The Ultimate Guide to Healthcare Text Messaging

Introduction To Healthcare Text Messaging

Since SMS has an open rate of 98%, it is being widely embraced by healthcare providers as a source of communication both externally and internally. There are so many ways you can use texting for, be it for verifying insurance details beforehand, sending X-rays, reports, and other images, to communicating with the patient and their family for updates, patient status, etc.

If you are growing to the idea of implementing texting in your healthcare space, then keep reading and see for yourself the importance, use cases, and benefits of texting for healthcare in this guide. 

Importance of Healthcare Text Messaging

In a hospital, communication for things like complex cases, patient rounds, huddles, or briefings needs to be done face-to-face. But for things like checking on a patient’s status or follow-ups, team communication, etc., doctors rely on texting instead, which helps them save precious time. Here are a few reasons showing the importance of texting in healthcare:

Expedites patient diagnosis process

Patient assessment and diagnosis involve asking your team to run some lab tests, blood tests, get image reports, etc., and texting for healthcare helps immensely in this. Once your team gets the clinical findings or assessment results, they can quickly share the report/images or any other details with you via SMS and help you make quick decisions for the next steps. 

Improves patient care coordination

In-person communication can’t be relied upon for making life-and-death decisions; in such cases, speed is everything. Even verbal updates or pagers can lead to unclear or missed messages. And so, when it comes to patient care coordination, communicating via SMS could be a game changer, allowing the team to coordinate quickly and take necessary action. Texting can eliminate the need for in-person waiting, provide clear messages, and even allow for a threaded conversation. 

Promotes faster patient follow-ups 

In time-sensitive cases, slow sharing of lab/test results could be critical to a patient’s health. In test results verbal follow-ups, there is also a lack of accountability as to who received or followed up on the results. Securing messaging can help in sharing the test results directly to the doctor’s phone with a confirmation receipt. Using it, you can even tag responsible clinicians and keep track of accountability. 

Reduces delays in patient care

You can share patient progress or your patient’s response to treatment plans with your team during bedside rounds or shift handoffs. But what if you find out that your patient is not responding as anticipated, and the right person or team members are not available? Waiting for their availability could be critical to the patient’s health, and as such, secure texting for healthcare could help expedite the decision-making process. 

Improves hospital communication 

Verbal communication within a team could result in inconsistency or incorrect understanding. For example, ICU teams often need to share key status changes for all patients during different shifts, and for this, verbal communication can just not be relied upon. In this case, a secure healthcare messaging app could allow you to start a group chat, ensuring everyone is updated on different cases and is on the same page. 

Improves family and patient communication

Given the busy schedule of doctors and staff members, it is not always possible to share patient updates with the family face-to-face, but it can still be done efficiently via healthcare texting software. Using such apps, you can create a group, share updates about the diagnoses, treatment options, and prognosis, address common questions, and provide follow-up care information to the patient’s family efficiently. 

Enhances hospital cost management

Managing a hospital’s resources in an efficient way is a must. When it comes to addressing bottlenecks, identifying delays in patient care, or simply coordinating schedule changes and staff availability, a secure medical texting app can be super convenient.

Allows for audit trail 

Verbal communication may result in a lack of accountability, but when communication is done via a secure texting app for healthcare, all conversations are logged, timestamped, and tied to the patient record, ensuring there is an audit trail maintained. 

Improves patient engagement & patient experience 

As per Silverline, 62% of patients value continuous engagement and good communication with their provider above all else. And to ensure consistent communication with your patients, be it for sharing pre-op care and post-op care instructions, sending appointment follow-ups or reminders, or answering any other patient query, patient messaging software is a must.

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Benefits of Healthcare Text Messaging

Now that you know the importance of texting in healthcare, let us see what are the benefits of text messaging in healthcare:

Meet patient expectations

As per a survey by dialog help, here’s what your patients expect from you:

• 64% of patients favor conversational messaging over transactional and traditional text interactions.
• 79% of patients want their providers to offer the option of initiating text-based conversations.
• 80% of patients want to receive reminders and follow-ups via text. 
• 68% of consumers prefer healthcare providers who offer the flexibility to book, reschedule, or cancel appointments online.
• 92% of patients expect personalized messages and reminders from their providers. 
• 79% patients want prescription refill reminders

By embracing secure texting for healthcare, you can better cater to your patients’ expectations and help improve patient experience. 

Boost patient retention with SMS

Lack of post-discharge communication makes patients feel disconnected from their providers, deters them from engaging in their own health, leading to a poor experience. Text messaging is a great way of improving personalised responses at scale and keeping patients engaged post their discharge. 

Save cost & time 

By using automated text messaging in healthcare, you can free up your front desk and staff from performing repetitive tasks, such as sending appointment reminders, prescription refills, and SMS, and even offer them patient self-scheduling options. By streamlining these manual tasks, you can save your employees time, save costs, and let them focus on actual patient care. 

Automate payment reminders & collection

Using a healthcare messaging app, you can send billing notifications when the bill is ready along with a payment link redirecting the patient to a secure payment portal. You can also automate friendly payment reminders in case of any due bills and get paid swiftly.

Manage refill reminder with ease

Sending prescriptions reminders can be a great way to elevate the patient experience to the next level. With a healthcare texting app, you can send refill reminders to your patients and they can send a confirmation reply allowing you to keep their prescription ready for pick up. You can also send alerts for these pickups and simplify the entire process. 

Gather more patient reviews

Did you know SMS has an open rate of 98% and thus, it’s a great medium to gather more reviews and boost your clinic’s online reputation. With a patient texting app with review management, you can automate review collection after every patient visit. You can either send a review link or a feedback survey form to get feedback on the kind of service you offer and improve your healthcare online reputation. 

Improve patient adherence in medication 

Not adhering to treatment plans is one of the biggest reasons for patient readmission, and this can easily be avoided via texting. SMS can also be used to send medication reminders, health tips, post-care instructions, etc., and improve the patient’s adherence to treatment plans. With two-way texting, you can even allow them to text you back, ask your doubts, if any, and help them heal better.    

Reduce patient no-show rates 

Did you know each missed or no-show appointment can cost you $200 on average or more? And the no-show rate in healthcare is currently 23.5% on average. If you are also struggling with high no-show rates, then secure healthcare messaging app can be a great medium for you to reduce the number. This is because SMS has a very high open rate compared to emails or other kinds of messages. 

Free up hospital front-desk staff

Tackling more appointments means hiring more front desk staff, burning them out because of the repetitive manual tasks. Why waste your resources on repetitive tasks when you can automate most of the work? By implementing the right healthcare SMS software, you can automate appointment reminders and follow-ups and even allow the patient to text back and confirm if they will show up or want to reschedule their appointment while ensuring your front desk is focused on other important tasks, like assisting distressed family members. 

Use Cases of Texting for Healthcare

Texting in healthcare can be utilized in so many ways for smooth and effective communication between departments that are involved in a patient’s life cycle. Here are different use cases of secure messaging app for healthcare, right from the start to the end of a patient journey. 

1. Reducing Appointment Delays & No-Shows

If the patient has already made an appointment then you can use a secure medical messaging app to send them appointment reminders, you can offer digital check-ins to avoid long waiting times, and you can share patient forms with uploadable insurance links so that the patient’s insurance details can be verified beforehand. 

2. Clinical Triage Management

For emergency patients, you can utilise SMS to collect pre-triage symptom information. This could obviously only work if the patient is in the capacity of responding or is accompanied by someone who can do this on their behalf. If this is the case, then having pre-triage information can allow you to prioritize patients before they walk in, set queue positioning, and allow two-way texting. It can even help you direct patients based on the triage information. For example, you could text them saying: “Please proceed to Room 4 for vitals” to reduce overcrowding or any confusion at the reception. 

3. Patient Updates & Care Coordination

Patients feel anxious in a hospital as it is; by texting them, you can keep them in the loop of what to expect next. Using SMS, you can notify patients of physician assignment & ETA, collect any additional information for symptom clarification, direct the patient to the right room/department, share updates on how long they are expected to wait for the next steps, request consent, etc. Even the medical team can use it to communicate with each other or to flag patients to physicians who require care privately or on priority.  

4. Internal staff communication

Nurses can use text messaging to share patient summaries during handover, alert fellow nurses for new tasks or stat orders, and communicate with the patient’s family to keep them posted. They can use it to direct patients to the next steps, send alerts for critical situations, or communicate with different departments, such as imaging, pathology, etc., without leaving the patient’s side.

5. Lab Results & Pathology Communication

Texting can streamline lab interactions: nurses or doctors can quickly request or confirm lab orders, and the lab team can respond with documents or images for rapid decision-making. Notifications for test result availability, STAT requests, and inter-department communication help ensure timely clinical decisions.

6. Bed Management 

Poor bed management is the biggest reason for delays in patient intake and is one of the biggest problems that the healthcare industry faces. Here are a few use cases of texting for bed management:

• Bed availability and assignment: Texting can be used to notify the admission team when a bed becomes available, alert departments when a specialty bed (e.g., isolation, ICU) is ready, etc.
• Patient transfers: SMS can be used to alert the transport or nurse team when the patient is ready to be transferred from ED, OR, or ICU to an inpatient bed. It can also be used to notify managers about upcoming discharges so they can plan bed assignments accordingly, etc.
• Discharge communication: SMS can be used to notify the housekeeping team about when the discharge is scheduled and to send reminders to physicians to complete discharge paperwork, etc.
• Family communication: You can give family updates about room assignments during long waits or estimated discharge time so that they can prep for transportation. 

7. Medication Delivery & Refill Reminders

Healthcare sms messaging can be used to streamline medication delivery and expedite the discharge process by notifying nurses when the meds are ready. The pharmacy team can even send refill reminders to patients and SMS alerts when their medication is ready for pick up, and help in improving patient experience post-discharge. 

8. Meal Coordination

By using healthcare text messaging software, the dietary department can make quick meal adjustments and reduce clinical errors associated with dietary needs. For example, they can receive timely notifications about a patient’s allergies or intolerances, as well as updates on new dietary orders and food status. 

9. Post-Discharge Help

Some medical cases may require the involvement of social workers, and texting can be a great way to schedule meetings with family members, coordinate discharge details, or share rehab or home health contact details post-patient discharge. All this can immensely help with better family communication and reduced readmissions. 

10. Billing Reminders & Payment Collection

Since many healthcare software like Emitrr allows you to add tiny URLs, images, documents, etc., the billing department can use it to share copay, estimate, or payment links to collect any outstanding balances. The existing templates can be used to send payment reminders and follow-up messages without spending too much time. 

11. Collecting Patient Feedback

Finally, when the patient is discharged from the clinic. The front desk can use SMS to send survey forms or review links to collect patient feedback, helping improve HCAHPS scores and online reviews. They can also use it to send wellness and health tips to improve patient experience.  

Best Practices for Healthcare Text Messaging

Now that we know the power of text messaging for healthcare practices, it’s time we also learn about the compliance and regulatory requirements to make sure that patient privacy is maintained at all times. Also, understanding the best practices will help the healthcare practice to make the most out of text message communication. Let us have a look at the best practices for healthcare text messaging.

Get Patient Consent

It is important to take the consent of your patients before you start sending them health care text messages. You need to provide them with a clear explanation on the type of messages that the patient will be receiving and the frequency of the messages. Consent makes sure that the patients are aware and comfortable receiving communication through text messages. Having patient consent is not just a legal requirement but it is also about respecting patient choice to gain their trust. 

Provide SMS Opt Out Option

After taking patient consent as the first step to start patient or medical texting, it is time to offer opt-out options to the patients. This shows respect to the patients and gives them the flexibility to opt for text communication of their preferences. It also allows them to stop receiving messages whenever required. Healthcare practice simply needs to include an opt-out mechanism, like replying “STOP” to a message to stop getting further messages. This helps maintain compliance with the regulations and respect patient autonomy. 

Ensure HIPAA Compliance

Healthcare texting platforms require strict compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which is mandatory for the protection of patient information. This includes using secure chats for sharing important patient information. It also means using an end-to-end encrypted texting platform to protect the data. Always ensure that your messaging practices are aligned with HIPAA guidelines to protect patient privacy and avoid legal actions.

Use a Secure Texting App for Healthcare

Protecting patient information is of utmost importance. For this, use a secure messaging healthcare app that offers good encryption and security. A secure texting platform ensures that the messages are transmitted and stored in a way that meets the HIPAA standards. Securing messaging reduces the risk of data breaches and reassures patients that their information is handled with care.  

Train Your Staff To Stay HIPAA Compliant

Every healthcare practice needs to provide proper training to the staff to ensure that the staff understands the legal and ethical obligations involved in sending healthcare text messages. The training should cover HIPAA regulations, obtaining patient consent, and proper use of secure messaging healthcare apps. Regular training sessions will help the team to stay updated with the compliance and help them avoid unintentional breaches.

Gather Regular Patient Feedback

For continuous improvement in the text messaging practices, healthcare practices need to collect regular feedback from the patients. This will help in understanding patient preferences, learning about their issues, if any, and making changes to the texting style to boost overall patient experience. Gathering feedback via a healthcare messaging app shows that you value patient opinions and are committed to providing the best possible care.

Send Quick Responses to Patients

Sending timely communication is the key to effective patient care. Make sure to set up a quick response for the patients sending enquiry messages. Sending prompt replies improves patient satisfaction and helps in maintaining the flow of communication.

Offer Personalization via Healthcare Messaging

Sending personalized text messages enhances patient engagement. Use patient names and customize messages to patients’ specific needs. Personalized communication makes patients feel valued and understood, making them more loyal to your practice.

Challenges of Healthcare Messaging

There are only a few potential challenges that you can face when using texting for healthcare, but the good thing is that it can be dealt with if you choose the right patient texting software. So, let’s first take a look at the challenges healthcare messaging:

Lack of safety

Texting patients involves sharing information/documents, etc., that can be sensitive or confidential, and platforms that are not end-to-end encrypted might put patient data at risk. However, there are many healthcare texting platforms, like Emitrr, that offer strict security features like end-to-end encryption, two-factor authentication, and even user access control. By choosing the right secure SMS platform you can ensure your patient’s PHI remains safe, always. 

Potential legal consequences

Another issue with patient text messaging is that if the patient’s PHI gets jeopardized, you can get in legal trouble. This is because, as we shared, text messages may contain sensitive patient information that may be subject to legal regulations, including those outlined by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). But, again, this can also be dealt with if you ensure that the texting platform you choose is HIPAA compliant. 

So, while there are a few challenges in implementing texting for healthcare, they can be dealt with by choosing the right text messaging software for healthcare providers. 

How To Setup SMS For Healthcare Using Emitrr?

Emitrr is a secure HIPAA compliant messaging platform that helps healthcare practices send text messages for reminders, confirmations, follow-ups, review requests, and more. Emitrr is one of the most preferred text messaging platforms of healthcare practices to automate their manual tasks and sending patient text messages. 

Here’s how you can setup SMS for healthcare using Emitrr in these simple steps – 

1. Connect with Emitrr’s team to use your current business number for texting
2. Once your number has been text-enabled, you will be given a login access to this secure healthcare messaging platform
3. Now you can start sending text messages by clicking on Send on the top right bar.
4. You can easily integrate your EHR/EMR/PMS to get all your contact list on Emitrr.
5. You can then create campaigns, set up auto responses and more using the platform.
6. You can also send secure messages to the patients by enabling the secure chat option. Here’s a video to help you do the same.

Here’s a video showing how you can use Emitrr for healthcare texting:

What Can You Do With Emitrr’s Secure HIPAA Compliant Text Messaging?

With Emitrr’s secure HIPAA Compliant text messaging you can automate a lot of workflows and reduce operations time of your staff. Emitrr offers a comprehensive suite of features that support the entire patient journey, from appointment management to bringing patients back for follow-ups. Here are some key features:

• Send 2-way Texts: You can send 2-way text messages to your patients to keep the conversation even more engaging.
• Group Messages: Using Emitrr’s healthcare messaging system can create groups and send text messages to keep multiple people in the loop.
• Broadcast Messages: Send SMS for healthcare to a list of people individually by creating a simple broadcast list.
• Appointment Reminders: Send automated or manual reminders to ensure patients never miss an appointment using this secure sms platform.
• Digital Patient Intake Forms: Using this healthcare messaging system, you can securely send and receive patient intake forms online.
• PMS Data Syncing: Automatically sync form data to your practice management system (PMS).
• Appointment Status Updates: Update appointment statuses directly in the PMS.
• Review Requests: Request reviews from patients after their appointments.
• Hygiene Recall: Remind patients to return for hygiene check-ups when due using this secure sms platform.

Additionally, you can view and manage appointments directly from your calendar using various filter criteria:

• By provider
• By visit type
• By patient
• By date range

In-chat Features

Emitrr goes the extra mile by offering a range of features directly within the chat interface, refining your conversation management.

• Add Depth with Notes: Enhance discussions by adding notes to your conversations.
• Organize Chat Space: Keep things organized by categorizing conversations as read or unread.
• Customize Dispositions: Monitor progress by customizing dispositions, staying informed about every conversation.
• Streamlined Focus: Instantly differentiate between open and closed conversations to streamline your focus.
• Clutter-Free Workspace: Effortlessly organize conversations into folders for a clutter-free workspace.
• Control Contacts: Exercise control by blocking contacts when needed for a secure and focused communication environment.
• Record-Keeping: Securely print conversations for record-keeping, maintaining a tangible archive of important discussions.
• AI agent: Utilize Emitrr’s AI agent to respond to patient texts. Create replies using AI or automate conversations. 

See what Emitrr’s AI agent can do for your healthcare:

Case Study For Healthcare Texting

Emitrr’s client, Niagra Falls Urgent Care, operates urgent care centers that offer medical services to patients who need immediate care for non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries. Some services offered by the company include diagnosis and treatment of common illnesses, physical exams, vaccinations, and laboratory testing.

Now, NF Urgent Care faces the challenge of patients missing appointments and having difficulty scheduling and booking appointments. The manual patient intake process was cumbersome and was leading to errors and delays. 

They solved this, they decided to implement Emitrr and now patients were able to book appointments with ease and receive reminders for upcoming appointments via text messages. With Emitrr, the staff was able to send digital forms to the patients before an appointment, which simplified the registration process and reduced errors. 

Emitrr’s automation helped NL Urgent Care to improve efficiency and reduce manual workload for staff, saving 90+ hours of manual work. 

Read more case stories and see how Dr. Mary Tilak and Associates reduced no-shows by 90% and how Josey Medical Clinic boosted their website conversions with Emitrr. 

FAQs

Conclusion

Text messaging has become an invaluable tool in modern healthcare, offering a convenient and efficient way to communicate with patients and streamline practice operations. By integrating SMS into your practice, you can enhance patient engagement, reduce missed appointments, and improve overall patient satisfaction. However, it’s crucial to implement best practices, such as obtaining patient consent, ensuring HIPAA compliance, and using secure messaging platforms to protect patient privacy. With thoughtful use, text messaging can transform the way your practice connects with patients, leading to better care and stronger patient relationships.

Start your HIPAA compliant sms messaging journey today with Emitrr. Book a demo to talk to our team today.