SMS for healthcare — fewer no-shows, more time for patients
A patient who fails to show up costs you an empty consultation slot you will not fill again that same day. A short SMS reminder, one day in advance, brings the appointment back to mind — and gives the patient the chance to cancel in time, so the slot becomes available for someone else.
SMS also works for every patient. No app to install, no portal to log in to, no email address needed: the message arrives on the device people carry with them anyway, including older patients.
Where does it go wrong today?
No-shows
A forgotten appointment is rarely bad faith. A reminder 24 to 48 hours in advance prevents the vast majority of them.
A phone that never stops ringing
Confirming, rescheduling and reminding by phone costs your front desk hours every week. By SMS it happens by itself.
Late cancellations
Whoever only calls off at the very hour leaves you with a gap. A reminder with a reply option brings that notice forward.
This is what it looks like in practice
The examples below are illustrations. The parts between percentage signs are tags: you fill them in from an Excel list or through the API, so that every recipient gets their own version.
Reminder: your appointment with Dr %doctor% is on %date% at %time%. Unable to attend? Reply NO.
For your examination on %date% you must be fasting from midnight. Questions? Call the front desk.
Your results are available. Book an appointment to discuss them via %link%
Your appointment of %date% has been moved to %newdate% at %time%. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
Scale-up: all available nurses report to the emergency department.
How do you send appointment reminders in a practice?
Set the text and timing
Write one short reminder with date, time and doctor, and decide how many hours in advance it goes out — 24 to 48 hours works best.
Supply the appointments
Export the day's appointments from your scheduling software to Excel, or have that software pass them on via the API.
Capture the replies
Send from a virtual number, so cancellations arrive in your dashboard and the freed-up slot can still be filled.
What you use for this
Appointment reminders
The full story: timing, texts and three ways to automate it.
From your schedule export
Upload the daily export from your scheduling software and send personalised messages.
Receive replies
A Belgian number on which patients can cancel or confirm.
Call up staff
Reach everyone within minutes during a scale-up or an internal emergency.
Good to know
An appointment reminder is an operational message and does not fall under the opt-in rules for advertising. Never mention medical details in a text message: you do not know who is looking at the screen. Keep it to the date, the time and the name of the practice.
At SMSBOX you pay per message sent, from €0.06 per SMS to Belgium (excl. VAT). No subscription, no setup costs: a month without any sending costs you nothing. All processing takes place on Belgian servers, within the GDPR.
