St. Louis Integrated Health Network, which provides services for all residents of Metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri, used multi-language two-way text messaging to greatly improve client engagement and reduce appointment openings in its schedule.

 

The Problem

St. Louis Integrated Health Network was using two-way text messaging to remind clients about their appointments and allowing them to respond if they needed to change their appointments. Texts going to clients would provide the name of the health center, date and time for the appointment, and the addresses and phone number for the health center. The message would then ask clients to respond with "1" if they wanted to reschedule their appointment or "2" if they wanted to cancel. These messages were going out in English to all clients. But the Metropolitan St. Louis area is diverse, with the U.S. Census Bureau indicating that nearly 9% of residents in St. Louis speak a language other than English at home.

 

The Solution

In an effort to improve the text messages' reach rate (i.e., the number of recipients who open a text message) and response rate (i.e., the number of recipients who respond to a text message), St. Louis Integrated Health Network activated Dialog Health's multi-language feature. This feature empowers providers to easily communicate with clients and patients in their native language. Dialog Health, which offers support for a wide range of languages, uses dynamic tags to allow the streamlined customization of messages based on the client's preferred language.

 

The Results

3.8x Increase in Response Rate

Prior to activating the multi-language feature, St. Louis Integrated Health Network was achieving an 86% reach rate and 5% response rate for its appointment reminder text messages. Sixty days after activating the feature, the organization revisited the metrics and saw its reach rate had improved to 97% and response rate rose to 24% — a 380% (nearly quadruple) increase.

 

Patients’ Preferred Language

Non-English speaking clients who received appointment reminder texts were much less likely to engage with the messages and may have been frustrated by this language barrier. Communicating across languages demonstrated that St. Louis Integrated Health Network cares about its client experience and outcomes.

 

The Conclusion

Using the multi-language feature in Dialog Health's two-way texting platform, St. Louis Integrated Health Network achieved significant improvement in client engagement with its appointment reminder text messages. The feature enabled the organization to better ensure messages and instructions were understood and acted upon. Communicating across languages demonstrated that St. Louis Integrated Health Network cares about its client experience and outcomes. The increase in response rate also strengthened the organization's ability to reschedule clients and reduce the number of appointment openings in its schedule.

380% INCREASE IN RESPONSE RATE

13% INCREASE IN REACH RATE