It was revealed this week that the NHS plan to start telling patients how much their missed appointment has cost. Can a simple SMS reminder help patients remember their appointment?
The cost of missed GP and hospital appointments has risen to nearly £1bn a year for the health service meaning something needs to be done to prevent this from rising further. The governments announcement on Wednesday suggests that patients need to start taking responsibility for their missed appointments if they want the NHS to continue, whilst hospitals and surgeries are looking for new ways to ensure patients attend.
This is where SMS comes in.
SMS messages have a 98% open-rate making it the perfect communication tool if you want to ensure your reminder is seen
Of those messages that are opened, 95% of them are read within 15 minutes of being received, so it’s also great if the reminder needs to be sent last minute
93% of adults in the UK have a mobile phone making it a accessible to almost everyone
SMS can be easily added to the existing NHS mail software meaning it can be added instantly to existing communication
Try this blog for tips on how mass text messaging helps doctors cut down on missed appointments.