How to text patients the right way: Strategies & The Dos and Donts

Texting is a great way to stay in touch with your patients and allows healthcare practices to build long-lasting relationships with them. Two-way messaging platforms create a comfortable environment for patients to open up about their health concerns and share important details that may be crucial to their diagnosis and recovery.

The challenge arises when practices have to ensure that while texting their patients, practices remain as professional, positive, and HIPAA-compliant as possible. If this sounds like something you are interested in, here are some tips and tricks for properly text your patients.

Always Obtain Explicit Patient Consent

One of the cornerstones of HIPAA compliance is obtaining explicit written consent from patients. This is essential for the protection of any health-related information that is shared.

It also enables practices to educate patients about their rights, especially their right to opt out of sending or receiving texts at any time.

Use Secure and Encrypted Messaging Platforms

Using a secure and encrypted messaging platform is crucial for HIPAA compliance. Communicating with patients through a secure channel ensures that these texts remain confidential.

Keep Messages Clear, Professional, and Concise

Texting is all about straightforward communication, and that applies to interactions between patients and their healthcare providers as well. Using clear and simple language will help you save time, and improve communication.

This also helps maintain a certain level of professionalism when communicating with patients regarding serious topics such as health and wellness.

Avoid Sharing Sensitive Medical Information

Healthcare practices must ensure that no personal details, such as test results, or treatment plans, are disclosed in the text. Instead, text messages can be used to direct patients to a secure portal where they can access such information and prevent a breach of confidentiality.

Set Expectations on Response Time and Availability

It is important to let your patients know when they can reach you. If you offer 24-hour service, then you can offer immediate support through text messages. However, if that is not possible, let your patient know through an automated text when they can expect a response from you.

This helps manage patients’ expectations regarding time and availability. It also makes your practice come across as professional and organised.

Benefits of Using Texting for Patient Communication

Texting is a powerful tool that healthcare practices use to streamline patient engagement. Here are some ways that utilizing two-way messaging platforms can benefit your practice and improve patient engagement.

Reducing No-Shows with Automated Appointment Reminders

No-shows are incredibly frustrating and a common issue that healthcare practices face. They can also be minimized by automating text reminders to patients leading up to the appointment.

This way patients have the opportunity to confirm, or reschedule their appointments on time, allowing practices to better utilize their resources.

Enhancing Patient Satisfaction and Engagement

Staying in touch with patients is essential for building lasting relationships. Texting makes it easy and convenient to do so. Whether it is check-in after an appointment, or sending a quick wellness tip, healthcare practices can use text messages to proactively engage with patients.

Increasing Office Efficiency and Reducing Call Volume

Texting patients streamlines practice operations and reduces repetitive tasks. For example, sending bulk appointment reminders through SMS is much easier and takes up less time than calling each patient individually.

This way you free up time, allowing your staff to focus on more important tasks.

Improving Patient Retention Through Personalized Communication

Retaining patients is just as important as acquiring new patients, and one way you can do that is by staying in touch with them.

A two-way messaging platform gives patients the ability to get in touch with their healthcare providers quickly and conveniently. This level of reliability encourages patients to stay with healthcare providers long term.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Texting Patients

Here are some of the common challenges that healthcare providers face when texting their patients, as well as tips on how to overcome these challenges.

Sending Messages Without Consent

In order to maintain HIPAA compliance and protect your practice from legal repercussions of regulatory violations, you must obtain the patient’s written consent.

You can ask for a patient’s consent to send and receive messages at the time of registration by providing a clear opt-in and opt-out form. This way you are prioritizing your patient’s privacy and maintaining records of consent.

Sharing PHI Over Unsecured Texting Apps

Another mistake you can make as a healthcare practice is using a messaging platform that isn’t HIPAA-compliant such as WhatsApp to share patient’s protected health information (PHI).

Instead, we recommend using a HIPAA-compliant messaging platform that is specifically designed for healthcare practices.

Sending Messages at Inconvenient Hours

While it is important to remain available to patients, the goal is not to send texts at inappropriate times. This can come across as intrusive and can cause patients to ignore the text messages or flag them as spam, which defeats the purpose entirely.

It is best to send reminders at appropriate times, such as during business hours, or a few hours before the appointment. This gives patients the option to pick their preferred time and it can also enhance patient communication.

Using Generic or Impersonal Messaging

Using generic messages can do the opposite of building long lasting relationships. They can make your practice seem more distant and impersonal in its approach towards patients.

We recommend customizing your messages with the help of AI to add a personal touch, such as the patient’s first name, and reference their specific appointment without giving too much away. Using tools such as DemandHub also give you the opportunity to create friendly and professional responses that build trust and can be sent promptly to increase engagement.

How DemandHub Helps Healthcare Practices Text Patients Securely

DemandHub is an efficient and secure tool that healthcare practices use to engage with patients. Whether it is HIPAA compliance, patient privacy or practice management, DemandHub is the perfect solution for it all.

One of DemandHub’s standout features is its texting capabilities, which ensure convenience and confidentiality, making it ideal for enhancing patient engagement and retention.

Book a free demo today to learn more about DemandHub.