Mobile Messaging in Healthcare

Communication in healthcare is like any other sector, you need to reach the right audience at the right time. You will need to communicate with both your staff and your patients. The challenge is “how” since many healthcare staff don’t sit in front of a laptop or check their work e-mail every now and then. Some patients don't read e-mails regularly or prefer other communication channels. Sending text messages is an extremely effective way of communicating the right message to the right person at the right time.  

SMS as part of the communication strategy – reaching the hard to reach 

Communication via text, voice or mobile app is a far better choice to get attention from healthcare staff on important messages than e-mail, to improve workplace collaboration, organizational alignment, workplace safety and much more. 

Reaching every mobile phone, SMS is the preferred choice for healthcare organisations staff and patient communications. This is because 97% of text messages are read within 5 seconds, hospitals and healthcare institutions are therefore integrating messaging as part of their core communications strategy.  

Driving cost savings and staff efficiency with text messaging 

Because of information overload and the use of different communication channels, employees and patients often miss out on important information which might be expensive. It effects the operational performance. Luckily, the emergence of targeted messaging service and technology is enabling the organizations to better streamline the flow of information to reduce information overload and getting attention on important messages.  

Patient reminders – reduce the cost of missed appointments 

Missed appointments mean wasted opportunities to see other patients, resulting in an increase in costs and longer waiting times. Its also likely that patient will need to reschedule the appointment if it was booked far in advance. Sending an SMS to remind patients of their appointment, gives them the opportunity to confirm, cancel or reschedule. By sending appointment reminders the number of missed appointments can be reduced. Reminders have a positive effect on non-attendance rates. 

Patient follow-up – increase patient satisfaction 

SMS can also be sent to patients for follow-up purpose or to give out information instantly, for example: 

• to deliver test results  
• to inform patients on the availability of their results 
• to inform patients to take their medication (automated messages)
• to send thank you sms to blood donors 

And much more...

Staff shift management – reduce the cost of shift cover  

Are employees sick at the last minute? Do you need to find others to come in and cover for them immediately? Trying to call all staff members or organizing external cover through an agency is both time consuming and expensive. Using mobile messaging to send shift offers is a perfect way to communicate with on-call staff, temporary workers and contractors who can confirm or decline at the push of a button. It will speed up the whole process and save time and money. To cover shifts internally, is always less expensive. 

But its not only employees that might get sick, irregular operations happens now and then, what if you can use text messaging for last minute changes to maximise daily revenue and increase medical facility profitability? Changing operating theatre, control equipment and much more. 

Staff attendance & collaboration – personalized messages

Training days or onboarding of a new employee? What if you could send a quick reminder with a Google Maps link to the training venue – including a how to get there message. Or ask for employee feedback or approval before making a decision.  

An enterprise mobile messaging platform, can impact the future of how healthcare providers engage and communicate with staff and patients in real-time, in order to save time, gain productivity and improve quality of patient care.  

With our platform you can automate communication and workflow processes along with the capability of creating intelligent escalation rules, to get attention on messages that matters. Do you want to know more? Contact us today.