![]() Some medical facilities these days have themed advertising, or the medical professional in charge might be known for having a sense of humor. With that said, don’t be afraid to show some personality if it’s on-brand. This is a great way to add appointment instructions to your appointment reminder message. Thankfully, long text message services allow you to send up to 1,600 characters. However, for an SMS appointment reminder, that could be too short. Traditionally, the limit for text messages is 160 characters. In addition, you need to be mindful of length. In other words, you can’t say, “Hey John, your blood pressure check is Monday.” Instead, you need to say, “Hey John, we have an appointment at (time and date).” In addition, you have to be somewhat discrete because of HIPAA regulations and other privacy rules. Unlike a text message you’d send to a friend, text message reminders are a new version of a form letter. Which provider would you go to? The one that treats you like a number, or the one that builds a relationship? How Do You Write An Appointment Reminder Text Message? In addition, getting that text message reminds patients that you care about them. ![]() And in the meantime, they might not get an issue addressed as soon. When patients miss appointments, they have to reschedule them. Now all you need is to be on time.īeing on time leads to our second impact of patient appointment reminders: better connections with your patients. No more stressing about whether or not you’re going to get paid, either. And, you’ll do it without cramming more scheduled appointments into your day. Think about this for a minute: if you can reduce your no-show rate, each additional patient you see earns money. No-show fees don’t make up for it, either. While you can make up for a few no-shows with work-ins, this won’t come close to the overall revenue loss. That’s because if someone doesn’t show up for their appointment, you don’t get insurance reimbursement for the visit.In addition, you still have to pay your staff and overhead. First, some estimates show that no-shows cost over $150,000, per provider, per year. There are a couple of ways that text message reminders help your bottom line. How Appointment Text Reminders Help Your Bottom Line For that reason, sending patient appointment reminders are one of the most effective tools to ensure that people make their appointment. These days, almost all American adults, some 95%, own a cellphone. Text messages are one of the best ways to reach people.In addition, cell phones and text messages are no longer a tool that is mostly confined to younger generations. One reason for this is that people almost always open a text message, unlike an email that can go into spam. ![]() According to some estimates, text message reminders reduce overall no-shows to 5% or less of your appointments. Well, it does if you want to reduce your no-show rate. When you think of text-based patient appointment reminders, they have essentially the same contents as reminders you’re already sending by phone.ĭoes My Business Need to Set Up SMS Appointment Reminders? However, the contents need to be somewhat discrete, since there’s always a chance someone other than the intended recipient will see the phone. At their most basic these SMS messages give the who, where, and when of each medical appointment. Of course, the message doesn’t have to be complicated. ![]() You can send these to almost any kind of cell phone, from old-fashioned flip phones to the latest iPhone or Galaxy. ![]() For children, the text message reminders can be sent to a parent or guardian, within the limits of HIPAA. What is an Appointment Reminder Text?Īn appointment reminder text is, simply put, a text message sent to a patient or client’s mobile phone that reminds them of an upcoming appointment. In this article, we’ll look at the why and how of text message reminders. This is true even in the era of appointment reminders, such as calls and texts. However, as medical professionals, we know that missed appointments are a major problem. After all, most of us make our appointments, at least, most of the time. For people who aren’t in the medical field, this is probably a surprise. In fact, according to some studies, a whopping 18% of medical appointments are missed. No matter what kind of appointment-based business you run, no-shows are a problem. ![]()
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