Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- What is patient texting?
- Are You Texting Patients in The Correct Manner?
- Patient Texting vs Calls vs Email vs App-based Texting
- Why should you care about patient texting?
- Top 13 ways to use patient texting for your practice
- Top 5 Patient Texting Software
- Implement patient texting with Emitrr’s advanced capabilities
- Conclusion
Introduction
The ability of healthcare providers to communicate with their patients and improve their health outcomes is the cornerstone to building lasting relationships, and patient texting is an excellent way to do so. Patient texting is the most cost-effective and immediate means for providers to communicate seamlessly with their patients and scale their healthcare business.
With the help of medical texting, medical practices can automate repetitive communications, reduce high call volume, improve patient engagement, and build stronger relationships. Considering that 80 percent of people prefer text messaging as the ideal means to communicate with doctors, sending SMS to your patients can significantly help your healthcare practice.
Are you a healthcare provider wanting to enhance doctor-patient communication? Are you looking for ways to improve patient engagement and drive better health outcomes while cutting down on costs? Well, patient texting is the way forward! Stay tuned to understand the varied use cases associated with patient SMS and the impact they can have on your business.
As a bonus, we also have patient texting templates for each step of the patient journey. Keep scrolling for some unique insights!
What is Patient Texting?
Patient texting refers to the practice of using medical texting to communicate with patients in a healthcare setting. It involves sending appointment reminders, follow-up messages, important health information, and other relevant updates via SMS (Short Message Service) to patients’ mobile phones.
Patient texting is a great way for providers to communicate with their patients. It helps patients coordinate better with the care team, understand instructions pertaining to care, adhere to their treatment plans, and clear any doubts that they might have.
When it comes to effective communication in healthcare, medical texting beats all other forms, due to its high open and response rates, immediacy, wide reach, and asynchronous nature. While there are other forms of communication such as phone calls, app-based messaging, emails, and patient portals; medical texting is the most preferred mode for doctor-patient communication because of its speed, ease of use, and simplicity.
Steps to Ensure You Are Texting Your Patients in The Correct Manner
To ensure that patient texting is done properly you need to follow some best practices:
#1: Get the consent of your patients
Getting the explicit consent of your patients is the most important thing for you as a provider. It helps establish trust with your patients and also ensures HIPAA-compliant texting with patients. Here are some ways you can obtain consent:
- While getting patients to fill out intake forms, have a checkbox that allows your patients to give their permission for you to use the information for treatment purposes
- When you send marketing communications to your patients, give them an option to opt-out from those communications
- Before performing any treatment or procedure, always get written consent of the patients
#2: Stay HIPAA-compliant
Protecting your patient’s data is as crucial as delivering exceptional care. When it comes to medical texting make sure to comply with the HIPAA guidelines to avoid any fines or legal action. Here are some ways to implement HIPAA-compliant patient texting:
- Conduct frequent risk assessments
- Employ access controls and authorizations
- Train your employees and educate them about protecting PHI
- Use a HIPAA-compliant patient texting app to communicate with patients
- Have BAAs in place for secure PHI sharing
#3: Text securely
Secure medical text messaging is another great way to successfully communicate with your patients.
If you wish to send secure text messages to your customers, then ensure to use a business texting software that offers secure medical texting as a standalone feature. For instance, Emitrr offers secure texting, as a part of which you can start a secure chat with your patients. It means that those messages exchanged by you and your patients will not be stored on the mobile carriers and are end-to-end encrypted. Secure patient messaging will help you leverage the power of texting and will also maintain compliance.
#4: Automate the patient texting process
It is not possible to manually respond to the text messages of all your patients. Let’s say if they wish to book appointments, access their test results, leave feedback, opt out of text communications, or ask generic queries. All conversations of such nature can be automated, which will not only ensure appropriate responses to your patients but will also save a lot of time. Whether you’re out of the office and missed a call, if you’re getting messages after business hours, if your support lines are busy, if customers respond to your marketing messages with a keyword, or can’t respond manually for some reason; autoresponders are what you need.
#5: Choose a patient texting solution
If you want to make the entire process of patient texting more seamless and less time-consuming, then you must consider investing in a patient texting solution. Look for a patient texting software that:
- Is HIPAA compliant
- Offers end-to-end encryption
- Has secure texting as a separate feature
- Integrates seamlessly with your EHR/PMS
- Has a friendly user interface
- Offers advanced automation capabilities
To help you further, here’s a list of HIPAA texting apps you can compare: https://emitrr.com/blog/hipaa-compliant-texting-app/
#6: Follow TCPA Compliance
If you are sending marketing messages to your patients via text, then you must comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. This telemarketing law in the US addresses unsolicited and unregulated calls and text messages in the country. In addition to complying with federal legislation, you also need to follow the state laws for sending text messages. For example:
- In Arizona and New Jersey, marketers must obtain prior consent before sending messages
- In Florida and Oklahoma, the marketers cannot contact a customer more than thrice a week and outside the hours 8:00 am and 8:00 pm
- In Virginia, the marketers must identify themselves in the messages
Patient Texting vs Calls vs Email vs App-based Texting
While an average phone call lasts for about 8 minutes, on average, out of 10 emails, 1 email is read and responded to. A text message can be sent within seconds and help you achieve better read rates, and response rates and drive up overall patient engagement. The tables below will give you a clear idea of how texting is better than emails and phones.
Texting vs Emails
Texting vs Phone Calls
Apart from phones and emails, there are other ways to communicate with your patients such as patient portals and app-based texting. But both of these are not as effective as normal SMS. The tables below show how they’re different:
Texting vs Patient Portals
Texting vs App-Based Texting
Texting clearly emerges as the most useful channel when it comes to patient communication, It is cheaper, easy to implement, can be automated and made completely secure by deploying a HIPAA compliant texting platform.
Top 13 Ways to Use Patient Texting for Your Practice
Appointment scheduling
Scheduling appointments through text messaging is way more convenient than any other means. For instance, you might not be available to take calls during out-of-office hours or on your days off and hence miss out on a lot of prospective patients. Using text messages will help you keep those patients coming in.
Here’s an example of an appointment scheduling text message that you can send:
Appointment scheduling text template
“Hey, Mike! We have a slot open for you tomorrow at 11 a.m. If that works for you, should we schedule an appointment for you? Please type Y to schedule.- Team [facility name]”
“Hey, Laura! Looks like you tried scheduling an appointment for tomorrow 4pm but faced an issue. Would you like us top reschedule the appointment for you? Please type Y to schedule. – Team [facility name]”
Business impact:
You will not lose out on potential patients, you will be able to keep your schedules full. This automatically translates to more sales and revenue.
Pro tip: To speed up this process of appointment scheduling, invest in a HIPAA-compliant texting software that offers advanced texting capabilities and integrates with your EHR/PMS.
Reminders
Did you know that as per a survey, around 79% of respondents preferred texts for receiving reminders whereas only 9% of respondents preferred phone calls?
Text reminders are more easily seen and responded to by patients since text messages have an open rate of 98 percent. You can even schedule reminder messages to be sent out at specific times. Here are some reminder text templates that you can use:
Reminder with confirmation text template
“Hey, Anna! This is a reminder for your upcoming appointment on <Day, date> at <time>. Please type C to confirm or R to reschedule.”
Reminder without confirmation text template
“Hi {{firstName}}. {Facility name} is sending you a gentle reminder that you have an upcoming appointment on {{appointmentDate}}.”
“Hello {{firstName}}, you have an appointment at {facility name} with {{providerName}} at {{officeName}} on {{appointmentDate}}.
Remember to bring your license and insurance card(s). Alert our staff if there have been any changes in your demographics. It is our policy to collect copayments or and/or deductibles at the time of the appointment. Please plan accordingly.
If your appointment is scheduled as virtual, you will receive a link from our registration desk before the appointment. You will click on the link and follow the prompts to connect with us.”
Medication refill reminder text template
“Hello {{firstName}}, you have an appointment at {Facility name} with {{providerName}} at {{officeName}} on {{appointmentDate}}.
It is our policy to collect copayments or and/or deductibles at the time of the appointment. Please plan accordingly.
Also bring the list of medications you need to be refilled to your visit. This allows us to securely and efficiently complete refill request.
Type C to confirm.
If your appointment is scheduled as virtual , you will receive a link from our registration desk before the appointment . You will click on the link and follow the prompts to connect with us.”
Reminder to send 48 hours prior text template
“Hello {{firstName}}, your dental appointment is scheduled at {Facility name} on {{appointmentDate}}. Please arrive at least 20 minutes prior to your appointment time to fill out any needed paperwork if this is your first appointment with us or visit our website to fill out the forms prior to your appointment. Late arrivals may be rescheduled. If you are unable to keep your appointment, please respond to this text or call immediately at 60610-799-00. No-shows and late cancellations will be subject to a cancellation fee. If you have not heard from our office about your copay for the appointment, please give us a call at 60610-799-00. PLEASE CALL OR TEXT TO CONFIRM YOUR APPOINTMENT. We look forward to seeing you. Have a great day!”
Reminder to send 1 day prior text template
“Hi {{firstName}}. {Facility name} is sending you a gentle reminder that you have an upcoming appointment on {{appointmentDate}}.
Smokers: Do not smoke before coming to your appointment and remember to brush your teeth for a better evaluation and treatment.”
Reminder to send same day text template
“Good morning! We wanted to remind you of your appointment with us today. Please arrive 5-10 minutes early for your scheduled appointment. Checking in late to your appointment could result in the need to reschedule. For the safety of your pets, all dogs must be on leashes & cats must be in carriers. In preparation for your appointment, please send pictures of any vaccine records you have before your arrival. If you can’t make the appointment, please let us know in advance. Thank you!”
“Your appointment is confirmed for {{appointmentDate}} at [facility name]. Please call <number> if you have any questions or need to reschedule.”
Reminder to send 2 hours prior text template
“Hello {{firstName}}, this is {Facility name} sending you a friendly reminder of your appointment {{appointmentDate}}. See you soon!”
Reminder with confirmation for existing patients text template
“{{firstName}}, This is a friendly reminder about your upcoming appointment on {{appointmentDate}} with [facility name].
If you have not already done so please go to our patient portal to complete your registration.
If you need help with the patient portal you can find our instructions here.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you at {Facility name}. You can reply with C to confirm appointment.”
Reminder for forms text template
“Hello {{firstName}}, It’s Dr. Tan. Just wanted to remind you that your completed intake forms are due today. We sent you a text and an email with the forms earlier. Here is the link for your reference again: Please email back the completed forms. Feel free to ignore, them if they are already completed.”
“Hey {{firstName}}, It‚ Dr. Tan. I‚ am so happy you found us and reached out to us for help with your health struggles. We look forward to seeing you on {{appointmentDate}}.
Please download and fill out Intake Forms, Agreement of Terms, and Informed Consent forms before you come in, so you get the most out of our time together. You can fill it out on your device, save it under your name, and email it back to me. Please allow 30 minutes to fill out the forms
We do not participate with insurance plans with the exception of HMAA and UHA which covers the acupuncture portion of the visit and will provide you with the paperwork needed to file a claim.
Looking forward to working with you.
Please note that we are at our new location at 905. †Parking entrance is on ABC”
We are closed reminder text template
“This is a friendly reminder to all of our patients that we will be closed Monday, January 2nd, 2023. We apologize for the inconvenience. Have a great and safe Happy New Year. <Facility Name>”
Holiday reminder text template
“Good Morning! I hope all is well! <Facility Name> wanted me to reach out and let you know in advance that they shut down the week between Christmas and New Years. So for planning and budgeting purposes, please take note that you will be off work between 12/24-01/01.
Enjoy your time off and spend it with those that matter! Happy Holidays!”
Virtual visit reminder text template
“Virtual Appointment reminder: To access your virtual appointment with Nadia, you will need to log into your patient portal account around your appointment time. Once Nadia is logged on, there will be a button to start your session.”
Survey reminder text template
“We hope this message finds you well. At <Facility Name> as part of our ongoing efforts to provide our clients with the best possible service, we invite you to participate in a short survey to help us evaluate our performance.
Your feedback is extremely valuable to us and will help us identify areas where we can improve and better serve your needs. The survey will take only a few minutes to complete, and your responses will be confidential.
Please click on the link below to access the survey:”
Health insurance reminder text template
“Hello _____. This is a friendly reminder that you are currently under the 120 hours required to retain your benefits through NPH. As of right now, you have ___ scheduled hours for the month. Please let us know what additional days you are available so we can work on getting you enough hours. Thank you so much.”
Comprehensive visit reminder text template
“Hey {{firstName}}, It’s Dr. Tan. We look forward to meeting with you on {{appointmentDate}}. This is just a reminder to fill out the forms using the link below. Please email them to [email protected] 3 days prior to the appointment date.”
Business impact:
Sending timely reminders will help your patients stay updated and be more active in their care process. Satisfied and happy patients mean more revenue and a better reputation for your practice.
Send appointment confirmation texts
Did you know that 80% of no-shows occur because patients simply forgot about their appointments? To avoid that, you need to send appointment confirmation texts to your patients. If they confirm, you can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that the patient would show up. However, if the customer does not confirm, you can send a follow-up text, asking them to reschedule, confirm or cancel the appointment.
Here are some patient SMS appointment confirmation templates that you can use:
Appointment confirmation text template
“Hello {{firstName}}, you have an appointment at {Facility name} with {{providerName}} at {{officeName}} on {{appointmentDate}}.
It is our policy to collect copayments and/or deductibles at the time of the appointment. Please plan accordingly.
Also, bring the list of medications you need to be refilled to your visit. This allows us to securely and efficiently complete refill request. Type C to confirm.“
“Hi {{firstName}}. Just a gentle reminder that you have an upcoming appointment with Pinnacle Care Internal Medical on {{appointmentDate}}. You can reply with C to confirm the appointment.”
Business impact:
Appointment confirmations will help reduce the no-shows by 90% and will help you keep your schedules full.
Additional reading: Looking for more appointment confirmation text templates? Check out this article – https://emitrr.com/blog/appointment-confirmation-text/
Get documents from the patients ahead of the appointment
Patient texting can also help you gather relevant information about the patient including their documents ahead of the appointment. You can simply reach out to the patient via text and request them to send the documents that you need. However, you must keep in mind that text messaging is not HIPAA-compliant by default, and sharing sensitive PHI over messages can be risky. To avoid that risk, opt for a text messaging platform that offers secure text messaging as an added functionality.
Here’s an example of a medical text message to ask for medical reports:
Request patient documents text template
“Hey, Declan! We hope this message finds you well. We request you to kindly share the following documents before your upcoming appointment:
- Medical history
- Lab test results
- Referral forms
Having this information before will help us prepare for your visit and provide better care. Please use the secure chat option to send your documents.”
- Insurance information
“REMINDER:
SCHEDULE your blood work appointment for the day after your pre-op for
Quest select All Other Test
For Labcorp select routine lab work
Also, you MUST have an EKG done, read and sent to the facility. Contact pcp for an appointment for EKG or you may go to PUC at Street as a walk in for an EKG. Please send a copy of EKG to CSS.”
“Good morning/afternoon Mr./Ms. {{lastName}}, this is a friendly reminder to please sign the intake forms that were sent on 00/00/23 to email address: {{email}}. Please be advised that we will not be able to move forward with your case until these are signed. The intake forms were just resent today, please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you.”
Business impact:
Asking for documents over text messages is way easier than asking patients to send the documents over emails or upload those on the patient portals. Gathering data early on before the appointment will help you thoroughly analyze the patient’s overall medical condition, and have ample time to plan for any additional tests that need to be performed. Such advanced planning helps reduce wait times and promotes continuity of care.
Pro tip: Give an encryption key to access the reports / use a secure texting platform
Share medical reports/treatment plans
You can also share medical reports and treatment plans with your patients over text, provided that you are taking care of the HIPAA and TCPA guidelines into consideration. Just like you use secure texting platforms for receiving records from patients, you need to do the same for sending sensitive PHI. If you’re using a secure texting platform like Emitrr, you can simply send a text message saying that the patient’s medical records are ready.
Test results out text template
“Hey, Chris! Your test results are out and can be accessed by clicking on this link.”
When the patient clicks on this link, they’d be directed to the secure platform wherein they’d receive an OTP on their registered number. Only after entering the OTP, they can access the records.
Business impact:
Sending medical records to patients securely via text allows doctors to communicate information immediately in time-sensitive matters and also adds to the convenience of the patients. Moreover, patients can easily access the records via text as compared to logging in to the patient portal. All in all, it helps streamline doctor-patient communication.
Sending emergency alerts
Let’s say that you need to close the clinic for the next two days due to bad weather, as a result of which you need to cancel 50 appointments. Calling each patient and communicating the information to every patient isn’t feasible as it would take a lot of time. In such scenarios, text messaging works wonders. You can simply send a mass text to the patients. Similarly, if you want to communicate information to your team internally for say, an urgent meeting; you can simply create a group and send a message that reaches everybody at once.
Here are some examples:
Emergency alert text template
“Hey {Name}, this is to inform you that the clinic will remain closed for two days due to bad weather. We request you to kindly reschedule your appointment through this link.”
“Dear team, the daily meeting has been rescheduled for today at 4 pm. Please be present for the same.”
Business impact:
Since text messages have good open and response rates, you get to communicate important information to your patients and team members in a faster and cost-efficient way. Through patient texting, you can easily notify and engage your recipients, thereby avoiding delays and miscommunication.
Send invoice/payment links
In addition to easing out the process of booking appointments, you must also ensure that your patients can easily make payments. This means sending them payment links via text messages. You can simply tell the patient that their payment is due. If they have cleared their payment, you can send them a confirmation message.
Here’s an example:
Payment link text template
‘Dear Sarah, your payment for the annual dental checkup is due. Please click on this link to make the payment.’ – Team {facility name}
“Hello, this is {facility name} contacting you about your pet’s requested surgery appointment. Your pet is not scheduled until the $40 deposit is paid, and there is limited availability left on the date you requested. Please let us know when you are ready and we will send you a link via text to make the deposit. Your surgery deposit goes towards your final payment on the day of surgery. Thank you!”
Business impact:
The impact of sending payment links through texts is simple: faster payments, no misplaced invoices, no long queues, and happy and satisfied customers. Your customers need not be present physically to make payments. They can simply click on the secure payment link, choose the mode of payment, and pay you for the services they availed at their convenience.
Gathering patient feedback
There is no doubting the fact that existing patients are the ones that convince potential patients to visit your practice, through the reviews that they leave for you. In order to improve your online reputation and capture leads, it is important to amp up your review generation game. For that, you need to make it easier for people to leave reviews.
If you have been gathering feedback all this time through emails or patient portals all this while and not getting results, then it is time to switch to medical messaging to garner patient feedback. Here’s an example of asking for feedback via text:
Patient feedback request text template
“Hey, Brenda! Thank you for choosing us. We value your feedback and would love to know about your experience. Please leave your feedback by clicking on this link. – Team ABC”
Business impact:
Asking your customers to leave feedback for you and your practice will help you gather a lot of reviews for your potential customers to see. It will help enhance your online reputation by manifolds and will bring you to the top of the search results. Since you’re sending review requests via test, your patients will most likely open those links and leave their feedback. Make sure that the process of leaving reviews is not cumbersome or extensive otherwise, it could drive them away.
Scheduling messages for routine check-ups/follow-ups
When it comes to retaining and reactivating patients, you need to be very careful with your approach. Calling them over and over again might make them frustrated and pose you as desperate. Medical messaging is a great way to reach out to them without coming off as intrusive. You can easily schedule text messages to your inactive or past customers for follow-ups and routine checkups. Here’s an example:
Follow up message text template
“Hey Daniel! We hope you are doing well. Here’s a reminder for your annual health checkup. Please click on this link if you wish to book an appointment for the same. Also, here’s a 10% discount especially for you! Use the code DENTAL23 while booking your appointment.” – Team XYZ Dental
Business impact:
Scheduling messages for follow up appointments is a great way to keep track of your patient’s health and improve their health outcomes. This will improve the overall patient journey as the patient will not miss out on important follow up appointments or routine checkups.
Recall/reactivation
In addition to attracting new patients, you also need to retain exusting patients within the healthcare system. Sending timed messages to such patients is a great way to retain and recall your patients.
Here are some templates for patient recall:
Recall message text template
“Hi {{firstName}}. It’s been a long time since you have visited [facility name] for a checkup. You can schedule your appointment today using the following link – https://emitrr.com.”
“Hi {{firstName}}, this is Dr. Mike. I hope you are doing well. It has been a while since we’ve seen you. Let us know if you would like to schedule a visit.”
Business impact:
When you encourage patients to visit you for routine checkups, you reduce patient churn, save patient acquisition costs, keep your schedules full, and improve patient volume and engagement.
Sending seasonal greetings
You can also utilize text messages to send seasonal greetings and birthday wishes to your patients as there is more to the provider-patient relationship than just reminders and confirmations. You can easily schedule messages to be sent out on specific dates to your patients, whether it is their birthday, Christmas, or 4th of July.
Here’s an example:
Seasons greetings text template
“Hey Noah! Team <Facility name> wishes you a very happy birthday! Here’s a 10% discount just for you on dental cleaning services. Reply Y to book, and have a great year!”
“Happy Birthday from all of us here at [facility name]! We hope you have a great day!!”
Business impact:
Sharing the happiness of your patients is an important part of maintaining strong relationships with them. Sending such messages would make your patients feel valued, further reinforcing their trust in you.
Communicating internally
Utilising text messages to send messages to your staff members is a great way to keep everyone on the same page. You can use text messages to improve staff communication in the following ways:
- Sending emergency alerts
- Sending shift reminders and any changes in the same
- Sending meeting reminders
- Sending last-minute shift vacancies
- Sending meeting reminders
Here are some examples:
Staff communication text template
“All staff members are required to wear the PPE kits to comply with safety standards in the wake of the pandemic.”
“Dear all, our system has detected a phishing attempt at 16:00 hours. Please log out of your systems immediately and wait for further instructions.”
Business impact:
Communicating internally via text messages means that your employees will stay on their toes and respond to instructions faster. This will ensure operational efficiency and smooth communication at your practice.
Sending marketing messages
If you want to interact smoothly with your patients and promote interaction, then sending marketing messages via text messages is the way to go. Here’s what all you can send:
- Exclusive deals
- Discount codes
- Limited time offers
- Event notifications
- Promote new services
You just need to upload your list of contacts, type in your message, use properties to ensure that all patients are being addressed personally, add opt-out instructions, and hit send! Your messages will reach your patients in a matter of seconds.
Here are some examples:
Marketing message text template
“Hey {first name}, this fall season avail 10% discount on all dental services at our clinic! Reply to this message with YES to avail the offer. Reply STOP to opt out.”
“Huge savings on [Product/Service] at [facility Name]’s sale until [Month] end. See our latest offers at [Location] on [Address]. Shop now! Reply STOP to opt-out.”
Business impact:
Sending marketing messages to patients via text means you get to engage with your patients in a better manner, you reach out to a wider audience, you get to retain your patients, and you save a lot of time and money.
Top 5 Patient Texting Software for Your Healthcare Practice
1. Emitrr
Emitrr is a patient texting software that is used by 1000+ healthcare practice to engage in secure communication with their patients. It is one of the top patient text messaging service out there due to the plethora of features it offers. The stellar customer support is the cherry on top. Many healthcare practices have been able to reduce their no-shows by as much as 90% with Emitrr’s engagement features. Emitrr offers secure HIPAA compliant patient texting.
Here is what some of Emitrr’s users have to say about patient texting features:
Reviews
“Easy to use and most all patients like the ease of communication via text and the quick replies to the text.” (Capterra)
“I can see missed calls which means missed opportunities and call those potential patients back. I can also answer questions that patients have using AI” (Capterra)
Support
Running into a block while communicating with patients can truly hamper productivity and possibly doctor-patient relations. To avoid such a situation, a texting platform’s support should be something that you can rely on. This is where Emitrr’s support truly shines. On Capterra, Emitrr is rated 5/5 for Customer Service. This is what some of Emitrr customers have to say about their support experience:
“The support team at Emitrr is very eager to listen to any feedback and has implemented changes that help us very quickly. They make us feel like we are their only customers with the quick response rate!” (Capterra)
“ I have worked with lots of software, SaaS, and support teams over the years and I can honestly say that Emitrr has a top-level team in place. very responsive to our need” (Capterra)
2. TigerConnect
TigerConnect is a patient communication and collaboration platform. Healthcare practices can use TigerConnect for both communication with their patients and within team. Tigerconnect features for patient include communication through text, voice and video. TigerConnect offers secure texting as well.
Here is what some of TigerConnect users have to say about its texting features:
Reviews
“I’m a newer user to TigerConnect but the system I work for has been using it for many years. I really love the functionality of the secured text messaging platform. I use the desktop app and the phone application. It is easy to get a hold of our co-workers who are not always at their computer. It automatically pings them via the app and text message letting them know someone is trying to reach them.” (Capterra)
“I hate that it logs me off so quickly. Whenever i want to see what texts I have I need to relog back in. .I guess it’s for security and I get that it’s for a reason but it’s a pain.” (Capterra)
Support
TigerConnect has a rating of 4.5 on Capterra for its Customer Service. Here are some reviews left by TigerConnect users for its customer support:
“Tech support is not very friendly or helpful.” (Capterra)
“Customer service has always been responsive and knowledgeable and has always fixed any issue we were having or answered any questions we had in a matter of minutes” (Capterra)
3. Klara
Klara is a conversation patient engagement software that offers patient texting. Klara offers two-way messaging, scheduling, automated pre- and post-visit communication. Medical practices across OBGYN, family medicine, pediatrics, otolaryngology, and many other specialties use Klara to improve patient experience while streamlining internal administrative workflows.
Here is what some of Klara users have to say about its texting features
Reviews
“Allowed us to streamline and optimize our patient engagement. We’re able to text securely, send files back and forth to patients securely, send and receive intake forms, and to track our communications for quality assurance.” (Capterra)
“Messaging and telehealth are simple enough that almost any patient can use them. A link is sent through text message and no login or extra steps are required. All messages are HIPAA compliant and private.” (Capterra)
Support
Klara has a rating of 4.3 on Capterra for its Customer Service. Here are some reviews left by Klara users for its customer support:
“Support has been great, and usually if we have a problem it’s worked out fairly quickly.” (Capterra)
“The responses from the Klara team are timely but the results are pretty poor. Asking for some kind of credit for the inconvenience fell on a NO! I will give them a bit more time to figure their stuff out if it continues to get worse then I will have to go elsewhere.” (Capterra)
Klara integrations are not known to be efficient. Integrating with your existing EHR can come with some difficulties.
4. Weave
Weave is a all in one communication platform that offers features such as Phones. Texting, Scheduling, Reminders,Payments and Reviews.It is a HIPAA compliant system that allows for secure patient communication.
Here is what some of Weave users have to say about its texting features:
Reviews
“We cannot create text broadcast groups, to which clients can subscribe/unsubscribe.” (Capterra)
“The text feature is limited. All texts come into one inbox, and there’s no way to parse out individual conversations by user. In other words, there are no text threads to help organize things” (Capterra)
Support
Weave has a rating of 3.6 on Capterra for its Customer Service. Here are some reviews left by Weave users for its customer support:
“ Increasingly buggy software and support that used to be fast to respond now often takes days to get a hold of someone.” (Capterra)
“ Customer service is AWFUL . I’ve had 2 major issues since we onboarded 8 months ago. After trying to get someone to help via chat and that didn’t work, I tried to call ( I couldn’t find a support phone number until I finally got it from sales person) and was on hold 2x for over an hour each time. Thinking this might be a one time issue and gave the benefit of the doubt. Then a second issue arises several months later with the same process…. the live chat person as he was checking on something “Ended the session” and thinking it was and accident tried live chat again. He connected again and then immediately “Ended the Session”. 3rd time it was fixed through live chat with a different person, but that was 3 hrs of my day and nothing explained. THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY!” (Capterra)
While Weave is one of the oldest players in the texting game, they seriously lack in their support and is on the pricer end.
5. Luma Health
Luma Health is healthcare specific communication platform that is HIPAA compliant. Luma Health’s patient Success Platform enables providers and patients to seamless connect through texting.
Here is what some of Luma Health’s users have to say about its texting features:
Review
“Luma has also brought a suite of texting tools that have largely shifted incoming patient interactions from our phones to their texting web Hub which the front office staff and the patients love.” (Capterra)
“There have been times we have sent a luma text to a patient and they did not receive it. This meant valuable information was not given to the patient prior to their visit.” (Capterra)
Support
Luma Health has a rating of 4.7 for Customer Service on Capterra. Here is what users have to say about Luma Health’s support.
“What is still a hard concept to get used too is not being able to call customer support. There are certain topics that in my opinion require talking to a live person immediately. Maybe having the ability to chat instantly online with someone would be helpful as a way to distinguish if it is a true emergency to talk to someone over more routine questions.” (Capterra)
“ Luma’s customer service is absolutely top notch, to be clear I have ZERO complaints about that. But it’s hard that the main way to get a hold of Luma for support is by email/ticketing. We are located on the east coast and because of the time difference sometimes the answers to my questions come after I leave for the day and I don’t get to address them until the next morning.” (Capterra)
Advantages of Patient Texting
Patient text messaging helps both providers and patients in a variety of ways. Let’s explore these advantages:
For Patients
1. More active participation in the care process
2. Better coordination with the care team
3. Easy way to communicate with the provider outside a clinical setting
4. Secure transmission of health information
5. Easy rescheduling, cancellation, and confirmation of appointments without having to log in to a separate portal or making any calls
6. Convenience with responding to messages
For Providers
1. Reduced call volume by 40 % as now a majority of queries can be handled through texts
2. 50% reduction in costs as text messages are way cheaper than calls
3. More than 4 hours saved everyday as a result of efficient communication via text messages
4. 90% reduction in no-shows and cancellations as providers can follow up with patients regarding their appointments
5. Providers can reach out to patients even after office hours through texts
6. Enhanced provider-patient relationships
7. They need not worry about the security of messages if they’re using a HIPAA compliant texting app
8. Allows easy and secure collection of data
Implement Patient Texting With Emitrr’s Advanced Capabilities
As a healthcare provider, building strong relationships with your patients is crucial to help them achieve their health goals and texting is the most convenient and accessible communication channel that can assist you in building a strong patient community. To make the most of texting as a functionality, you need a software that is HIPAA compliant, secure, and offers everything you need to converse smoothly with your patients. Emitrr is one such solution that allows you to:
- Implement secure patient messaging through a separate functionality
- Relieve you of all the stress with respect to TCPA and HIPAA compliance
- Respond to patients even on holidays or out-of-office hours through text message templates and autoresponders
- Sync your conversations to help you manage everything from a single dashboard
- Keep your schedules full by sending automated appointment reminders to patients
- Send bulk marketing messages with clear opt-in/opt-out instructions
- Ask for feedback from the patients
- Give patients the chance to schedule their own appointments
All this is available at a flexible price and round the clock support. Why take the burden of patient texting on your shoulders when you can automate most of the tasks and spend your time scaling your practice?
FAQs
1. What to do if a patient texts you?
You may respond to the patient’s text, just ensure that you do not include any identifiers such as the patients full name, date of birth, medical details, or social security number in the message. Make sure that you are texting in a HIPAA Compliant manner.
2. Is texting a patient a HIPAA violation?
As long as you engage in secure texting, making sure that you do not reveal any PHI, you can text your patients. If these mentioned steps are not followed then it counts as a HIPAA violation.
3. Do doctors text patients?
Doctors may text patients as long as they safeguard the patient health information (PHI). Doctor patient communication is allowed as long as it follows HIPAA compliance rules.
4. What is medical texting?
The use of texting in a healthcare setting is medical texting. Medical texting needs to follow HIPAA compliance rules to ensure that PHI is always protected.
Conclusion
Patient text messaging is not an easy feat to achieve. You need to simultaneously manage hundreds of patients and is not possible to do so manually, especially when you have to take care of compliance standards set by regulatory authorities. You need to provide exceptional care to your patients, while also scaling your practice along the way. Hence it is important to automate your processes and ensure that no patient is left unanswered or unattended. Invest in a patient texting software today and witness your growth numbers skyrocket. Book a demo to learn more: https://emitrr.com/schedule/
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