Back in the old days, the only way for health specialists to communicate with their patients is through landline calls. While this method can provide immediate feedback and a high degree of personalized service, it is a very time-consuming work. Trying to contact hundreds of patients a day to remind them of their appointment is a task that can take long hours, leaving the healthcare provider unable to manage other duties in the hospital. With the advent of technology, there are now services that offer healthcare text messaging to hospitals as their primary means of communication.
Why mass text messaging
At present, over 96% of adult Americans have a mobile phone. Getting a text message is one of the most unobtrusive ways of reaching out to someone, so this method has been the most favorable to many.
Several hospitals have found that the use of text messaging is effective in promoting lifestyle changes and reminding their patients about their medications. Patients going through programs on smoking cessation, weight loss, and antiretroviral therapy are the ones who have gained most from these frequent reminders. Additionally, there are findings supporting that text messaging intervention has been helpful for patients suffering from chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and asthma.
Aside from providing an efficient intervention system for out-patients, healthcare text messaging has also been found effective in reducing productivity and increasing effectiveness when it comes to appointment setting.
Missed appointments are one of the leading waste of resources in healthcare management. About 21-32% of doctor’s appointments get no-shows. This significant percentage results in an approximate income loss of $100-900 a day.
It seemed that the simplest and most cost-effective way of addressing this problem is to send a text message to the client reminding him of his appointment. So far, many hospitals and clinics are finding this a favorable means to close the no-show gap somehow.
Considerations for mass text messaging providers
If you are thinking of using mass text messaging for your clinic, then one of the most important features that you should be looking for is a high degree of customization. You should be able to send personalized messages and schedule them as to when you want these notifications to be sent. Additionally, it would be very helpful if your subscription can provide you with a detailed report of your sent messages and receipt delivery.
Another important feature that you should look for is the number of contacts that you can include in your subscription. If you are a medium-sized clinic, your messaging application should be able to store at least 5,000 contact information.
Utilize the free trials
Before subscribing to a mass text messaging program, your clinic should maximize its free trial package first. In this way, you can get a feel of its software interface and see if it is something that you will find easy to work with. Secondly, subscribing to a free trial will also give you an idea of how efficient a program is in sending messages. A competitive subscription should be able to guarantee that your company can send 10,000 messages in around 12 minutes.
Sending text messages is an efficient and cost-effective way of handling appointments and sending reminders to patients. If you are considering upgrading your communication system, you should look for a mass text messaging subscription that can send a personalized message to your clients, give you a detailed report, and provide you with a user-friendly interface.
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