The healthcare industry is constantly changing, but some aspects change a little slower than others. Communication between offices and patients, for instance, is still largely dependent on voice calls.
84% of phone calls and voicemails, however, are ignored these days. This means if you are trying to connect with patients via voice calls, there is a good chance that they will never receive your message, resulting in a waste of time and manpower making those calls in the first place. On the other hand, research shows that 98% of text messages actually get opened.
If you are considering the use of a text messaging service for your medical office, you will want to first review HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) to ensure compliance. Many business texting services are willing to guarantee compliance, as well.
Continue reading to find out how a text messaging service for business can benefit your medical office!
How a Text Messaging Service Can Benefit the Healthcare Industry
Text-enabled landlines.
Most doctor’s offices still use traditional office phones to communicate with patients, as well as with other staff members. In fact, 88% of medical offices still use landlines to schedule appointments. It should be no surprise then that 65% of patients say that communicating with their doctor’s office often proves challenging.
Luckily, a texting service can provide a simple solution to this problem in the form of landline texting. This will allow patients to text your existing landline without the purchase of additional equipment or hardware.
In order to take advantage of landline texting, all your office will need is a texting service for business and a web browser! Your patients will then have the ability to text your current phone number, and staff members can view texts on a desktop or mobile web browser.
A text messaging service for business will also give you the ability to automate and/or manually respond to patient texts. This will not only save your staff members’ valuable time, but it will simplify communications for patients.
Send appointment reminders to reduce the number of cancellations and no-shows.
Each year, missed appointments cost the healthcare industry about $150 billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a B! Chances are that your office has experienced some of that monetary loss, as well.
Utilizing a business texting service can help you cut back on those late cancellations and no-shows that can grind your office to a screeching halt. Less than 5% of scheduled appointments result in cancellations after sending a reminder via text. You can even automate and personalize these messages through a texting service.
Example:
“Hi Judy! This is a reminder of your appointment with Dr. Med on 9/15 at 11am. Please reply to this msg with ‘CONFIRM’ or ‘CANCEL.’”
Send a confirmation text after the patient has scheduled their appointment, as well as another reminder on the evening prior to the appointment. This way patients will have the necessary amount of time to rearrange their schedule if they have a conflict. If not, allow them to cancel via text so that your office can make that time slot available to someone else.
If patients do cancel, make it easier for them to reschedule for a later date. Send a follow up message with information on how they can do this either via text or online.
Simplify staff communications.
Using a texting service for business will also allow you to streamline staff communications. Store all mobile contact info within the service to send your staff important updates, such as training requirements and scheduling info.
A texting service will also allow you to get shifts covered more easily. Obviously, you cannot have healthcare professionals showing up to work sick, which can result in frequent callouts during flu season and such. When this inevitably happens, a business texting service will give you the ability to send a mass text to all relevant employees to find out who is available to cover the shift.
To make this process as seamless as possible, you can segment your contacts within the service. For instance, if you run a large organization, you can segment employee contact info into categories, such as job title. When you need a nurse’s shift covered, you can contact the other nurses specifically with one text.
Gather patient feedback.
Even the most well-oiled machines still have some room for improvement, especially when factoring in the potential for human error. In order to gauge what your office is doing well, and what you could be doing better, give your patients the opportunity to provide feedback.
Some people may feel hesitant to provide honest face-to-face feedback for fear of appearing “difficult.” According to The Script, “a May 2012 study in the journal Health Affairs found that when faced with different, yet equally effective, treatment options for the same condition, people defer to their physicians to make decisions about their care, feel their physicians can be authoritarian, and fear they’ll be labeled a ‘difficult patient,’ which prevents them from fully engaging in their care.”
However, the use of a texting service for business will allow your office to gather valuable, honest patient feedback to continue improving on the patient experience going forward.
A patient survey request may look something like this:
- John, how are you feeling after your appt. with Dr. Med? Please fill out this survey to let us know: link-to-survey.co
Or…
- Hi John! How was your appt. with Dr. Med? Please respond to this message with any feedback you may have. Thanks!
Patient feedback is crucial to managing your office’s reputation for top-of-the-line patient care, and a texting service for business can help you to gather the information you need.
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The use of a texting service will allow your healthcare office to manage patient feedback, communicate more effectively with staff and reduce the number of appointment cancellations- all without changing your phone number or purchasing additional hardware. Use your current office phone through landline texting to reap these benefits and more with a texting service for business!
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