Improve Healthcare Communications with SMS Solutions for Hospitals & Clinics

Posted On 31 January 2023 By Patryk Patej In Articles /  10

From hospitals to clinics, healthcare institutions are on the front lines of protecting citizens and communities across the globe. The need for equal and accessible healthcare continues to be prioritised, with governments going a long way to ensure patients have seamless access to the doctors, facilities and care they require. A tougher challenge, however, resides in the microeconomics of these institutions and facilities, where ineffective communications continues to plague both patients and health workers alike. As we speak, thousands of appointments are being made over physical helpdesks and calls – appointment management alone remains a manual process requiring tedious direct telephone work. Likewise, communication hurdles stand in the way of effective patient management too, with the smallest of record requests or healthcare alerts requiring substantial communications infrastructure.

Unlike dedicated apps or telephone calls, SMS provides healthcare institutions with a seamless medium to communicate with patients. By utilizing SMS communications solutions integrated with existing patient management systems and databases, healthcare institutions can automate not just their day-to-day administrative functions, but also patient engagement and reachout activities. Not only is SMS accessible across all types of handsets and on any pre-installed messaging app, it also requires absolutely no patient training and produces greater response rates than external apps or patient helplines. A robust solution such as SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway, for example, enables hospitals and clinics to not just reap massive cost savings in their day-to-day communication activities, but also keep patients in the loop 24/7 with reliable and Internet-independent SMS messaging.

Never miss an appointment again

In the private sector, missed appointments can have a significant impact on operating profits by under-utilising doctors and medical facilities. These financial losses, in turn, affect the capacity of healthcare institutions to develop and deliver new patient services to their existing customer base. For public health, this is a key political battleground with a direct effect on constituent opinion and the opportunity for the development of new healthcare facilities.

By integrating the SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway via Zapier with appointment scheduling applications such as Setmore, patients can effectively manage their appointments by simply messaging requests to make new appointments, change appointment details or cancel existing appointments to the phone number of the healthcare institution’s SMSEagle gateway. These requests are then automatically updated in appointment systems without the need for human intervention. Likewise, healthcare institutions can easily contact and remind patients of upcoming appointments, minimizing the number of missed appointments. Together, this allows for a faster allocation of appointment slots and better utilization of healthcare resources.

Information requests via SMS

While transmitting healthcare records and patient PHI (Protected Health Information) over SMS is not HIPAA compliant, using SMS to make these information requests and then receive the information via other secure means is lawful and greatly simplifies the requesting process. Instead of sending unaddressed emails or making uncoordinated calls to various departments, patients can simply text which health records or diagnosis reports they require to their healthcare institution’s SMSEagle gateway number. This institution can then escalate the request to the relevant department and have the information sent via HIPAA-compliant means, such as secure emailing.

Keeping patients in the loop

SMS is not just for proactive patient management – hospitals and clinics can leverage it to keep patients and former patients updated on new services and facilities, ensuring that they are kept in the loop of the latest healthcare advancements while expanding their own reach and influence. Likewise, by connecting patient databases with the SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway, institutions can easily spread the word when there is a vaccine rollout or new doctor in town. They can then follow up with this by pushing proactively for appointments.

Healthy patient communications

Using SMS messaging to communicate with patients takes the cost and complexities out of appointment scheduling, patient management and reachout campaigns. SMSEagle’s latest partnership with Nexus Polska, for example, greatly automates the transmitting of healthcare information between doctors, patients and other healthcare workers. With seamless integration and nearly no additional staff training required, SMSEagle SMS/MMS Gateway is the perfect low-cost, high-impact solution for your patient communication needs.

Create the right solution for your business!

Your obstacles are unique, and the solutions for them should be too. The functions of SMSEagle allows businesses to incorporate SMS communications into their systems in a way that makes sense to them. To find out how, get in touch with our team.
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Why texting can benefit patients & health care providers.

Posted On 27 January 2017 By Joe Butler In Articles /  3

Texting is becoming a prime method of communicating, so it’s natural the practice is moving into health care.

Patients like how texting a nurse or doctor can bypass the receptionist, answering service or voice mail and not require scheduling or waiting for an appointment. It’s also discrete to text a provider to discuss problem, and not have anyone overhear.

Medical office staff may find that texting can help their organization as well, including assisting with scheduling and even reduce call volume if more patients text questions.

In fact, about the only people who haven’t been sure about the appropriateness of texts in health cares are providers themselves. Their reasons seem generally less about the potential for improving quality of care, and more about the complex legal challenges that could arise when doctors start texting.

First, the modern physician is busy seeing patients and with paperwork, so taking time to text may cut into a crowded schedule or take time away from patient visits. Being able to directly contact a doctor anytime also changes the dynamic of the modern medical system where most doctors have plenty of gatekeepers/staff between him/her and the patient.

There are also questions if a text from a doctor constitutes actual medical advice or just a conversation. Then there are the potential violations of HIPPAA, the medical privacy law designed to prevent unauthorized disclosure of patient information.

Physician groups have been wrestling with texting for years, but in 2016, The Joint Commission voted to permit them, provided physicians take steps to keep their phones secure and encrypted.  The organization felt there could be greater benefits for patient care, such as physicians being able to quickly send texts to consult with colleagues, nurses or pharmacists.

Other areas where texting has been in use or has shown potential in health care include:

  • Office assistance. Patients can send in texts requesting appointments, or offices can use automated texting software to confirm and remind them about upcoming visits.
  • Unscheduled appointments. Some emergency rooms and urgent care centers are now accepting texts. This can alert the staff that a patient is coming in so they can begin the paperwork process, rather than waiting for the patient to arrive to start registration. Some facilities also can return a text from a potential patient to advise how long the wait time is, and confirm that the patient has a place on the list. This has the potential to reduce wait times at both of these types of providers.
  • Regular health information. A medical office can ‘push’ information out to its patients and other text subscribers such as invitations to come in on a regular basis for procedures like flu shots in the fall or sun screening in the spring. Texts can drive people to health info on the practice’s site, an e-newsletter other useful health and wellness resources, such as links from local public health officials. Some texting programs also can be synced to a database so someone’s name can appear.
  • General questions. While providers may be wary of sending patient information by text, such as test results, they may consider asking one member of their staff to take on this duty. This option can be announced to patients to assure them that it’s OK to text as long as they follow certain rules.  Along with directly answering and assisting, they can text useful links to help answer someone’s question. This can provide legitimate medical information, rather than encouraging the patient to do their information online, which can be risky at times with so many inaccuracies.
  • Health alerts. As a service to the local patient community, texts can be sent out with information about epidemics and general medical emergencies like epidemics or disasters.

Because physicians are just beginning to explore the potential of texting, there are plenty of possible ways to improve efficiency and delivery of care in the future.

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