CLINIC TO PATIENT COMMUNICATIONS (PART 1/5): The most underused tool to communicate with your patients outside of the clinic

Whilst the government’s emphasis has been on provider to provider communication in healthcare such as the efforts to ditch the fax machine as well as the potential risks and breach of privacy laws utilising “unencrypted” email services such as Gmail and Hotmail, to send sensitive health information between providers, there has been one area that is often ignored - this is clinic to patient communications. 

The traditional method for clinic to patient communication is the telephone, however clinics are increasingly leveraging SMS services for activities such as appointment reminders. Even though e-mailing is free while there is associated cost wth sending out each SMS, it is well known that SMS opening and response rates are extremely high compared to e-mail. This is as more people sometimes do not have e-mailing services active on their phones, particularly the older generation. 

The following are 6 interesting key facts about SMS vs E-Mail:

1. It takes the average person 90 seconds to respond to a text. (Source: CTIA)
2. It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to an e-mail. (Source: CTIA)
3. SMS open rates are 98% (Source: Gartner)
4. SMS response rates are 45% (Source: Garner)
5. E-mail open rates are 20% (Source: Gartner)
6. E-mail response rates are 6% (Source: Gartner)

Nonetheless, at HealthAide, we believe these statistics should not deter you away from considering e-mail as a tool to communicate to your patients outside the clinic - either for educational or commercial purposes, or a hybrid approach. This is because SMS also has its drawbacks which include:

• Your message has to be short as the limited number of characters in an SMS is 160.
• People are more likely to respond very negatively to unwanted texts compared to e-mail.
• There are service costs associated with sending out an SMS via a third party agency. 

Given these limitations, SMS can be effectively applied in healthcare for tasks such as:

• Appointment reminders
• Feedback on investigations and diagnostic tests to advise on a call to action
• Prescription reminders
• Patient feedback

Apart from the above use cases, e-mail can be used as a powerful and effective tool for other tasks such as:

• Providing more privacy to patients as it is a more private outlet (compared to SMS and social media), particularly when you share potentially sensitive health topic such as mental and sexual health. 
• Educating patients to provide more value outside the consultation room for example, on preventative health tips, health alerts and warnings such as vaccinations.
• Service reminders and call to actions
• Special commercial offers and promotions
• Supporting local businesses and communities through relevant advertising 
• Patients can forward relevant content to their friends, family and colleagues conveniently
• Trackable opening rates and advanced data analytical insights to help make clinical and business decisions about your patients

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The next second article of the 5 part series will provide some key practical tips and insights on how to determine whether e-mail could be a useful communication tool between your clinic and your patients.
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Stay tuned!