Activate SMS in Eminance for under half the cost

SMS is built into Eminance. It is not an extra program, but as simple and straightforward as pushing a button. You can send an SMS to a patient without leaving the program, with a single click, and merge the patient’s details into the message so that each one is individual. Tell your patients you are running late, send reminder messages and overdue account warnings, remind patients about a recall, or send a bulk message to all patients with a balance over 60 days. Messages go out immediately, in English or Afrikaans, and each one is recorded in the patient’s notes.

The first benefit is cost. Our SMS is less than 50% of the standard rate, so you will very quickly be surprised how your telephone bill is reduced. Beside reducing your telephone and cell call costs, it is a cost effective method of communicating with your patients, and it improves patient response. If patient no-shows are hurting your practice, our SMS and email reminders will save you time and money. Because the service integrates directly with your patient data, you can select groups of patients based on your own rules, which improves productivity and keeps everything easy to manage and control.

It is also easy to put in place. You fill in the form to start the process, we contact you with your user name and password, and you can start sending SMS messages immediately. There is nothing to install and no separate program to learn, because it is built into the program you already use. You will need an Internet connection, and the facilities depend on the program you use. Once you are activated you can download the SMS Facility manual, and our support team is on hand on 087 750-8157 if you have any questions.

SMS works alongside the other ways of reaching your patients. Recalls can be mailed, emailed or sent via SMS, and the same patients can be reached with a bulk message by SMS or email. WhatsApp is now available for single messages from within Eminance, and you can send WhatsApp reminders from the diary, but unlike SMS, WhatsApp cannot send bulk messages.

Text messages are one of the best-studied ways to keep patients coming back. A Cochrane review of eight trials with 6615 participants found that text message reminders increase attendance compared with no reminders or postal reminders, and work as well as phone calls. In a trial in Geneva a phone call, an SMS and a postal reminder together cut missed appointments from 11.4% to 7.8%, and 78% of the patients said the reminders were useful. Forgetfulness is one of the main reasons for missed appointments, and an SMS is a cheap, quick way to deal with it.

The words matter. In a trial of about 161,000 members of a health service in Israel, the best-worded reminder cut missed appointments from 21.1% to 14.2%, and the other versions of the message also did better than the usual one. So keep your messages short and clear: say who the message is from, give the date and time, and tell the patient what to do if they cannot come. Because Eminance merges the patient’s details into each message, every message can be personal.

Keep it lawful. A reminder about an appointment is a service message. A message that promotes your services is direct marketing, and under section 69 of POPIA direct marketing by SMS needs the patient’s consent (or must fit the rules for existing customers), must say who sent it and must give a way to ask for no more messages. Record each patient’s consent when they register, keep promotions out of reminders, and ask your information officer if you are unsure. Eminance records each message in the patient’s notes, so you can always see what was sent.