In March we offered to send COVID-19 patient communications out for our customers from our platform at no charge. Here’s how it’s working.
A couple of weeks ago we offered to help you with your COVID-19 patient communications during the pandemic by sending out texts and emails to your patients through our platform. You have responded, and we’ve sent out over 500,000 communications so far. You may be interested to learn about the effectiveness of sending out those communications.
Improved Appointment Scheduling
One of our large medical groups with over 500 physicians wanted help with a struggling medical practice in their group. The practice had seen a 75% drop in appointments due to COVID-19 concerns. Patients canceled appointments without understanding telemedicine options or the safety measures and protocols the practice had put in place. The group reached out to us, and we sent a text and/or email to every patient. We informed patients about current hours and when they should or shouldn’t cancel appointments. We also let the patients know about their telemedicine options.
The practice experienced a significant increase in appointments, and schedules began to fill back up with telemedicine appointments and some urgent care visits. The large medical group implemented the same process with other struggling practices with similar results.
Filling in COVID-19 Patient Communication Gaps
Some medical practices have communication systems set up and don’t need our help, but we’re finding that is not the case for many. Every medical practice simply is not set up to easily send communications to specific groups of patients. Because our platform integrates with your practice management system, and we are already set up to send out text and email communications, we can get these COVID-19 patient communications sent for you. Just let us know who you would like to send the message to (all patients in the past 6 months, upcoming appointments, etc.) and what you would like to say. We will get everything set up for you.
If you currently send us information via files, simply send us a file with the contact information of the people you want to send to. We can take it from there. Contact your customer success manager to find out more about what the process would look like for your group.
Snapshot of what we’re sending out:
- Most of the communications we send out are mass communications to all patients letting them know of telemedicine options and COVID-19 practice updates.
- Some practices send emails or texts to patients with upcoming appointments letting them know the safety protocols the practice has implemented.
- Texting is limited to only 320 characters, so most text communication is very short. Some practices link to pdf files to communicate larger chunks of information.
- You do not have a limit to the number of characters you can send in an email. We have groups that send emails that include links to telemedicine schedulers and other resources that are beneficial to their patients.
Please let us know if there is any way we can help you during this disruptive time. We are standing by to send your COVID-19 patient communications for you. Thank you for all you’re doing.
