SMS for Doctors: Use Cases, Benefits & Best Software

Introduction

Beyond connecting friends and family, SMS is now being utilized in the healthcare industry for patient communication. Because of the speed, efficiency, and ability to be HIPAA-compliant, SMS for doctors is something that healthcare professionals are quickly switching towards. And if you are also considering the same, then keep on reading to explore just how beneficial texting for doctors can be and how you can implement it. 

What is SMS for Doctors?

SMS for doctors includes communicating with patients and staff members via SMS messaging. SMS is a highly effective form of communication, so much so that it is reported that 90% of people read an SMS within 30 minutes of receiving it. So whether you are a physician, veterinarian, med spa owner, dentist, orthopedic doctor, etc., you should implement SMS messaging with the help of HIPAA-compliant SMS software. Such software comes with texting features that allow you to send appointment reminders, follow-up messages, automated bookings & appointments, gather reviews, and more! Keep on reading to find out how exactly you can achieve all this. 

Benefits of SMS for Doctors 

Texting for doctors can be utilized in plenty of ways, here is how you can make the most out of this communication mode: 

Reduce patient no-show rates

Since SMS has a high open rate, it is one of the best ways to send appointment reminders. Appointment reminders can reduce the chance of patients not showing up or forgetting about their appointments. Studies have shown that SMS reminders can reduce no-show rates by up to 26%. Hence, utilizing SMS for doctors can be beneficial for you.  

Offer convenience to patients

Doctors can utilize SMS services to send reminders and clinical alerts to their patients. Studies have shown that mobile text messaging almost doubles the odds of medication adherence, so SMS is a great way to send medication reminders as well. Apart from this, SMS for doctors can be used to send annual reminders, regular check-up reminders, educational messaging, precautionary reminders, and much more! 

Improve patient engagement 

By utilizing SMS as a medium to keep your patients in the loop for their appointments, pre and post-treatment care instructions, medication reminders, etc., you can keep your patients engaged with your healthcare service and even improve the patient experience. 

Reduce operating cost 

SMS software comes with automation capability. Using SMS automation, you can reduce the manual labor costs associated with staff management, appointment scheduling, and more. By streamlining these redundant tasks, healthcare professionals can put their labor and resources to better use and reduce unnecessary operating costs. 

Share lab results quickly

SMS services support the option to share files, images, links, etc., so you can utilize this communication medium, to even share lab or test results with your patients. This means, your patients do not need to visit you again and again and waste their time in a waiting room. 

Build your online reputation

SMS can also be utilized to send surveys and links to patients to gather patient reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc. Since reviews are key to building an online reputation, you must take advantage of SMS as a communication channel to increase your visibility online and attract more patients. 

Use Cases of SMS for Doctors

SMS for hospitals and doctors have plenty of use cases, let us have a look at some of them: 

Send automated reminders & follow-ups

You can use text messaging to automate reminders and follow-ups for your patients and allow them to respond to you with options to confirm, reschedule or cancel the appointment.  Not only this, you can even set up multiple reminders and follow-ups and space out when to send them- For example, 5 days prior, 3 days prior, 1 day prior, etc. 

Scheduling 

Get in touch with your patients and let them book an appointment with you. A simple- “Hey, haven’t seen you in a while for your regular dental cleanup, would you like to book an appointment, Y/N,” can help your patients get back to you. Leverage this and increase your patient recall rate. 

Use SMS templates for doctors

Who has the time to type a new message every time? Simply send an SMS using an existing template for different kinds of communication. You can even create your own template and save it for future use, or you can customize the existing templates and make them relevant to your healthcare service needs. 

Get reviews & feedback from patients

SMS for hospitals and doctors is a great way to engage patients and urge them to leave a review for your healthcare service. Just include a review link in the SMS body and automate the process to start getting reviews for your practice. 

Send lab or test results with links & files

Stop bothering your patients to visit your clinic to collect their test or lab results. Instead, give them an amazing patient experience and reduce wait time by sending them these tests or lab results via SMS in the form of images, files, doc links, etc. 

Send alerts or promotional messages 

Use SMS to send alerts such as changes in the appointment schedule of a provider(s) or simply use it to send promotional SMS to a large number of people at once via features like bulk or mass SMS texting. 

Missed call follow-ups 

Text messaging is also a great way to engage with callers whose phone calls you may have missed. Some SMS platforms allow you to send automated SMS to your patients as soon as the call is missed. This ensures that the potential patient is engaged and that you do not miss out on a lead, if any.

5 Best SMS Software for Doctors

Emitrr

Emitrr is one of the best HIPAA-compliant SMS software for doctors. The software comes with plenty of patient communication & engagement tools but specializes in texting features. Emitrr also seamlessly integrates with over 500 EHR/PMS tools and is the only software that has a 5-star Capterra rating for its customer service. Emitrr offers volume-based SMS pricing starting at just $149 a month, which you can upgrade or downgrade easily with flexibility. If you are looking for an all-rounder SMS software for doctors that offers the best value for money, then Emitrr is for you!

Best features of Emitrr:

• Mass/group texting
• Secure texting
• Templates & customization
• Drip campaigns
• Two-way texting
• File sharing feature
• Appointment reminders & confirmations
• Appointment scheduling
• Appointment follow-up features
• Text automation
• Conversation management
• Missed-call-to-text
• And more..

Doctible

Doctible is a popular patient communication tool and messaging software that lets you automate two-way conversations with two-way texting or live chat. This SMS software for doctors caters to dental, optometry, chiropractic, orthodontics, and other medical fields. Doctible has an overall rating of 4.8 stars on Capterra and is a good SMS software. However, it is quite expensive, with plans ranging from $199 per month to $299 per month.

Best features of Doctible  

Here are some of the best texting features of Doctible

• Customize message by type
• Flag messages
• Patient grouping
• Birthday email messages
• Two-way hipaa-compliant texting

Weave

Weave is another well-known SMS software for doctors. This software caters to different medical fields, including dental, medical spa, eye care, plastic surgery, medical therapy, etc. Weave has an overall rating of 4.3 on Capterra and offers four different pricing options starting at $399 a month. Apart from this, Weave also charges a hefty set-up fee of $750, which makes it an expensive software compared to other better options.

Best texting features of Weave:

• Mass/bulk texting
• Missed call texting
• Appointment reminders
• Two-way texting
• Schedule confirmations

Solutionreach

Solutionreach is an all-in-one patient communication software that comes with features that cover different aspects of patient communication, such as scheduling, billing, texting, etc. The software caters to both small and enterprise-level medical practices. Solutionreach has an overall rating of 3.8/5 and offers three kinds of pricing options starting at $329 a month. This platform also charges a setup fee of $399, making it expensive compared to other options listed in this guide.

Best texting features of Solutionreach:

• Batch messaging
• Website-chat widget
• Access conversation history
• Text from desktop or mobile app
• Telehealth option

NexHealth

NexHealth is a patient experience platform that comes with tools like appointment reminders, SMS for doctors, self-scheduling, and more. NexHealth seamlessly integrates with a number of EHR/PMS tools, and holds a rating of 4.9 stars on Capterra. The software caters to healthcare professionals of all specializations and has pricing options starting at $350 a month.

Best texting features of NexHealth:

• SMS campaigns
• Reminders & recalls feature
• Forms
• Automated messages
• Secure messaging 

Why Emitrr is the best SMS Software for Doctors?

After looking at the five best SMS software for doctors, we think Emitrr is the best option to consider, and here’s why:

Integration with PMS/EHR

Emitrr seamlessly integrates with PMS/EHR tools and software such as AthenaHealth, Denticon, DrChrono, eClinicalWorks, Practiceworks, etc., so no matter which software or tool you are using to capture patient information, you can easily sync the same with Emitrr. You can use it to pull patient information and history when conversing with them via SMS or call. Or when you are looking for contact details to send out SMS one-on-one or in bulk. 

Excellent customer support

Emitrr takes great pride in offering exceptional 24×7 customer support to patients and is even rated 5/5 by customers on Capterra. This high rating is a testament to Emitrr’s customer service and is something you will never be disappointed with. 

HIPAA-compliant

HIPAA-compliant texting for doctors is something that you just can’t overlook, and Emitrr takes this aspect very seriously. Emitrr is a HIPAA-compliant texting software that comes with safety features such as end-to-end encryption, secure PHI usage, access restrictions, user authentication, and more to ensure you can carry out patient communication with ease. 

Chat securely 

Emitrr offers a cool, secure chat feature, which, once enabled, takes the patient and the user to a secure gateway wherein they can securely and privately exchange important information.

Team collaboration & management 

Emitrr offers features for team collaboration and team management. Emitrr’s team collaboration features include options like team chats, team groups, mentions, etc., which can be used for communicating with your entire team at once. Its team management features include options like assigning a conversation to a specific team member, conversation tags, member-level access, and more to easily manage patient conversations.

Automations

Using Emitrr, you can automate so many crucial processes; for example, by sending appointment reminders and follow-ups, you can reduce your no-show rate and increase patient retention. By automating review requests, you can build your online reputation on auto-pilot mode. And by automating scheduling-related tasks, you can reduce manual work and put your staff and resources to better use.

Rich in SMS features 

Since we are talking about SMS, how can we forget to add the variety of SMS features Emitrr offers? Be it one-on-one texting, mass or bulk texting, automation, templates, toll-free numbers, and more, Emitrr offers all the possible texting features that may be needed for smooth doctor-patient communication. 

Learn how you can use Emitrr’s texting features for doctor and patient communication in this video:

FAQs

Conclusion

Utilizing SMS for doctors could be a game changer for reducing no-shows, increasing patient retention rate, improving patient experience, improving reputation, and a lot more! However, all this must be done while complying with HIPAA, for which you will require HIPAA-compliant SMS software. If Emitrr caught your eye, then book a demo with us and learn more!