Disadvantages of Traditional Media 

Nearly all  practices on a daily bases experience the issue of patients no shows (DNA – did not attend) to appointments scheduled in advance. The TXT2Remind for Healthcare proposal will significantly address this issue with other communication challenges for GP practices. Somtime's GP's tell us that having a missed appointment is a good thing as it allows us to have a little break or see another patient - this largely depends if missed appointments is an issue for your practice.

Disadvantage of traditional media communication with patients include:

For Physical Mail

• Post letters tend to be picked up in the evening when the Practice is closed typically 2-3 days from the send date, so a quick response is not possible.
• They are often discarded or forgotten about. Perception of the letter being a bill to high-needs patients often results in them discarding the letter.
• Can be sent to a previous address and/or may never reach the intended destinations. 
• Mail letters are not ideal for high-needs patients due to their instability of lifestyle which results in them changing their address.
• The cost per letter is much high and not very responsive. Please refer to section 6.3 and 6.4 for cost analysis. 
• With the introduction of email and mobiles letter fall down the priority in queue for reading especially with Gen-Y and .com baby boomers.

For Phones

• High-needs patients often do not own a land-line phone. They typically carry a pre paid mobile phone which often is the only means of communication.   The major advantage here is the high needs patient can still change their physical address but still be accessible through their mobile phone. 
• Patients don’t pick up calls on their mobile from practices, especially the younger generation. Priority is given to Text-messages.
• Leaving messages on an answering machine has associated risks, especially for young people. 

Why switch to TXT2Remind

All of the above mentioned communication issues faced in GP practices and Hospitals which presents the opportunity for mobile text-messaging as an alternative communication media. 

Benefits in General

• Significant reductions of appointment no shows (or DNAs) by typically 50% reductions in GP Clinics. This is based on case studies undertaken with existing Vensa Health clients. With the secondary services devolved to primary care this will be important for ensuring patients arrival to the appointment. 
• Each text message acts as a diary entry reminding the patient to attend their appointment. 
• Text messages are less intrusive than a phone call. Messages arrive on your patient’s personal phone rather than a shared answer machine, ensuring that the correct person receives the message.
• Texting actually provides a higher level of privacy than letters, email and phone messages as the mobile phone is a personal device. A consent process can also be developed with each health organisation that adopts the system.
• Better chances of contacting high needs patients who are constantly changing address and phone contact information. A lot of high-needs patients do not even have landlines but often carry a pre-paid mobile phone. 
• Text-messaging will allow GP health organisation to generate significant extra revenue and increase productivity. 

For recalling patients who are due for primary health services

• Very cost effective and requires very minimal administration.
• Patients can act instantly, “there and then”, to respond to the message either through telephone and/or text-messaging. We have found tremendous feed back in this area, patients tend to respond within the first hour of the recall.
• A recall text message to a mobile number is far more likely to reach its destination than letter through the mail. With number portability, most people are choosing to retain their mobile number even if they change their mobile plan from one provider to another.