Text Messaging

SMS is quick, easy and cost-effective. Are you taking full advantage of everything it can offer?

The majority of UK residents use SMS to communicate – people take their mobile phone with them everywhere and check for messages regularly. The reach and accessibility of SMS communication is huge and as most people know how to use a mobile phone, it doesn’t require training or new software.

Here are just 10 of the ways that SMS can be used for business purposes:

• NHS & Private Health – Text reminders can save millions of pounds on missed appointments.
• Reminders – “Please pick up your repeat prescription”, “Your reserved Library Book is in”, etc
• Education – Electronic Register integration; parent, pupil and teacher notification; equipment reminders and more.
• Local Government – Keeping in touch with constituents, e-voting, emergency notifications.
• Housing Associations – Two-way communication with tenants.
• Legal – Discrete, indispensable message delivery, with a full audit trail.
• Finance/Insurance – Invaluable as a system notification tool and for client communication.
• Recruitment – New Job Alerts, Timesheet and Interview Reminders and much more.
• Clever Marketing – Most marketing companies and departments have realised that SMS messaging is an extremely powerful means of communication. Messages can be sent directly to the recipient, with near instant delivery and confirmed receipt. Invitations, competitions and news updates can all be sent to hundreds of recipients within minutes.
• Fire Alarm notification for the deaf and hard of hearing – DMS (Deaf Message Service) is a fire safety device that informs deaf people, via their mobile phone, when they are out and about in a public place that the fire alarm is sounding.

Further information about SMS messaging can be found on our text messaging mini-site. Alternatively, you can contact us on 01962 835053 or email enquiries@processflows.co.uk.

A recent BBC report says: “Patients who fail to attend NHS appointments cost the NHS about £700m a year, with up to six million appointment slots wasted annually.”

Apart from the huge cost to the NHS, studies have shown that missed appointments, or DNAs (Did Not Attends), can also increase inappropriate A&E attendance.

Staff and equipment time is wasted, whilst other patients could miss out on seeing a doctor. The Royal Society of Medicine suggests that missing an appointment can also mean missing important treatment, diagnosis or monitoring and may lead to long term health problems.

The most common reason for DNAs is that patients simply forget to attend. Whilst many GP practices display notices to highlight how many people have missed appointments each month, a simple text reminder could prove much more effective. Texting is discreet, instant, cost effective and utilises a technology that the majority of people in the UK are familiar with.

Appointment ProcessFlows® is a fully automated, bi-directional SMS patient notification and appointment management system which integrates with EMIS. The appointment reminder system also allows patients to reply back to a reminder, via SMS, to cancel or request another date or time. The system then automatically updates EMIS with any appointment changes, streamlining the process for surgery staff.

In addition to the pre-canned Appointment ProcessFlows solution, we are also able to offer simple SMS-Email integration, allowing those surgeries without EMIS to send and receive text messages from within their familiar email systems, providing a robust and simple to use SMS reminder solution.

Read the full news story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17298612

If you would like any further information on our appointment reminder solution, please contact us on 01962 835053 or email sales@processflows.co.uk.

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.

Fireco Ltd customer Kensington and Chelsea College has installed Deaf Message Service (DMS), a fire safety product that informs deaf or hard of hearing people via SMS if the fire alarm sounds in a public place, in an effort to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing students, staff and visitors are safe and secure whilst on the premises.

The DMS unit can be easily installed in under half an hour. When the fire alarm sounds, a text message is sent to the mobile phone of connected users to let them know the fire alarm is sounding. The user’s mobile is connected to DMS by sending one text with the relevant location code, they are then registered under that location and will be sent a text should the fire alarm sound.

DMS also helps service providers and employers comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, allowing deaf and hard of hearing people the freedom to move around buildings without worry of missing an emergency situation.

DMS allows deaf or hard of hearing people to use what they already have with them; a mobile phone.

Read the full Kensington and Chelsea College story on the Fireco website.

Please click here to read our full DMS development case study.

If you would like any further information, please contact us on 01962 835053 or email enquiries@processflows.co.uk.

A recent article on The Business Technology Forum shows how SMS is an important and relevant business communications tool.

“While organisations are dipping their toes into newer technologies such as social networking as a means to communicate with consumers, traditional tools particularly SMS (short message service) are still proving to be an integral outreach tool.”
Vivian Yeo, ZDNet Asia

Read the full article here.

SMS is a convenient, low-cost and accessible device which works with what you already have. Most people already know how to use SMS and it can be used in a variety of ways, such as marketing, appointment reminders, keeping in touch with staff and customers, notification of absence and many more.

With over 300 installations, across all markets, we have almost 10 years of text messaging software experience.

Further information about SMS messaging can be found on our text messaging mini-site and if you are a follower of social networking, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Alternatively, you can contact us on 01962 835053 or email enquiries@processflows.co.uk.

Keep in touch with healthcare professionals

At the beginning of August (2011), The Lancet recommended that the use of text messages to communicate information to health workers supporting African children with Malaria, would improve the overall effectiveness and outcome of treatment.

Nearer home … text is a discreet and instant way of getting in touch with healthcare professionals working in the community. Update them with test results or send a request for an unscheduled home visit.

Advise mother to finish all malaria drug doses over three days, even if the child feels better after two doses

SMS keeps patients informed

Appointment information

The practice of sending a text to remind patients that they have a ‘medical appointment due’ is well established and helps to reduce the number of DNAs (did not attend) at Clinics and GP practices.

The result is that professional medical and administrative time is not wasted simply because the appointment was forgotten.  It’s easily done – we make an appointment weeks, or even months in advance, and unless you make a note of it there and then, it’s easy to forget.

Making the best use of clinic resource, by ensuring that the maximum number of patient appointments are scheduled in the time available, keeps waiting lists under control and patient experience positive.

Integrating a networked text messaging solution with your Patient Administration System (PAS) will enable to you automatically send text appointment reminders and notifications, such as ‘all clear’ test results, directly to your patient’s mobile phone.

Text messages to automatically remind us to keep taking the tablets

How many of us fail to complete a course of antibiotics because we feel better?  Apparently 50% of us fail to take our medicines adequately.  Packs of untaken prescribed drugs are lurking in bathroom cabinets all over the county. This represents a huge cost to the NHS and often a second appointment with our GP because the ailment returns due to our failure to complete the course.

You might be feeling better, but don’t stop taking the antibiotics prescribed.  Please finish the course.

Use text messages to ‘help smokers quit’

Again from the Lancet, a suggestion that regular and encouraging text messages will help people to give up smoking.

Lack of willpower, motivation and support all contribute to us failing to kick the habit.

Texts such as:

Quick result! Carbon monoxide has now left your body!

Don’t feel bad or guilty if you’ve slipped. You’ve achieved a lot by stopping for a while. Slip-ups can be a normal part of the quitting process. Keep going, you can do it!

… won’t let you forget your aim and apparently result in doubling your chances of quitting over going it alone.

The same methodology could be also be used to support those trying to lose weight or stick to recommended exercise programs.

More Info:

- Text Messaging Solutions for the Healthcare Sector <- Click
- Appointment ProcessFlows – Automated SMS integration for EMIS <- Click

Portsmouth City Council has recently installed DMS in its civic offices. DMS is a fire safety product that informs deaf or hard-of-hearing people via their mobile phone when a fire alarm is sounding by sending them a text message.

Brighton based Fireco, manufacturers and installers of wireless fire safety products, have developed DMS using ProcessFlows’ Text Message Server. The simple and cost effective SMS solution gives deaf and hard-of-hearing people the reassurance that they will be as aware of an audio warning of an emergency situation as anyone else.

One in seven people in the UK suffer some degree of deafness and it is considered a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), which sets out to promote greater corporate and public awareness to the needs of deaf people. DMS also helps service providers and employers comply with the DDA.

DMS is easy to sign up to – by just texting the relevant location code where a DMS system is installed, the user is then registered under that location and will be sent a text advising them to evacuate should the fire alarm sound.

Watch the video to see how it works.

Please click here to read our full DMS development case study.

If you would like any further information, please contact us on 01962 835053 or email enquiries@processflows.co.uk.

Text messages are now an accepted method of business communication.  The text culture exists, so why not make the most of it and stay in touch with your customers and staff by text – it’s cheap, easy and effective.

However, texting your Manager to say “L8 4 WRK 2DAY M8” is unlikely to be acceptable!

Top business texting tips:

No abbreviations or xx’s

Don’t use ‘text speak’ – it’s far too familiar for the business environment.  And make sure that you have not automatically added a kiss at the end of a text to your boss before you hit ‘send’.  Keep that for family and friends.

Be professional

Take care that wording is appropriate to the audience. Don’t forget that any enterprise text messaging solution will retain a record of all text traffic and content for compliance purposes, so using networked text is probably not the best way to ‘chat up’ one of your work colleagues.

Spell correctly

A spelling mistake won’t look good – for you or the business. So always check your business texts more thoroughly than you would a personal text.

Be aware of the time

Your boss won’t appreciate an audible text alert  in the early hours. They may usually have their phone on silent out of office hours, but they could be using their phone for an early alarm call and won’t welcome being woken up.

If you want to find out how text can enhance corporate communications, check out our texting success stories, speak to us directly on 01962 835053 or get in touch with us via one of the buttons in the tab on the right hand side.

Happy Texting!

GP Practices can now send automated text patient appointment reminders from within their EMIS patient records system using Appointment ProcessFlows®.

Appointment ProcessFlows is a two-way, automated patient reminder system which works seamlessly within EMIS.

• Once patients receive the reminder, they can choose to cancel or rebook their appointment by text
• The system automatically updates EMIS with any appointment changes, streamlining the process for surgery staff

The main reason Did Not Attends (DNAs) are so high is that most of us simply forget an appointment that could have been made weeks, or even months in advance.

• Reminding patients with a text message that an appointment is due will help to cut down the number of DNAs, which costs the NHS millions
• Sending a text reminder is as simple as sending an email, but unlike email, text is instant and reaches the recipient straight away

The whole of the NHS (General Practice and Secondary Care disciplines) is committed to managing constrained levels of funding and finding ways of using its budget more efficiently.

Reducing the number of patients that do not attend is one of the key areas of focus

Cutting the number of missed appointments can save substantial costs in a relatively short period of time (dependant on the number of DNAs an NHS organisation experiences and type of missed appointment) and improves patient throughput.

Text is an established method of communication

An estimated 85% of the adult population have a mobile phone. Texting is second nature to most, so it makes both economic and social sense to start texting appointment reminders, start saving money and make life easier for practices and their patients.

Further information is available at www.processflows.co.uk/solutions/appointment-processflows or call us on 01962 835053 and ask to speak to Darren Saunders.

Alternatively, you can email Darren directly – dsaunders@processflows.co.uk

ProcessFlows has recently completed a case study with the Royal Academy of Music about their use of SMS technology to facilitate easy text communications with students.

Briefly:

• The students at the Royal Academy of Music take part in regular concert performances
• It takes a lot of organising to make sure that the right people are in the right place and last minute sickness or absences are covered in time for a performance
• Emailing and calling people to let them know about any changes was not ideal.  Often the messages were not picked up until it was too late
• The Academy decided that sending text messages was the best way of getting in touch with students
• A ProcessFlows SMS Gateway (Text Message Server [TMS]) has been installed, allowing texts to be sent/received from the desktop.

Customer quote:

“From an IT perspective, TMS is simple – it really is ‘plug and play’.  User feedback is also positive; the concerts team say that without text, it would be almost impossible to get hold of students at short notice and their job would be much harder.  Other departments have seen the benefits, so we will be expanding TMS not only into these, but also into the library, where it will be used for reminders, a process currently done via email.”

The full case study can be viewed at www.processflows.co.uk/vertical-markets/education/the-royal-academy-of-music

Further information about SMS messaging can be found on our text messaging mini-site.

Alternatively, you can contact us on 01962 835053 to find our more, or email enquiries@processflows.co.uk.