A few months ago, the Pew Research Center updated its "Mobile Fact Sheet" for the first time in several years. It includes a lot of interesting facts and figures about the mobile revolution, including statistics concerning smartphone and cellphone ownership. Among the figures that caught our attention: 92% of Medicare-aged adults (65 and older) own a cellphone. Of these users, 29% do not own a smartphone — in other words, they only own and use a cellphone. If your healthcare organization is relying upon an app to communicate with patients, and your patient base includes Medicare-aged adults, the latter of these figures should be troubling. It essentially means that 3 out of every 10 of your Medicare patients cannot use your app. That's on top of those patients who are not currently using your app for any number of reasons (e.g., never installed the app, forgot about the app, found the app difficult to navigate, forgot their account information, experienced technical problems). Let's turn our attention back to the first figure we shared: 92% of adults 65 and over own a cellphone. That's great news for the increasing number of organizations using text messaging as a communication tool. All mobile phones can receive and interact with texts. Nearly all texts are read by recipients, and most texts are read within just minutes of being received. In total, Pew reports that 97% of American adults own a cellphone. That's why we say that in a mobile-first world, the effectiveness of texting cannot be denied. If your organization isn't using two-way text messaging or is looking to expand how it's using texting, reach out to us. We'd love to tell you how our clients, which include some of the largest and most respected healthcare organizations, are leveraging text messaging to improve their patient and employee engagement.

This blog continues our series examining the importance of a texting platform's scalability across a healthcare provider's full enterprise. By capitalizing on text messaging in this manner, patients can receive timely information and updates from the departments supporting them throughout their entire care journey. This covers the following stages in the journey: Pre-appointment Appointment Post-appointment Billing Staff communication We previously published blogs on the pre-appointment stage and appointment stage of this journey through the enterprise. 5 Post-Appointment Texting Uses and Benefits In this third in a five-part series, we discuss five of the ways text messaging effectively supports and improves post-appointment communications. 1. Reducing post-discharge follow-up calls Following up with patients after they are discharged is essential to helping detect and mitigate unresolved issues, answering questions about discharge instructions, decreasing readmission rates, and improving patient and family satisfaction. But trying to reach every discharged patient by phone tends to prove difficult at best considering most Americans don't answer the phone much. When a patient doesn't answer, staff can either leave a voicemail and hope it's listened to and acted upon or try calling again. When the phone is answered, staff will need to engage in conversation that could take at least a few minutes. The combination of calling and speaking with patients can add up to a lot of time spent by staff on the phone. Text messaging has been proven to be a very useful way to greatly reduce the number of discharge phone calls without hurting quality of care. One study demonstrated that text messaging can eliminate about 7 out of every 10 emergency department discharge phone calls. Texting can also help identify those patients who require or desire a phone call and better ensure the phone is answered when a post-appointment call is made. As Bryan Yarbrough of Ardent Health Services, who has witnessed the benefits of using text messaging for post-discharge communications, stated, "Texting has proven to be a highly efficient, fast, and cost-effective way to streamline much of our emergency department discharge communications and reduce staff workload without sacrificing care quality. By adding text messaging, we can communicate with patients in a manner many of them prefer, which also helps improve satisfaction and engagement." 2. Improving patient compliance For many healthcare services, a successful outcome is not solely achieved at the facility. Rather, what happens after a patient is discharged may be essential. For example, patients or their caregivers may need to perform tasks that reduce the potential for infection, adverse drug events, other complications, and readmissions. Unfortunately, we know these efforts often come up short. Text messaging is an effective way to improve patient and caregiver compliance with the discharge instructions that can keep patients on the path to recovery and successful treatment. Texts can include links to discharge instructions (in the event that they are misplaced); ask whether patients or their caregivers have questions or concerns about instructions or medical developments; remind patients and caregivers about specific post-discharge tasks; include links to helpful resources to support compliance, including videos and infographics; and remind patients and caregivers of what they should do (e.g., number to call) if they have questions or concerns at any time following their appointment. These simple communications can greatly improve compliance and reduce patient harm and the costs associated with non-adherence with directions. 3. Increasing patient satisfaction survey participation rate Performing patient satisfaction surveys serve several purposes. It may be a federal requirement that could impact everything from patient volume to reimbursement. It may be an accreditation requirement. It's definitely a way for healthcare providers to gain meaningful, quantifiable, and actionable data — data that can help assess staff performance and identify potential opportunities for improvement that positively impact quality of care and clinical outcomes, financial performance, patient satisfaction, and online reputation (more on this next), among others. Text messaging is not only a practical way to encourage patients to take satisfaction surveys (such as those available via patient portal), but texting is proven to be an efficient way to conduct patient satisfaction surveys. One study showed that more than 4 out of every 5 patients are willing to take their satisfaction surveys via text. This figure is important when you consider that some facilities struggle to achieve a patient response rate of just 20%. As Dr. Arvind Venkat, who led a study on patient experience data published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, notes in Healthcare Dive article, "Imagine you conduct a survey, and only the very happy and very unhappy return their surveys. What you get is a very biased sample. That makes it very difficult to come to any meaningful conclusions from the data." 4. Strengthening online reputation When you can successfully engage patients following their appointment, you have an opportunity to undertake initiatives that can improve your online reputation. The facility from the aforementioned patient satisfaction survey study sends text messages to those patients who reported high satisfaction with their experience that includes a link to a web page where these patients can leave online reviews of the facility. Why are online reviews important? One study revealed that 95% of U.S. adult respondents trust online ratings and reviews, and 75% of Americans say online ratings and review sites have influenced their decision when choosing physicians. Consider also that the study showed 30% of consumers share their personal healthcare experiences via social media and online ratings and review sites. When a healthcare organization use text messaging to digitally engage and steer patients with positive experiences and satisfaction to rate and comment about their experience online, they are more likely to reap the rewards of a strong online reputation. 5. Supporting follow-up appointments Many healthcare appointments are part of a series of appointments associated with ongoing treatment for one or more conditions. This includes everything from physical therapy following a total joint replacement surgery to chemotherapy treatments for cancer to meeting with a primary care physician after a visit to the emergency room or urgent care. Texting is an efficient way of reminding patients to schedule their follow-up appointments, if a provider does not take care of this prior to discharge, and of the importance of keeping these appointments to achieving health and wellness goals. When patients are discharged, it can be easy for them to become distracted by other, non-healthcare priorities. Text messages can help patients remain focused on completing all the appointments for their care journey, which will improve outcomes and reduce adverse events and readmissions. Healthcare Enterprise Texting to Support Billing Part four of this series will cover the ways texting can help healthcare providers with billing challenges and opportunities. This includes late patient payments, high accounts receivable balance, excessive time spent on coverage and benefits verification, and patients who struggle to access their medical records.

We're experiencing the transitionary period from the pre-COVID-19 era to the new normal. It's a time filled with excitement as we get to see people we maybe have seen in many months and participate in activities that needed to be put on hold. It's also going to be a time of challenges and uncertainty as the fight against COVID-19 and its variants continues. During this transitionary period, companies and organizations that use two-way text messaging will undoubtedly find it to be one of the best — if not the best — channels to reach and communicate with their customers and staff. Some of the ways we're seeing our customers using the Dialog Health two-way texting platform to navigate this period include the following: Informing customers and staff about their reopening and any remaining safety protocols Healthcare providers reaching out to patients to encourage them to schedule overdue appointments and then sending reminders so they keep those appointments or know how to reschedule, if necessary Announcing staff appreciation events Coordinating open enrollment Surveying staff about their willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine Sharing locations where staff can receive the vaccine and education about the vaccine Reminding staff about the availability of mental health support services Surveying staff about safety plans and protocols Surveying customers about their experiences and encouraging customers to provide reviews online Continuing to announce positive COVID-19 tests and exposure to COVID-19 to staff and communicating how these affect operations Sharing words of support and appreciation Informing customers and staff about emergencies that affect operations, including power outages, wildfires, and hurricanes This is a small sampling of how companies and organizations are leveraging two-way texts to navigate the highs, the lows, and everything in between for our transition to the new normal. But regardless of how you use two-way texting, the benefits are universal: Text messaging is a proven method for quickly reaching and successfully engaging with customers/patients, staff, and all other stakeholders. And the data show it: About 95% of texts are read within just minutes of being received, nearly all text messages (97%) are read, and more than 90% of American adults 65 and older text. So, if you want to get a message out fast, to a significant number of people and with a high degree of confidence that your audience will receive and read it, send that message as a text.

Dialog Health collaborated with human resources industry experts to identify five of the top communication pain points experienced during open enrollment and deliver solutions to tackle these challenges. In this blog, we'll share those top pain points and then explain how texting helps overcome each one by providing a real-life example of text messaging in use. Top 5 Benefits Enrollment Communication Challenges The following is a summary of the top benefits enrollment communication pain points 1. Missed key dates and deadlines Email reminders about enrollment can get deprioritized and lost in an employee's inbox, and voicemails often go unchecked. Many employees lose sight of the enrollment window and risk not electing their benefits in time. Continued email, mail, and phone call follow-up efforts can be time-consuming, frustrating, and expensive. 2. Lack of employee awareness of resources Employees are not always aware of the resources available to them during enrollment, such as a website with information, a benefits partner, FAQs, or informational benefits meetings. Time and money are spent developing resources that may be underutilized. 3. Difficulty engaging a remote workforce Not every employee is easily reachable. Some employees might be working from home, others may be on the road. There is no way of knowing if they opened an email, received the letter, or listened to a voicemail. 4. Lack of insight into employee's experience Each employee has a different opinion on the benefits being offered and the resources available to them. They may also have questions that have yet to be answered. It's important to capture these insights to improve the enrollment process. 5. Difficulty communicating mass / group updates Enrollment plans regularly change, necessitating a timely employee update. Sometimes the change is an extensive update that all staff must be made aware of. Other times, it's an update that applies to only a certain group of employees within the company. It's critical to get any time-sensitive updates out in a fast, efficient, and reliable manner. Text Messaging: The Effective Way to Address Enrollment Communication Obstacles Here are examples of ways human resources professionals use the Dialog Health two-way texting platform to improve their benefits enrollment communication. 1. Communicate Key Deadlines and Nudge Non-Compliant Employees The Problem: If an employee misses the enrollment deadline, they may face the inability to change their coverage or even a possible loss of coverage. Furthermore, the human resources team is affected because they must deal with additional administrative burdens and frustrated employees. The Solution: Automating a series of texts to go out before enrollment starts and throughout the enrollment period is a simple, effective way to increase engagement during the campaign. Dialog Health's reporting feature also allows you to see receipt of text communications, and the customizable platform allows you to send additional communication to non-compliant employees. Sample Results: In a single month, a human resources department sent more than 20,000 texts to nearly 4,000 employees informing them of benefit options, enrollment dates, and links to select their benefit plans. This increased the open and read rate of their enrollment campaign and drastically reduced administrative time and costs. 2. Provide Links to Resources and Improve Resource Usage The Problem: Human resources teams work hard to provide employees with resources to guide them during enrollment, such as websites, portals, videos, and informational meetings. Employees, however, may be unaware of the resources that are available to them and how to access them. The Solution: Dialog Health's two-way texting platform allows you to text links to your employees, taking out the guesswork of where and how to access information. By texting links, your employees have easy access to these resources, greatly increasing engagement. Note: 99% of mobile phone can access the internet, making the texting of links a great way to deliver timely information. Sample Results: In a company of nearly 4,000 employees, a link to the new human resources portal shared via text message was clicked more than 4,500 times during the open enrollment period. Considering only 6% of employees opted out of receiving texts, utilization of the texted link surpassed 100%. 3. Enhance Engagement With Remote/Dispersed Workforce The Problem: Not all employees are easily accessible within the office. In the aftermath of COVID-19, many employers are continuing a remote or semi-remote office policy. As a result, employee engagement can be even more challenging than in the past The Solution: Texting is the most effective way to communicate timely, critical information with a large majority of employees while getting the engagement you want and the responses you need. Sample Results: With an open rate of 97%, texting has 4x the open rate of emails. Furthermore, 95% of text messages are read within three minutes of being sent. Texting is proven to drive engagement and quickly and efficiently gather information needed. It has also been used to send motivational messages during difficult times. 4. Request Feedback with Surveys The Problem: Since each employee interacts with the enrollment process differently, it is difficult to anticipate the needs of every employee. The Solution: Dialog Health's Survey Program allows you to get feedback on your enrollment process and helps you find opportunities for improvements in your program's efficiency and effectiveness. Sample Results: An organization achieved an 83% response rate to a survey text, providing them critical information to improve their communication and process. The survey also enhanced employee satisfaction. 5. Quickly Share Changes and Updates The Problem: Since enrollment operates within a defined window of time, when unexpected change arises, it is vital that employees are informed of these changes as quickly as possible. The Solution: Dialog Health's Mass Communication Program allows you to send updates to everyone in the company or targeted updates to a specific subset of your workforce. This drastically reduces staff workload and significantly improves the reach rate of critical, time-sensitive information. Sample Results: When faced with a last-minute change to its open enrollment process, one employer needed just 10 minutes to send a text message update to more than 4,000 people simultaneously. The Undeniable Value of Texting for Benefits Enrollment Communication By leveraging the Dialog Health two-way texting platform to support their benefits enrollment communications, organizations are experiencing impressive results such as the following: Significantly higher response and engagement rates Increased usage of website/portal Improved employee satisfaction Reduced cost of communication and management Streamlined reporting and confirmation of benefits Dialog Health's two-way texting platform is easy to use and quick to deploy. It's a cloud-based platform, so there are minimal IT requirements for users. No data integration is required, and we deliver great customer service that helps streamline implementation and ensure our users are maximizing the benefits of text messaging. To learn more about how Dialog Health can help your organization execute its open enrollment program this year, please contact us at info@dialoghealth.com, 877.666.1132, or schedule a demo of our platform.

Second part in a five-part series In this blog, we continue our series in which we examine the importance of a text messaging platform's ability to scale across a healthcare provider's entire enterprise. By leveraging texting in this manner, patients can receive texts from the multiple departments that are supporting them as they navigate their care journey. This covers the following stages in the journey: Pre-appointment Appointment Post-appointment Billing Staff communication We previously published a blog on the pre-appointment stage of this journey through the enterprise. 4 Appointment Text Messaging Benefits In this second in a five-part series, we discuss four of the ways text messaging supports and strengthens appointment communications. 1. Increasing patient volume Texting is a proven method to encourage patients to schedule services, show up for appointments, grow patient volume, and ultimately generate revenue — all of which are of heightened importance as organizations work to recover from declines experienced during the pandemic. Text messaging is being used to help patients reschedule everything from annual physicals to surgical procedures that needed to be postponed over the past year; streamline the scheduling of routine services, such as lab tests, imaging, rehabilitation, and physical therapy; and driving recall programs for services like mammograms, colonoscopies, vaccines, and immunizations. Texting is also helping reduce patient hesitancy about receiving in-person services because of fear of contracting COVID-19. Texts can explain how organizations are working to ensure patient safety as well as provide guidance and reassurance leading up to appointments about safety and the importance of keeping appointments. 2. Loved ones and caretakers To reduce COVID-19 exposure risk, many healthcare providers implemented restrictions concerning loved ones and caretakers waiting inside facilities while patients received treatment. Providers are using texting, including automated messaging, to share real-time patient progress updates with these individuals. In addition, text messaging is also being used to inform loved ones, caretakers, and transportation providers when patients are ready for discharge. These text messages can provide instructions on where drivers should go to pick up patients. Even as waiting area restrictions are being reduced and lifted, organizations are continuing to use texting to deliver this information. Doing so can allow loved ones and caretakers to leave the waiting area once a patient is admitted and go to an on-site cafeteria or nearby dining or shopping location. Loved ones and caretakers can better use or enjoy the time when they are waiting while knowing they will receive timely updates that will help ensure they are back in the waiting room for discharge. 3. Migration to contactless/paperless One of the safety protocols instituted by many organizations early in the pandemic was moving away from as much in-person communication as possible to help reduce contact between individuals and thus the risk of COVID-19 transmission. This covered verbal discussions and the passing of paper documentation. On the day of a healthcare appointment, such communications included safety protocol reminders, pre-screening questionnaires, and the paying of bills. For healthcare providers leveraging text messaging, texts could be sent to direct patients to complete these tasks. This was accomplished either via a two-way text message that asked patients if they are feeling well and reminding them to reschedule appointments if they are not feeling well or by including a hyperlink in a text that takes patients to a secure patient portal or webpage. While the infection rate is declining, leading some healthcare providers to return to pre-pandemic methods of communication, many organizations that saw firsthand just how much text messaging helped streamline appointment communications plan to continue using texting in such a manner going forward. By doing so, they are freeing up valuable staff time and embracing a communication method favored by many patients. 4. Telehealth The use of telehealth has surged dramatically as healthcare providers increasingly relied on virtual services to deliver care while supporting social distancing and stay-at-home efforts, improving access, and replicating face-to-face appointments. Many organizations have made text messaging an integral component of their telehealth programs, including for the initiation of telehealth consultations. Organizations can send text messages that include hyperlinks. When the link in the text is selected by the patient, a web browser or default videotelephony app will automatically open and the camera on the patient's phone should activate. Texting can also be used to inform patients about the availability of telehealth services, scheduling telehealth appointments, and reminding patients about their appointments. Healthcare Enterprise Text Messaging to Support Post-Appointment Communications Part three of this series will cover the ways text messaging can help healthcare providers with post-appointment-related challenges and opportunities. This includes staff time allotted to follow-up phone calls, patient compliance with discharge instructions, and strengthening online reputation.

Brandon Daniell, president and co-founder of Dialog Health, is the featured guest on a new episode of HRchat, a global podcast that covers significant issues concerning human resources, leadership, talent, diversity and inclusion, recruitment, employee engagement, performance, and company culture. In Daniell's episode, titled "How SMS Can Grow Employee Engagement," he speaks with host Bill Banham about a wide range of topics, including the value of text messaging for human resources departments to support employee engagement and program rollout efforts. Other topics covered include Dialog Health's two-way texting platform OPEN that making improving engagement easy, the effectiveness and greater acceptance of text messaging as a communication channel, and the role texting can play in helping combat "Zoom fatigue." You can listen to the episode below or on the HRchat podcast website. Launched in 2016, HRchat is produced by The HR Gazette, which publishes perspectives on topics connected with human resources and improving the ways people we work.

Brandon Daniell, president and co-founder of Dialog Health, shares ways that ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) can leverage text messaging to improve their online reputation and Net Promoter Score in a new Becker's ASC Review column. In "5 great ways to use texting to improve your ASC's online reputation," Daniell highlights the results of a recent data analysis showing the effectiveness of ASCs using texting to conduct patient satisfaction surveys and then discuss how texting can be used to: Provide links to online review websites Ask for testimonials Share satisfaction survey results Respond to patient concerns As Daniell notes, "Texting is the most effective way to quickly identify a happy or dissatisfied patient. It also delivers an improved ability for ASCs to act on this information quickly by sending a link for a favorable review or reaching out by phone to help make things right." Access his column in Becker's ASC Review.

First part in a five-part series If healthcare providers hope to maximize the numerous benefits of text messaging, they must rely upon a texting platform with several qualities. Among them: The platform must be easy to use and integrate with existing electronic health record or similar systems. It must be HIPAA compliant. And the platform should offer providers multiple texting solutions that can help meet current and future needs — everything from automated, two-way texts to direct/live texting to mass text alerts and even multiple language options to accommodate diversifying patient populations. One quality that is often overlooked but is critical if providers want to leverage the power of texting to its full potential is the platform's ability to scale across a provider's entire enterprise, allowing text messaging to be used by multiple departments across a patient's full care journey. This covers the following: Pre-appointment Appointment Post-appointment Billing Staff communication 6 Pre-Appointment Text Messaging Benefits In this first in a five-part series, we'll highlight some of the key ways text messaging supports pre-appointment communications. 1. Reducing cancellations, no-shows, and no-goes Text messaging is a proven way to reduce cancellations, no-shows, and no-goes. For example, a physician group used texting to drop its collective no-show rate by about 34% over a seven-month period (yielding a projected $100,000 in additional revenue). Prior to an appointment, providers can send a text message reminding patients about their scheduled treatment, including details such as facility address and time of appointment. If a patient must miss an appointment, an organization cannot assume they will pick up the phone and call to do so. The patient may simply choose not to show up rather than take then time to navigate a provider's phone system/directory and then explain their situation. However, patients may feel more comfortable cancelling via text, especially if prompted by a message asking patients to confirm their appointment or asking if patients have any concerns. A follow-up text can help with rescheduling the appointment, when necessary. 2. Improving appointment preparation compliance Texted reminders can help keep patients compliant with pre-appointment requirements, such as fasting, modifications to medication regimens, COVID-19 testing, and securing transportation. Texting can also be used to remind patients about what they should bring with them for their appointment, including insurance cards and photo ID, medication list, driver contact information, cases for eye or dental wear that must be removed, and an appropriate method of payment. Finally, providers can use text messaging to remind patients about what they should do if they have questions or concerns about preparation compliance or if they are not feeling well the day before or day of their appointment. By making it easy for patients to have any questions and concerns addressed, providers are more likely to keep patients on track for their appointments. 3. Evolving safety policies The COVID-19 pandemic forced all healthcare providers to introduce or make substantial changes to their safety policies and procedures, including those affecting patients, caregivers, and accompanying visitors/drivers. Text messaging can provide the most current information about an organization's policies and procedures, including requirements concerning the wearing of masks, revised waiting room policies, and new check-in and discharge/patient pickup procedures. 4. Pre-screening questionnaire Text messaging has proven to be a valuable tool for providers to streamline completion of COVID-19 and other pre-screening questionnaires. Two-way text messaging can be used to ask patients if they are feeling well on the day of their appointments and if they have been near someone who is unwell or recently tested positive for COVID-19. If a pre-screening questionnaire requires patients to complete a longer form, providers can send hyperlinks that direct patients to online screening surveys. 5. Telehealth preparation The usage of telehealth and virtual services has surged over the past year as a way to replicate face-to-face appointments, deliver care, and improve access while reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Many organizations have made text messaging an integral part of their telehealth programs. From a pre-telehealth appointment perspective, text messaging can be used to provide instructions to patients on any software/apps they will need to download and set up to join their telehealth appointment. In addition, texting can provide instructions to patients on what they should do if they have technical questions concerning telehealth technology. Providing technical assistance in advance reduces the likelihood that patients will miss appointments and can help patients feel more comfortable with new — and possibly intimidating — technology. 6. Kick off the start of the patient journey The pre-appointment period is also the time when providers would be well-suited to initiate a texting campaign that would then follow patients throughout their treatment journey. By sending texts during this initial period, providers are establishing the usage of text messaging as an option for their patients — one that can continue into and through the periods that follow while using the same sender number. For example, mammography departments can send pre-appointment texts informing patients that it's time to schedule their annual mammogram (i.e., recall) and confirming appointments. As another example, an ambulatory surgery center with a total joint program could send texts to patients that confirm appointments and remind patients about following eating and drinking guidelines. Healthcare Enterprise Text Messaging to Support Appointments Part two of this series will cover the ways text messaging can help healthcare providers with appointment-related challenges and opportunities, including growing patient volume, communicating with those providing patient transportation, boosting recall programs, and moving to contactless/paperless services.

FRANKLIN, Tenn., May 18, 2021 — A data analysis by Dialog Health shows that hospitals using two-way text messaging can eliminate most follow-up phone calls to patients discharged from emergency departments while freeing up hundreds of staff hours. The data comes from Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center (MMC) in Montclair, N.J., a 365-bed joint venture between Ardent Health Services and Hackensack Meridian Health. In 2020, MMC discharged 22,863 patients. Of these, about 70% (16,045 patients) received a text message delivered via Dialog Health, a two-way texting platform that enables information to be pushed to and pulled from patients, staff, and caregivers. The discharge text presented patients with follow-up options, including whether they wanted to receive a call from a nurse. The other options concerned billing, scheduling a primary care appointment, and accessing MMC's patient portal. Of the patients who received the text message: 15,310 (95.4%) did not require a follow-up call 735 (4.6%) replied to the text and requested follow-up assistance Of these, 336 patients requested a call from the nurse. The remaining 399 requested assistance with another matter. Only 74 patients (less than 0.01%) opted out of future texts from MMC Thanks to texting, MMC emergency department staff only needed to call 7,154 discharged patients (31%): 6,818 patients who could not be reached via text and 336 who requested a call in a reply to the text. That left 15,709 patients who did not require a follow-up call. Assuming an average call takes 2 minutes, emergency department discharge text messaging saved MMC more than 500 staff hours in 2020. Solving Problems with Texting MMC determined that its staff was spending significant time making follow-up phone calls to emergency department-discharged patients, with many calls leading to voicemails. The hospital partnered with Dialog Health to deploy two-way texting to more reliably and efficiently reach discharged patients. Texting has allowed MMC to identify which patients need further engagement post-discharge and the type of engagement they seek. MMC is also using text messaging to remind patients to follow discharge and medication instructions and guide them to log into the hospital's patient portal for additional information. "Texting has proven to be a highly efficient, fast, and cost-effective way to streamline much of our emergency department discharge communications and reduce staff workload without sacrificing care quality," says Bryan Yarbrough, director of integrated services, marketing, for Ardent Health Services. "By adding text messaging, we can communicate with patients in a manner many of them prefer, which also helps improve satisfaction and engagement. Texting also allows us to achieve other improvements, such as increasing adherence with primary care follow-up appointments and collections." Organizations like MMC are increasingly relying on texting for patient and staff communications. Phone calls require substantial staff time and resources but deliver poor results because of the tendency for consumers to ignore calls from unfamiliar numbers. Email communications have become less dependable due to the proliferation of spam and sheer volume of emails. "We are pleased that this analysis further demonstrates the value and effectiveness of two-way text messaging for communicating and coordinating with patients," says Brandon Daniell, president and co-founder of Dialog Health. "The speed, convenience, and ubiquity of texting is helping healthcare providers increase patient participation and engagement in their care, which is contributing to better outcomes." To learn about ways your organization can benefit from texting with Dialog Health, schedule a demo. About Dialog Health Dialog Health provides a two-way texting platform to organizations which they can leverage as a communication and engagement channel. Two-way texting is a convenient, fast, effective, and affordable communication resource for stakeholder engagement. For more information, visit www.dialoghealth.com, call (877) 666-1132, and follow Dialog Health on LinkedIn.

A recent ruling by the Supreme Court should help alleviate any lingering concerns for healthcare providers about adopting text messaging for patient communications and engagement. On April 1, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, which concerned how "automatic telephone dialing system" (ATDS) was to be defined under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA). The ruling reversed a previous decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that held the following: "To qualify as an 'ATDS' under TCPA, a device must have the capacity either to store, or to produce, a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator." A JD Supra article summarizes the key takeaway of noteworthy ruling as follows: "This is big news. This precedent will likely be relied on by other defendants in TCPA class action litigation to argue that the technology used to send text messages does not constitute an autodialer and, therefore, the TCPA does not apply." What does this mean to healthcare providers that have been on the fence about whether to add texting? The ruling essentially removes TCPA from the picture. Since providers are not likely to use an ATDS for patient communications, they will avoid running afoul of the court's interpretation of TCPA's regulations. Without the risk of potential litigation from using healthcare text messaging, providers should feel even more comfortable adding the technology for communication and engagement. If you're with a healthcare organization ready to explore how you can leverage texting, reach out. We'd love to tell you about our two-way text messaging platform and the many ways our clients use texting every day to improve their operational, clinical, and financial performance.

Dialog Health's Director of Sales Spencer Kelpe will be presenting at AMSURG's "2021 Annual Business Office Conference," scheduled for April 21–23. Kelpe will be speaking on "Improving the Patient & Staff Engagement Experience." The presentation will discuss how Dialog Health's two-way text messaging platform has helped AMSURG facilities improve patient and staff communication. The theme of this year's conference is "focus." AMSURG is the Envision Healthcare solution for ASCs. The company collaborates with physicians and health systems across the country to provide and promote quality patient care. AMSURG is currently partnered with nearly 2,000 specialty physicians providing outpatient surgical services in more than 250 facilities in 35 states.

FRANKLIN, Tenn., March 30, 2021 – Dialog Health, a two-way texting platform that enables information to be pushed to and pulled from patients, staff, and caregivers, announces it is expanding support for healthcare organizations adding and leveraging text messaging to recover patient volume that has declined during the pandemic. In recent months, Dialog Health has seen significant increases in clients using texting grow their patient volume, schedule services, and generate much-needed revenue. Texting is being used to support the following: Helping patients reschedule cases that needed to be postponed over the past year, largely due to COVID-19. Streamlining the scheduling of routine services, such as lab tests, imaging, rehabilitation, and physical therapy. Driving recall programs for services such as immunizations, mammograms, colonoscopies, and prostate cancer screenings. Healthcare providers are also using text messaging to help "unfreeze" patients who are hesitant to come to a facility for in-person services because of fear about contracting COVID-19. These texts explain what the organization is doing to best ensure patient safety and provide guidance and reminders leading up to appointments to reassure patients about safety and the importance of keeping their appointments. By adding the Dialog Health platform, providers can communicate quickly and efficiently with patients about making and following through on appointments via texting — the preferred communication method for a growing number of Americans. The increased attention being paid to replacing lost patient volume and revenue is not surprising considering recent reports that have highlighted the significant financial losses suffered by hospitals, health systems, and other providers due to COVID-19. Such losses have been attributable to factors including forced shutdowns and slowdown of regular operations, costs associated with investments in safety and infection prevention efforts, and added expenses due to supply chain and labor market disruptions. Hospitals and health systems have also incurred considerable costs associated with preparing for the surge of coronavirus patients, the slowing of regular operations for non-emergent care, and treating COVID-19 cases. For healthcare organizations whose bottom lines have been affected by the public health emergency, text messaging is a valuable communication mechanism that will help accelerate their financial recovery, says Brandon Daniell, president and co-founder of Dialog Health. "Prior to the pandemic, providers were increasingly implementing texting solutions and depending on texting to drive more of their communications," Daniell says. "COVID-19 has further spurred usage of texting, and for good reasons: It's fast and affordable. More importantly, it's very effective, with a majority of text messages being read within just minutes of their delivery and almost all text messages being read on the day they are received. There's every reason to believe that providers will continue to leverage text messaging in the coming months to help them further overcome the many challenges brought on by the pandemic." Healthcare organizations interested in adding text messaging to support patient volume growth should visit Dialog Health, email info@dialoghealth.com, or call (877) 666-1132. "By embracing the speed, convenience, and ubiquity of texting, healthcare providers can increase patient participation and engagement in their care, which benefits patients, staff, organizations, and the healthcare system as a whole," Daniell says. About Dialog Health Dialog Health is a U.S.-based company that provides a two-way texting platform to organizations which they can leverage as a communication and engagement channel. Two-way texting is a convenient, fast, effective, and affordable communication resource for stakeholder engagement. For more information, visit www.dialoghealth.com, call (877) 666-1132, and follow Dialog Health on LinkedIn.