Healthcare & SMS: A Prescription for Better Patient Outcomes
In the midst of our current global crisis one thing has become apparent - clear communication around healthcare is not only necessary, it can mean the difference between life and death.
We live in a world full of news feeds, click bait, and spam. Imagine having an essential piece of information that absolutely needed to get through the noise of our world to the person you’re trying to deliver it to. How would you go about doing that?
The answer could be as close as the palm of your hand.
For most of us, checking our phones is something that we could be doing every 12 minutes of our waking day. A great amount of that time is spent checking text messages, which have a 98% open rate and are usually responded to in under two minutes. That, paired with our “always on” mentality and crave for information at our fingertips, could be the key to clear healthcare communications.
What the Future Holds
We’ve all had to wait on hold with a customer support line, insurance companies, even our own doctors when we’re looking for a very simple and short answer. What if we were able to make that simple request from our phones via text and go about our days while we wait to receive the answer. This is how 91% of patients want to communicate with their care teams. While patient portals might aim to do this, they have proved largely ineffective due to usability, a patient’s age or education level, and our general preference for direct communication.
Many healthcare providers have opted for introducing patients to new communication channels, but few have moved to using a technology that’s already in place. This is why SMS is so invaluable when it comes to healthcare communications. The main challenge facing healthcare providers for using SMS is the need to be compliant with HIPAA regulations. This obstacle may seem daunting, but it can be easily circumvented.
Compliance: A Challenge and a Necessity
When healthcare providers look at using SMS for patient communication, it can seem like the wrong option. While HIPAA regulations around SMS can seem challenging to understand, it really comes down to two simple ideas: encryption and access. Healthcare providers must conduct any communication with a patient via SMS to travel over a completely secured and encrypted network.
Improving Patient Outcomes
Just as it is important to have well trained healthcare providers it is just as important to have a well-oiled patient communication machine. More than 250,000 deaths occur each year due to medical error, with an estimated 80% from miscommunication from the caregiver. Utilizing SMS to increase the deliverability of messages isn’t only a benefit to the patient. It’s estimated that missed appointments and no-shows cost the U.S. healthcare system $150 billion each year.
Benefits can also be seen in times of crisis when patients might not be able to physically reach a healthcare provider. As telehealth continues to rise, SMS is a great addition to this new form of healthcare that improves the ability to foster two-way communication between patients and their healthcare providers.
To learn more about healthcare SMS best practices, download the Telnyx Future of Healthcare Communications eBook.
