has made patient routing more intelligent, helping health systems prevent patients from being lost in the “black hole” of healthcare delays. He added that Dr. Morris brings unique clinical experience and insight into building triage infrastructure that will enhance Tennr’s model and allow specialists to focus on high-impact care. Holterman emphasized that having Dr. Morris on the team also strengthens Tennr’s clinical credibility and operational capabilities while supporting the company’s ongoing mission to optimize care delivery.
With Dr. Morris joining Tennr, the company aims to transform how orders and referrals are managed, ensuring that patients receive timely care and specialists’ expertise is applied where it is most needed.
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