Text appointment reminders can be a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes. By creating a system where customers know their scheduled appointments, they are less likely to miss them or have to wait long periods of time. Additionally, text appointment reminders can help reduce the number of phone calls that need to be made in order to reschedule someone’s appointment.

Text appointment reminders are also hugely valuable in a healthcare context. Data shows that simply by implementing text appointment reminders, patient satisfaction increases and operational inefficiencies decrease.

If you’re still on the fence about implementing text appointment reminders at your practice, we totally understand.

They’re relatively new in the healthcare space, after all! But here’s some concrete evidence as to why you may want to consider adding SMS reminders to your patient communication toolkit.

“Your appointment is scheduled for…”

Forbes reports that patient no-shows cost the US healthcare system over $150 billion each year. When broken down by physician, no-shows cost individual physicians $200 for each missed appointment. That’s certainly not a figure to dismiss.

Patient no-shows cost the US healthcare system over $150 billion each year.

SMS reminders are not a new phenomenon.

Think of all the messages you receive around Black Friday reminding you of deals you don’t want to miss out on. Whether or not you choose to purchase anything, you were reminded that the deal was happening.

In other industries, appointment reminder texts have been shown to increase attendance rates, decrease cancellations and no-shows. Why should it be any different for healthcare?

Imagine you can send those kinds of reminder texts to patients. For instance, if your patient has an upcoming appointment, you could send them a message similar to this template:

“Hi {patient name}! This is a friendly reminder that you have an upcoming appointment at {practice name} at {appointment time} on {appointment date}. Please respond ‘confirm’ if you’re able to make your appointment. If you need to reschedule, respond with ‘reschedule’ and we can get you booked for a different date/time.”

Using Broadcast, OhMD’s one-to-many messaging tool, you’re able to send messages like the one above to several patients at a time, with just a few clicks. Leveraging automation in this way allows you to disperse reminder messages in an effective way, and either receive appointment confirmations or reschedule the patient in a timely manner.

For patients, receiving a text reminder can help prevent missed appointments and thus improve their overall health. This is especially important for individuals with chronic conditions who may need to visit the doctor regularly. And using two-way texting allows for patients to message you right back regarding whether they’ll be able to make the visit or not.

Research indicates that most patients who miss appointments are missing them because they have forgotten about them. And when asked what may have helped them remember their appointment, the resounding response was text appointment reminders.

Improve efficiency, reduce no-shows

How many appointment reminder calls does your staff make every day? Or do you send out postcards with appointment reminder information? Maybe a bit of both?

These types of reminders, while personal, are undoubtedly more expensive than text appointment reminders. With paper costs, along with printing and postage, practices leveraging postcard reminders find the investment equates to roughly $1.00 per reminder.

There is always a risk that they are not opened at the opportune time to serve as an appointment reminder, and even worse, they are sometimes thrown away before opening or lost in the mail pile.

More reasons why text appointment reminders are so valuable.

Although there may be some implementation costs and monthly message charges, text reminders still save practices money. This is because they vastly improve operational efficiency and significantly reduce no-shows.

How much of a reduction in now shows? Good question!

Data shows that a better-than-average no-show rate for most specialties is 15%, which equates to roughly $125,000 per provider, per year, in lost revenue.

Assuming that text appointment reminders cut your no-show rates in half (which they generally do), that means that you’re saving just under $63,000 per provider, every year.

Organizations using text reminders with OhMD have seen their no-show rates slashed by more than half. Potential lost revenue transforms to gained revenue as text appointment reminders drive more patients to keep their scheduled visits. In fact, one OhMD user saw a 61% increase in appointment confirmations when leveraging text reminders, equating to around $120,000 in added revenue per year.

It is clear that the investment you make in HIPAA compliant patient messaging software can bring a significant amount of revenue back to your practice.

In addition to saving time, you’re reminding patients of their appointments in the way that they prefer. This means they’re far more likely to confirm, remember their appointment, arrive on time, and bring the materials needed for their visit.

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Reach groups of patients easily

Remind batches of patients of their upcoming appointments with the click of a button

Let’s also consider the doors an effort like this opens up for your practice.

By sending HIPAA compliant appointment reminder messages to patients, providers reduce their number of missed appointments…

In turn, they’re able to improve their scheduling efficiency and see more patients. This helps your patients and your bottom line.

On top of it all, your customer engagement will undoubtedly be higher as patients view your appointment process as efficient, ensuring they get seen and their needs are met.

This sets you above other practices who rely solely on email reminders and phone calls.

Maximizing the effectiveness of text appointment reminders: Successful implementation

To make sure that you’re getting the most out of text appointment reminders right off the bat, you want to make sure you cover all your bases.

  1. Always include the date, time, and address of the appointment in your text message reminders. 
  2. Ask every patient to confirm their appointment, or reschedule if necessary.
  3. Once the appointment has been confirmed, remind patients to bring required documentation or any necessary materials.

There are numerous benefits of SMS appointment reminders; they’re easy to use, are relatively inexpensive, have high rates of deliverability, and are proven to decrease no-shows. Even more, they’re part of the daily lives of most (if not all) patients already.

By providing patients with a convenient and easy way to stay informed about their appointments, text reminders can help ensure that patients don’t forget to visit the doctor, which can help improve their overall health and well-being. Text appointment reminders also provide you a means to decrease in no-shows, which will save you both time and money. 

Get patients into the office the simple way — text them!

See how patient texting improves the healthcare experience

HIPAA compliant texting is in your reach!

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