A recent article in the Manchester Evening News highlights the huge number of missed appointments in the NHS that could be significantly reduced by sending text message reminders to patients.
With 24,302 missed appointments over 12 months at one hospital alone, wasting a total of £3.5 million, imagine how much money could be saved if every hospital in the UK implemented some form of appointment reminder system …
Missed appointments are often due to the fact that people simply forget about them. This can be very easily remedied at any GP Practice or hospital by using Appointment ProcessFlows® to send fully automated text patient appointment reminders, from within the existing EMIS patient records system. Just like SMS on a phone, Appointment ProcessFlows is bi-directional, so each outgoing text reminder has options to reply to acknowledge, cancel or request to rebook for another time or date. The incoming response is then automatically handled, clearing the appointment in the EMIS system and alerting the person responsible for appointment booking. Finally, the new appointment time/date can be sent back to the patient, by way of an SMS reply to his/her original response.
Over one billion text messages are sent every week in the UK, proving that text messaging is still the most popular form of simple, discreet, cost-effective and instant communication.
In addition, Appointment ProcessFlows can be used for ad-hoc messaging, such as notifications of opening time changes, seasonal campaigns or emergency notifications. The system can also be used outside of an EMIS environment, providing appointment reminders for non-medical organisations such as dentists or hairdressers.
Read the original Manchester Evening News article: http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/health/s/1472330_tameside-hospitals-text-war-on-35m-cost-of–missed-appointments
If you would like any further information on our Corporate SMS Solutions, please contact us on 01962 835053 or email enquiries@processflows.co.uk.
