It is 2021, the world has been going through a pandemic for a year now. As things slowly get better, everyone still has to be careful and safe. Between stay-at-home orders and lockdowns, you may be wondering how medical institutions can keep their patients safe, other than protective measures imposed by the government.
As you have possibly noticed, many stores have started to communicate with their customers upon arrival to the stores for pick up purposes and safety purposes in order to limit contact with the customers and to practice social distancing.
Here are reasons why adopting text messages can keep patients safe during COVID-19.
Updates on waiting times
In case you did not know, text messaging is the communication method that has the highest open rate of 98%. As soon as a text message notification is received, it has already captured the person’s attention. Thanks to that, medical institution can update almost on live the waiting time, as it tends to change constantly. This can help to reduce the number of patients in the waiting areas, and therefore avoid overcrowding closed spaces or line ups.
Update on emergencies
In the case of a cluster forming in a medical institution, sending a message to all the patients that could have possibly been in contact with a Covid patient will allow people and their families to move into a self-isolating process much faster. If one uses email, it could go in the spam section and go unnoticed for days. Although news channels react quickly to cover outbreaks, it is not as fast as a text message that can be typed in 90 seconds.
Screening patients before arrival
As mentioned above, open rate to text messages is high. Additionally, it has one of the highest response rates as well. Healthcare facilities can screen their patients though text message upon their arrival or a day ahead. Screening patients is mandatory and doing it through text messaging will save time and therefore drive the waiting time down and potentially keep away future Covid outbreaks.