How can medical practices use SMS to cancel appointments?

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The coronavirus epidemic is an unprecedented situation that has led governments around the world to ask citizens to help the health sector as much as possible. In France, doctors and medical students are training at high speed in nursing care, to strengthen AP-HP hospitals and fight the coronavirus. On the other hand, the French Hospital Federation is working on a rapidly industrializable respirator , in a national effort to fight the crisis.

While contributing to these actions may seem out of our control, there are some smaller steps we can take to help ease the strain on our health service, such as cancelling non-urgent appointments. Learn more about the benefits of using text messages to cancel non-urgent medical appointments:

SMS communications are immediate
In some cases, medical appointments may have to be cancelled at the last minute and this is where SMS can help. With an open rate of over 96%, medical practices can rest assured that their message will be read by the patient in a timely manner, unlike an email or a missed phone call.

SMS has a great reach
According to Statista , there are 51.4 million mobile phone users in France. SMS is therefore an ideal medium given its reach. Added to this is an incredible opening rate in record time. Currently, SMS is mainly used by the healthcare sector to send urgent information. By giving your patients a voice via SMS, thanks to two-way SMS, you will be able to find out if panama whatsapp list they will be able to attend the appointment. Indeed, you can send a questionnaire to find out more about the condition of your patients and if they have symptoms, such as a persistent cough or a high temperature. In addition, by using two-way SMS, patients will be able to respond easily and quickly via SMS to cancel or change their appointment.

Your patients are used to receiving SMS messages
According to INSEE , absenteeism represents 28 million missed medical appointments per year, representing a loss of 742 million euros for healthcare professionals . SMS reminders have reduced absences by 50% in some centers. With this in mind, it makes sense to inform patients via SMS when cancellations occur. By adding an option to the SMS message so that patients can cancel or call to reschedule an appointment, medical practices are ensuring that they give more time to patients who can attend appointments.

In addition to sending text messages to notify patients of appointment cancellations, medical practices can send text messages to advise their patients or share additional information.