Unpredictable things can happen – natural disasters, weather emergencies, and other unforeseen circumstances can close your healthcare facility with little warning. When events like these happen, real-time communication with your patients is vital to maintain satisfaction and provide a positive patient experience. Patient broadcast messaging via text message can be the easiest and quickest way to contact your patients with urgent notices.
Broadcast Text Messaging is Key to Contacting Patients During Emergency Closures
When an emergency closure happens, it can wreak havoc on your schedule and cause an influx of calls, confusion, and frustration. A patient text messaging solution allows you to communicate quickly and efficiently across a large group of patients when information needs to be shared broadly.
Here are three important text message broadcast communications with examples to guide and inform patients:
- Communicating Closures
- Sending Contact Information
- Sharing Reopening Details
Use Patient Text Messaging to Communicate Closures
When a natural disaster or inclement weather strikes, it can be unsafe for healthcare facilities to stay open. The conditions can make it dangerous for patients and providers to travel, and loss of power or water supply issues may affect the facility’s ability to provide services. The first step in changing patients’ schedules on a large scale is to communicate the change. This is easily accomplished by sending broadcast closure text messages letting all patients know that the provider’s office or healthcare facility will be closed and all appointments will need to be rescheduled.
Send Important Contact Information to Patients
When providers cannot make it into the office, make sure patients know how to get in contact with their provider during the service outage in the event that they have an urgent need, such as a prescription refill. One option is an after-hours nurse triage phone line that can be utilized during an unforeseen closure. When facility closures or canceled appointments happen, it’s also important to remind patients to call 9-1-1 in case of an emergency—even during inclement weather.
Share Reopening Details with Patients
Eventually, your office will be ready to open and start accepting patients again. If you know the reopening date, communicate it to patients in advance to help fill your schedule more quickly. Rebooking cancellations and missed appointments are critical to recouping revenue and essential for patient health.
Rather than calling all patients whose appointments were missed, doctor’s office mobile messaging, or patient broadcast messaging, is a convenient way to notify patients and caregivers that your office has reopened. Include a link for patients to easily reschedule their missed appointment online for ease of use and improved conversion. If your building suffered damage prompting arrival instructions to change, be sure to include these details in an appointment confirmation text.
Patient Text Messaging Isn’t Just for Emergencies
Patient broadcast messaging can be powerful in an emergency, but it’s also a valuable solution for everyday notifications and alerts, such as flu, RSV, and COVID-19 vaccine reminders and availability. Streamlining testing and vaccine clinics requires preemptive and well-timed patient communications. Patient text messaging with links to online booking helps our clients educate, promote, and schedule for clinics while reminders ensure appointment times and prescreen requirements are respected.
Here are a few more ways to utilize a medical broadcast messaging solution:
- Provider delays or schedule changes
- Construction, entrance changes, and road closures
- Location and building changes
- New provider available at your facility
- New office hours or contact information
- Easy inpatient communications
- Virtual waiting room text reminders and check-in messages
- Employee onboarding and communications
- Referral reminders and scheduling texts
- Education, promotion, and scheduling for assessment centers and vaccine clinics
Natural disasters and unforeseen emergencies are bound to happen in the future; however, your health system can be better prepared by having a patient text messaging solution that allows you to send broadcast communications at a moment’s notice.
Engaging with patientsalong their care journey is critically important to drive access, action, and adherence. Talk to us today about implementing text broadcast messaging for your health system or clinic.
