Healthcare is being revolutionized through text messaging. Patients are now able to communicate with their healthcare providers faster and more efficiently than ever before, thanks to the power of mobile messaging technology.
Whether you’re looking to engage patients with health tips, prescription refill reminders, or appointment reminders via text, Syniverse can help you unlock the power of text messaging for your healthcare portal. We’ll provide insight into how you can use our technology and services to improve patient engagement and enhance the overall experience within your EHR/EMR systems. Let’s get started!
Benefits of Patient Texting
According to a recent study published by Juniper Research, the global mobile business messaging market is expected to grow to $78 billion by 2027. Younger generations are driving this growing demand for text message communication, with many Millennials and Gen Z preferring text over voice, email, and even face-to-face communication.
Let’s look at some of the unique benefits of healthcare text messaging that have driven its rapid adoption.
1. Patient Engagement
When it comes to patient engagement, the key lies in creating a personalized experience. Mobile messaging technology is an effective way to do this, as it allows healthcare providers to quickly and easily communicate with their patients: sending appointment reminders, updates, and more.
Syniverse provides a comprehensive range of mobile messaging services that can help you create meaningful relationships between your healthcare portal and your patients.
2. Convenience
The easier it is for a patient to make an appointment, the more likely they are to follow through. Phone trees, hold times, and online portals that require a username and password to log in to are all barriers in the appointment-making process that secure, healthcare text messaging can eliminate. Using their mobile device, a patient can book or change an appointment from anywhere at any time.
3. Better Patient Support
Text messages sent to patients are tracked and logged within the EHR/EMR system for easy access. This way, healthcare providers can accurately keep track of all communication between them and their patients, ensuring a positive experience for everyone involved.
4. Improved Staff Efficiency
Text messaging isn’t just convenient for your patients—it lets your staff enjoy more efficient workflows, too. Calling patients to remind them of upcoming appointments and taking calls to cancel appointments is time-consuming. Automating the communication process with mobile messaging gives healthcare staff more time to focus on providing the best possible patient care.
5. Fewer No-Shows = More Revenue
Nowadays, most patients expect text reminders before an appointment. Without them, they’re more likely to forget or double book, resulting in costly no-shows.
When conflicts do arise, texting provides an easy way for patients to cancel appointments. This gives healthcare staff time to fill in openings and reduces the number of empty appointment spots, which means more revenue for your practice.
Text Messaging & HIPAA Compliance
If you’re considering adding text message marketing to your healthcare practice, one of your biggest concerns is likely HIPAA compliance.
While HIPAA allows patient texting, there are requirements a messaging platform must meet to be compliant, such as the protection of Patient Health Information, or PHI. Any information that can be used to potentially identify a patient is considered PHI, including:
- Names
- Email addresses
- Home addresses
- Phone numbers
- Birthdates
- Lab test results
- Medical records
To stay compliant with HIPAA guidelines, PHI should not be sent over SMS. Messages that do not contain personal information, such as appointment reminders, prescription refill reminders, health tips, and links to secure patient portals, are ok to send over text. As a rule of thumb, patient texts should include the absolute minimum amount of information necessary. For example:
- “One prescription ready for pick up. Hours 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.”
- “You have an appointment at 2:30 PM on Wednesday. Confirm here: [link to confirm] Can’t make it? [link to cancel] STOP to opt out.”
- Thanks for visiting! Could you take a moment to review your visit? [link to review]
Patient consent is another important requirement healthcare providers must be aware of. Patients should only receive texts if they’ve opted into receiving them, and they must be able to easily opt out at any time.
Messaging Technology Trends in Healthcare
Mobile messaging technology is constantly evolving, which means new ways to engage patients. At Syniverse, our goal is to help you stay ahead of the curve when it comes to healthcare innovation. That’s why we offer trending technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), giving your healthcare portal the power to deliver unparalleled experiences for patients. We also have analytics capabilities that allow you to better understand how your workflows are performing, enabling continuous improvement for optimal performance.
On top of that, our pharmacy services make it easy for healthcare providers to securely manage prescription refills or remind patients of upcoming appointments or medication changes/adjustments through text message notifications. This ensures that medications are taken on time while also keeping up-to-date records on each patient.
Unlock the Power of Healthcare Text Messaging with Syniverse
With Syniverse, healthcare portals can take advantage of mobile messaging technology like never before, unlocking the power of patient engagement through secure communications, innovative technologies, and pharmacy services that keep everyone up to date with minimal effort required.
From improved communication between doctors and patients to streamlined prescription management systems, there are countless ways that Syniverse Technologies can help your healthcare portal thrive in today’s digital age. Talk with an expert to learn more about our enterprise Mobile Messaging and customer engagement solutions!
Syniverse Senior Enterprise Account Executive | Head of Healthcare
A seasoned sales professional with a passion for solution-based selling. A self-starter, loyal, trustworthy, resourceful, and creative thinker. A customer-centric problem solver, who possesses grit, positive determination, and the ability to ruthlessly prioritize decisions.
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