Across the country, no show rates in the health care industry have risen up to 30%. Studies found that 1 out of 10 patients miss their appointments. No shows are impactful for both medical institutions and their patients. It comes at a high cost and an increase in the wait time for other patients.
One of the most common reasons for those missed appointments is simply patients forgetting.
One solution to reduce no show rates is to adopt text messaging to communicate with your patients.
Text messaging is less-time consuming and more efficient. As the digital world evolves rapidly, more and more people use smartphones which makes texting a great way of communicating. According to studies, texting has a higher open rate of 98% in comparison to email which has an open rate of 20%. On top of that, the response rate is also higher when it comes to texting, 45%, whereas 6% of emails get a response.
Here are a few examples to illustrate the effectiveness of text messaging.
Medical institutions will be able to send appointment reminders by text message or simple confirmation messages to resolve the issue of patients forgetting their appointments.
If patients are unable to make the appointment, they can simply send a text message to notify you instead of having a no show.
For hard of hearing patients who often rely on a family member or a friend to communicate with the clinic, texting allows a direct channel of communication with the patient.
At VestaChat we allow clinics to be able to communicate with their patients via text messaging. There is no need to change phone numbers, as we can transform your landline and make it text capable. Alternatively, we can provide you with a new number, allowing you to send and receive text messages right from the convenience of your desktop or laptop.
To save time, you can create message templates or create custom/personalized messages. We offer one-way messaging if you do not want or need a response. We also offer two-way messaging that allows you to have conversations with patients. For patients with busy schedules, they may not get the chance to give a call to the institution, however, sending a text message only takes a few seconds.
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