A hospital's metabolic and nutrition department worked with Dialog Health to improve patient engagement and appointment scheduling.

 

The Problem

The Problem Every week, the Metabolic and Nutrition Services department at a Utah hospital receives referrals from physician practices. But communication with patients had become an increasing challenge for staff attempting to reach patients by phone to schedule appointments. Most patients were no longer answering phone calls, which required staff to make multiple call attempts and leave multiple voicemails - all without a way to determine whether voicemails reached and were listened to by patients.

 

The Solution

The Metabolic and Nutrition Services department deployed Dialog Health's two-way texting platform to initiate engagement with referrals via text and provide these patients with a phone number to call so staff could schedule their appointments. The department also wanted to enhance staff productivity by decreasing its manual processes. Patients received the following text message

 

"Using text messaging for patient referral communication has helped us increase staff productivity and reduce time on manual tasks by eliminating phone calls that often led to voicemails. Most patients call to schedule their appointments on the same day as they receive the referral text. Texting has proven to be a quick and highly effective means of engaging with and empowering our patients to take a more proactive role in their healthcare.”

-            Director, Metabolic & Nutrition Services

 

The Results

DH Texting Solution

In a one-year period, the Metabolic and Nutrition Services department received 549 referrals.

 

Increased Engagement

Using automated two-way texting to schedule referrals, the department successfully reached 531 of those patients (97%).

 

Reduced Staff Workload

The texting campaign allowed hospital staff to improve their workflow by reducing manual processes, such as phone calls.

 

The Conclusion

For the Metabolic and Nutrition Services department, texting patients is an efficient way to communicate with referred patients and encourage them to call at their convenience to schedule appointments. Reaching more than 97% of patients via text eliminates manual and often unsuccessful processes for staff by providing patients with the relevant information they need to schedule their appointments at their fingertips. Staff is also finding that patients more frequently answer future calls since they recognize the phone number included in the text message.

 

97% of PATIENTS SUCCESSFULLY REACHED!