{"id":1841,"date":"2024-02-08T07:48:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T07:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onesaas.local\/au\/?post_type=industries&p=1841"},"modified":"2025-09-12T13:42:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T13:42:59","slug":"sms-for-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"industries","link":"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/au\/industries\/sms-for-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"SMS for healthcare services"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Harnessing SMS in healthcare.<\/h1>\r\n \r\n

Keep your patients and staff informed about appointments, test results, and more \u2014 all with the simplicity of SMS. <\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n

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Healthcare practices are busy places. Patients are coming and going. Admins are endlessly answering phones, making appointments, and settling bills. Staff schedules are being planned, and shifts are being changed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all this going on, finding an easy way to communicate with patients and staff about appointments, practice updates, or shift changes can make all the difference.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it’s why leading healthcare practices choose SMS as a preferred way to communicate. Patients prefer it, too, with four in five people<\/a> wanting to interact with healthcare providers via their smartphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is SMS for healthcare?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Everyone who owns a phone knows about SMS. But what some people don\u2019t know is that texting has become a critical component of communication strategies \u2014 not just in healthcare, but across all industries.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its relatively infallible ability to get important messages from A to B quickly and easily, SMS is proving invaluable in healthcare practices like dentists, doctors, physiotherapy clinics, optometrists, and more.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practices like these, admin staff need reliable ways to communicate with both patients and practitioners. And an SMS platform made for healthcare<\/a> delivers. From appointment reminders to vaccination reminders, from shift scheduling updates to staff alerts, you can use SMS to get important messages out to patients and staff \u2014 in the moments that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why prescribe SMS for healthcare?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your patients may come from all walks of life, but they have one thing in common. They all own a phone (well, over 20 million Australians do<\/a>). And they check them constantly \u2014 which means SMS is a guaranteed way of getting your messages across. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a wide range of applications across healthcare services, SMS helps keep everyone informed. By using text messages in your healthcare practice, you can: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get messages out fast.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

95% of text messages are sent within two seconds<\/a>, giving you the confidence that important messages will be received in an instant.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s a last-minute change to an appointment because a doctor\u2019s running late, you can ping the patient before they arrive so they don\u2019t get frustrated sitting in the waiting room. Or, if all staff need an urgent update about a new policy, you can send out an SMS with links<\/a> to the required information \u2014 and know that it will be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reduce no-shows.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Missed appointments can cost thousands of dollars each year. They can also be a source of distress for patients who may have simply forgotten about an appointment that was booked a while back, yet now need to wait weeks before they can get in again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sending appointment reminders<\/a> is a foolproof way to reduce no-shows and help patients keep track of upcoming appointments. Add in the extra step of a confirmation request for even better outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach busy practitioners.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With healthcare practitioners racing between appointments and, often, between locations, you need a tried and tested way to get important information out to them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phone \u2014 and, indeed, SMS \u2014 is like the modern-day pager. But instead of having to invest in a complicated paging system and all the gear that comes with it, you simply use the phones your staff already have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boost patient data security.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Healthcare practices are often home to sensitive medical records, and in some cases personal information like medication alerts or test results may need to be sent out to patients <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use two-factor authentication<\/a> (2FA) behind the scenes with your text messaging platform to protect valuable patient and clinic data.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ensures that only certain people can access the platform when sending SMS, which in turn helps build trust with the people you\u2019re caring for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free up your admin team\u2019s time.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Using an SMS platform for text messaging, you can set up a whole range of automated workflows \u2014 the platform does all the hard work for you. Not only does this free up your team\u2019s time (as they don\u2019t have to ring up patients with reminders and updates), but it also helps ensure no-one gets missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also saves HR time on staff rostering<\/a>. One aged care facility saved around 20% in agency fees<\/a> by using SMS to fill vacant shifts, with staff spending less time phoning around trying to find people to fill shifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n

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\r\n Want to try SMS for healthcare services? <\/h2>\r\n\r\n

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