According to research, proper communication with healthcare professionals is a top patient concern. Patients worry about ineffective messaging, misunderstanding treatment plans, and getting prompt answers to their pressing health questions. Poor patient communication results in wasted time, lower revenue, and worse health outcomes. In fact, 30 percent of American healthcare appointments are missed every year
There’s a simple answer to improving healthcare communication: use SMS.
More healthcare organizations are turning to SMS to manage practice and patient communication in one place. SMS platforms allow you to text from a simple dashboard accessible via a computer. You can use SMS to facilitate internal staff operations, broadcast notifications, or schedule critical appointment reminders.
SMS enables healthcare professionals to facilitate two-way conversations, send automated alerts, and reach your patients quickly on their mobile devices. SMS for healthcare is a modern way for your practice to facilitate effective communication. And, it’s HIPAA-compliant when done right.
From better patient communication to keeping staff updated, an SMS healthcare solution brings considerable benefits to practices and hospitals.
The cost of missed appointments is sky-high. No-shows cost the healthcare industry $150 billion every year in the U.S.
Reduce no-shows by sending automated SMS appointment reminders. In addition to cutting missed appointments, you can have two-way conversations via text message. Take advantage of texting’s high open rates and message patients directly. Plus, allow patients to request information from you via SMS and manage all patient communication in one easy-to-use dashboard.
Getting information to be seen by the correct people when they need it is a challenge for any healthcare organization. That’s because your staff members are always on the go. No one has time to read emails or take a phone call.
Deliver information to staff via SMS to quickly get them the information they need. Use SMS to share schedule updates or key reminders directly to staff members' phones. You could send them organization-wide memos, remind them to clock in and clock out, or request someone to fill in on a last-minute shift opening. Additionally, in the event of an emergency, you could send an SMS to ensure staff see your message. An SMS healthcare solution serves your staff when they need it most.
An SMS for healthcare solution is ready to go immediately. There’s no expensive hardware and no extensive training required. With easy implementation and rapid deployment times, your organization can quickly start a hospital text messaging service.
Most patients and staff members already have cell phones and use SMS functionalities regularly. That means texting is familiar and there's no need for users to download an app. With no complicated technological barriers, SMS is a method of communication that’s inclusive and easy to use.
Hospital text messaging is also a valuable marketing and patient relationship-building tool.
SMS marketing allows healthcare providers like you to send updates to thousands of people instantly. Create a fantastic environment for your patients by letting them know about new service offerings or changes coming to your practice. Improve communication with SMS to build better patient relationships and retain patients. Plus, use SMS to obtain new ones. Send offers to your community, remind them to schedule checkups, or promote a wellness event. With SMS marketing, your healthcare practice can build valuable community relationships that last.
With the rise of high-deductible health plans, patients are responsible for larger portions of their bills. Instead of missing out on patient payments and losing revenue, use SMS to help you collect patient payments. SMS is a great way to alert patients to outstanding bills or confirm you received the payment. You could even send a quick message to let patients know how much they’ll owe as a copay prior to an appointment or share a link to an online portal where they can make a post-visit payment.
With features like automated appointment reminders, two-way text messaging, and emergency alerts, your hospital or healthcare service can benefit from effective communication with patients. Read on to see how SMS for healthcare can revolutionize your communication.
Appointment no-shows are a struggle for all hospitals and healthcare providers. Patients forget appointment times or don’t cancel when they can no longer make it. With SMS notifications, healthcare organizations can provide gentle reminders to patients about their appointments to limit no shows and help patients reschedule.
Save time and money with automated appointment reminders. Use a text message to confirm the time, provide instructions, or share a link to easily reschedule an appointment. Ninety-eight percent of texts are opened, meaning your patients will see your message.
Converse with your patients and staff members with Textline's two-way texting functionality. Reply to any inbound text inquiries from patients from your computer.
Two-way texting allows healthcare organizations to provide excellent patient support. Use SMS to answer patient questions directly. With a HIPAA-compliant texting solution, patients can chat directly with a hospital representative to resolve issues, receive requested information, or make an appointment.
In the healthcare environment, every second counts. Hospitals and emergency healthcare providers must have a system in place to communicate en masse with staff and patients in times of emergency.
Use text alerts to broadcast emergency information and reach contacts quickly, wherever they are. Send alerts to staff members if there's a crisis on location. Keep your team and patients safe with excellent communication when you need it most. With SMS messaging, the average read time is within three minutes, meaning that critical information is delivered in real-time.
Use bulk SMS to distribute messages to multiple people at once. Send announcements, notifications, or critical messages via Textline with mass SMS. Any replies to a mass text message creates separate text threads. Keep your entire community in the loop, or segment your contact list to reach specific groups with direct messages. Help facilitate communication with every member or the right group of your extensive community.
Textline offers a built-in consent feature for HIPAA accounts. This feature protects your business and helps you comply with HIPAA. Before you can text any contact, they must respond to an automated message confirming they agree to be contacted by your organization via SMS. This process is entirely built-in, so your organization doesn’t need to do the heavy lifting to gain consent. Textline also stores this patient consent information for you to access.
Try Textline for free for 14 days. No credit card required.
of patients who received SMS updates felt more connected to their care teams. — Journal AAOS
of patients want text reminders to schedule appointments. — PatientPop
of Americans own a cell phone of some kind. — Pew Research Center
Mobile carriers now require phone number registration for A2P texting. Any healthcare organization using an SMS platform like Textline to text patients must register. To register, healthcare businesses must provide information about their brand and messaging use case.
Although ensuring proper registration may sound complex, Textline makes it easy for healthcare providers. Textline, a HIPAA-compliant SMS platform, makes the registration process simple. Organizations can register within our platform by filling out our built-in form. From there, Textline handles submission and lets you know when you’re ready to text.
Additionally, Textline users can test the platform while waiting for approval. Use the time to set up automations, add text templates, and try out core features.
You must protect your data and your patients’ data. That's why you must use a HIPAA-compliant SMS platform. Textline is the most secure HIPAA-compliant SMS provider on the market. We also have specialized experience in the healthcare industry.
All healthcare providers — plus business partners using healthcare data — must comply with federal guidelines to protect health information. This includes HIPAA, the regulation that safeguards patient health data.
Textline has specific HIPAA-plans for healthcare users. It has a plethora of security features, but one of note is complete end-to-end encryption to ensure your messages are protected in rest and in transit. We also store patients' valuable text consent data in HIPAA-compliant cloud environments. Textline also has a patented, built-in patient consent feature that helps ensure your communication is HIPAA-compliant.
With Textline, your data is in safe hands. We're fully HIPAA compliant from beginning to end, and our specialist team can help your practice ensure your communications are compliant with SMS regulations, too.
This software was the "one" IT solution that saved our medical practice during COVID. What we realized is that most, if not all of our patients, were very happy with this experience. The main goal was to keep our patients safe and out of the waiting room until their room was ready. Trying to do this over the phone would have been a communications nightmare. When COVID goes...if ever, we will continue to use this form of communication.
Using Textline daily, and having used other similar services in the past, the ease of use is not something to overlook. No more entering the same contact information into eight different services. We use the desktop version in the office and couldn't be happier. The integration with Pipedrive is seamless, and the scheduled messages are so simple to set up. Having Textline HQ available to walk you through anything is another great feature.
I really enjoyed using Textline for collection purposes… I do highly recommend this product. The software was very easy to use. I liked being able to set the time when texts would be sent. I liked being able to converse with anyone that responded. However, there is an option to have a canned response. I never used that option, but I'm sure it would benefit most companies. The customer service was great and answered in a very timely manner.
Connect Textline with your favorite healthcare applications and tools. Textline has pre-built integrations as well as a developer-friendly API, allowing businesses to build custom integrations. Connecting Textline can remove data silos and streamline healthcare messaging efforts.
Join the thousands of other healthcare practices and hospitals across the country modernizing their communication tools. Use Textline to stay in touch with patients, staff members, or your community. Discover how SMS for healthcare solutions can make communication more efficient to build patient relationships, save time, and slash costs. Get started today with Textline for healthcare providers to send appointment reminders, automate follow-ups, send bulk notifications, and keep your staff members in the loop. Keep your patients' data secure with a fully HIPAA-compliant software, and make tracking and controlling patient consent easy. Our friendly, experienced team is available to help your healthcare practice take advantage of the power of SMS communication. Request a demo of our HIPAA product or try out our platform free for 14 days.
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