Text Request Talks
4 Healthcare Communication Tips with DialCare’s Justin Hajek
Business texting can improve communication at your healthcare business, you just need the right tactics in place.
Here’s how a HIPAA compliant texting service can help you better serve your patients and clinicians.
This article takes insights from our Text Request Talks podcast with Justin Hajek and further distills it into advice specific to texting in healthcare. Hajek is the Assistant Vice President of Program Management of DialCare.
Watch the full interview on YouTube.
1. Get your healthcare reps texting from one, secure platform.
A few years ago, Hajek realized that DialCare needed a platform to text message, not only their patients, but their clinicians as well.
Why?
Texts are significantly faster at connecting patients to clinicians than email and phone calls. 70% of people say text messaging is the fastest way to reach them, and two-thirds of people respond to texts within just a few minutes.
The only problem was Hajek didn’t want his team texting from their personal phones. After an extensive vetting and qualification process focused on security and stability of the solution, he chose Text Request as a HIPAA approved texting solution.
A HIPAA compliant business texting service, like Text Request, can text-enable your current healthcare business’s number, so patients and clinicians can reach your staff the way they most prefer. Each branch within your healthcare business can have its own line, and there’s no limit to the number of users.
Text Request not only allows Hajek to keep his patient wait times down, but his team also gets significantly faster responses from clinicians. DialCare saves over 15 hours a month using Text Request, which leaves them with more time to do other things.
2. Escalate medical issues to clinicians.
Patients reach out when they need something. You need to be able to respond ASAP. Texting is a quick way for reps to escalate issues that they aren't able to handle themselves.
Emails take way too long when you need clinicians to get on the phone for urgent medical issues, like if a patient has a complaint or a new development in their health occurs.
That’s why Hajek has his team immediately text clinicians to grab their attention ASAP. Your own team never has to worry about missing important texts from patients when you have escalations set up.
Escalations notify you if a text isn’t resolved after a specific amount of time has passed. The notification comes as a message from Text Request to your personal cell phone, so you can see which text needs to be answered.
Tools like escalation are perfect for texting patients who expect and require fast help.
3. Let patients text you for customer service.
Patients love knowing they can text a real person for help. It’s way more comforting than going to a generalized email inbox or chat bot.
Hajek noticed his own clients naturally started texting his team for things like:
Getting an ETA on when they’ll hear from a clinician
Resending video call links, if something goes wrong
General FAQs, like how to switch to a different provider or update their insurance
77% of people want to text for customer service, so when you give clients that option you’re going to see an increase in satisfaction. DialCare’s overall patient satisfaction has increased by 15% since they started using Text Request.
4. Share resources with healthcare clinicians.
Clinicians naturally need updates, reminders, and resources. In Hajek’s case, it’s usually about best practices for connecting with patients using DialCare’s system. Mass texts make it simple for Hajek to get clinicians the information they need to successfully connect with patients.
Mass texts, like BCC email, give you the power to reach all of your clinicians at once. Any replies become one-on-one conversations that can be used to further develop your clinicians or answer questions.
This is useful for:
Linking to training opportunities
Sharing new telehealth features
Sending reminders about upcoming changes
Exchanging resources on how to best communicate with patients digitally
Anytime you need to get a message or important info out to multiple people, this is a great option. The more connected you are with your clinicians, the smoother your healthcare business will run.
How Else Can Text Messaging Help Your Healthcare Business Grow?
The above are just a few quick tips—but we have an entire in-depth healthcare text messaging playbook for those who want to build their SMS strategies from the ground up.
Schedule a demo to talk to our sales team about the use cases that are most important to your healthcare staff. They’ll show you the best SMS strategies to compliment your needs, as well as what it’d look like to use Text Request day-to-day.
