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 an effective communication strategy – for healthcare organisations
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, organisational alignment, workplace safety and much more.
Reaching every mobile phone, SMS is the preferred choice for healthcare organisations' staff and patient communications. Because 98% of text messages are read within 5 seconds, hospitals and healthcare institutions are integrating messaging as part of their core communications strategy.
Benefits of SMS in healthcare: Driving cost savings, staff efficiency, collaboration and organisational alignment
Because of information overload and the use of different communication channels, employees and patients often miss out on important information, which might be expensive. This affects operational performance. Luckily, the emergence of targeted messaging services and technology is enabling organisations to streamline the flow of information better to reduce information overload and get attention to important messages.
Patient reminders and follow-up: reducing costs and improving patient satisfaction with SMS
Missed appointments mean wasted opportunities to see other patients, resulting in increased costs and longer waiting times. It's also likely that the patient will need to reschedule the appointment if it was booked far in advance. Sending an SMS to remind patients of their appointments allows them 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.
SMS can also be sent to patients for follow-up purposes or to give out information instantly, for example:
- to deliver test results
- to inform patients of 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 with SMS
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 organise external cover through an agency is both time-consuming and expensive. Using 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. Covering shifts internally is always less expensive.
But it's not only employees who might get sick; irregular operations happen now and then. What if you could use text messaging for last-minute changes to maximise daily revenue and increase medical facility profitability? For example, you could change the operating theatre, control equipment, and much more.
Staff attendance & collaboration – personalised 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 messaging platform can significantly impact how healthcare providers engage and communicate with staff and patients in real time, leading to time savings, increased productivity, and improved quality of patient care.
With our platform, you can automate communication and workflow processes and create intelligent escalation rules to focus attention on important messages.
ABOUT LEKAB
LEKAB provides mobile messaging services, messaging APIs and software for advanced messaging and process automation. We offer digital tools and solutions to companies that want to optimise how they communicate and interact with customers and employees on the mobile to improve productivity, availability and the customer experience through mobile channels. Do you want to know more or ask us for advice? Contact Us!
