You said, we did; text message appointment reminders are back!
- Posted by Tom Finan
- On 28th May 2019
We have received lots of feedback from our patients and colleagues about the need to offer a text message reminder for appointments.
The ability to interact with our patients via text message has been around for a number of years and each of our practices offered this historically. Since we merged as one practice and started offering services across our sites, we haven’t been able to find a provider that could handle the complexity of our organisation; until now!
After an unsuccessful attempt to re-introduce this type of service in 2018, we have spent some time looking at the available options and we are delighted to announce that we ready to launch our new service.
What is going to change?
From Monday 3rd June you will start to receive text messages about your appointments; 1 message to confirm the appointment has been booked and a further message 24 hours before the appointment time to remind you to attend.
If you need to cancel your appointment simply reply with the word ‘CANCEL’ and your appointment will be removed from the system automatically – if you are registered to use online services you can also view and cancel your appointments online.
Appointment reminders will only be sent for face-face to appointments, not telephone consultations, and for appointments booked a minimum of 24 hours in advance, not for same day appointments.
The Friends & Family Test (FFT) – This is a national NHS initiative to capture feedback from patients about the service they receive by asking the simple question ‘how likely are you to recommend our service to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?’
Here at YHP we are always looking for ways to improve the service that we offer using feedback from our patients and colleagues – the re-introduction of text messaging is a great example of this in action. Following your appointment you will receive a text message inviting you to take part in the FFT. Feedback is completely anonymous and will be used to help us to help you – if you have regular appointments you will not be invited to take part more than once in a 30 day period.
‘What do i need to do?’
If you are happy to receive appointment reminders via text then there is nothing you need to do. The text messages will start from Monday 3rd June and will be sent to the mobile number that we have saved in your patient record – it’s important that you let us know if your mobile number changes so we can keep your record up to date.
If you have previously told us that you do not wish to receive communications via text message then this should already be in your record and the system will not message you.
You can opt-out of receiving these messages at any point by replying ‘STOP’.
‘Where can I get more information?’
Speak to a member of our team or use the ‘Tell us what you think’ portal to leave a question.