How practices are closing gaps in care with text messaging

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Gaps in care represent one of the most important and valuable areas for practices to target for improvement. Gaps in care occur when patients fail to receive recommended preventive services, like mammograms, colonoscopies, physicals, Medicare annual wellness visits (AWV), and vaccinations. Every gap in care represents a missed opportunity. For patients, care gaps raise the risk of delayed identification and treatment of a condition. For practices, care gaps translate to lost volume and revenue as well as the potential for their patients to experience preventable diseases and worsening health.

To eliminate gaps in care, practices are increasingly turning to text messaging to supplement existing patient communication and outreach efforts. With texting, practices are leveraging an easy, low-cost, and highly effective communication method to engage their patients, compel patients to make preventive services appointments, and better ensure patients keep their appointments and arrive appropriately prepared for services. The use of conversational, two-way texting, which enables patients to reply to messages, is further strengthening patient engagement.

Consider building a gaps-in-care text messaging campaign that includes the following types of texts:

Automated scheduling reminders

While sending individual texts manually is an option, modern software allows practices to automate text message delivery to inform and remind patients about scheduling their preventive services. Given that preventive services follow a predictable schedule (e.g., once every 12 months), pre-scheduling reminder texts is not only doable but worthwhile, and sending these texts through automation helps ensure messages reach patients at the appropriate time for them to proceed with scheduling appointments.

The use of text message delivery reports and analytics can inform practices of which patients require further outreach and engagement to help them schedule their preventive service appointments.

Personalized outreach

Enhance receptiveness of gaps-in-care messages by tailoring texts to include the patient's name and specific service details. Personalized communication fosters a sense of value and connection with a practice and provider, encouraging patients to make their preventive services appointment.

Communicating benefits

In your text messages, emphasize the importance of preventive care by outlining the key benefits for patients, like identifying health risks, reducing healthcare costs, and receiving expert medical guidance. Including links to supporting resources, such as videos, can further explain and hit home the value of the service.

Simplifying scheduling

The easier it is for patients to schedule their appointments, the more likely it is that they won't put off the task. Within a text, provide a link to where patients can schedule online (e.g., website, portal) and choose the appointment time that best meets their needs. This convenience has the added benefit of reducing staff workload.

Include your practice's phone number in text messages, allowing patients to call directly for scheduling or inquiries. A clickable phone number within the text makes it effortless for patients to connect with your practice.

Appointment confirmation

After scheduling, send a confirmation text (which may be automated) that includes the patient's appointment date and time, as well as a link for patients to add the details to their calendar, further increasing the likelihood of attendance.

Recall programs, like those for colorectal cancer screenings, can benefit greatly from automated texting following appointment confirmation. Subsequent messages triggered by the conformation can guide patients through key steps like preparation and compliance for the procedure.

Appointment reminders

As the patient's appointment date approaches, automate reminder texts with essential details like the appointment time; location (e.g., practice, surgery center, imaging center), preparation instructions, and required items for patients to bring with them to their appointment.

Including a note about what patients should do if they need to cancel can help you identify cancellations early enough to fill newly open slots in your calendar. A two-way text can ask patients to confirm their appointment, which should help improve the likelihood that a patient keeps their appointment or better enable you to flag and act upon cancellations.

Address and navigation links

On the day before the appointment, send a text with the address where patients will receive their preventive service. A clickable link that automatically loads a GPS app better ensures patients can navigate easily to the location and arrive for their appointment on time.

Missed or canceled appointment follow-up

Gaps in care often occur when a patient misses or needs to cancel an appointment and then fails to reschedule. Don't wait to act when a gap in care occurs. Send a follow-up text soon after the missed or canceled appointment to reengage the patient, underscore the importance of the service and keeping appointments, and explain how patients can reschedule.

The power of a gaps-in-care texting campaign

Preventive services are essential for maintaining the health of your patients and catching problems before they become more serious. Every patient benefits from preventive services, and ensuring they access them is an essential part of a practice providing comprehensive care. The delivery of preventive services is also an important source of predictable revenue for practices. To reach patients, encourage them to schedule their preventive service appointments, and ensure patients follow through, text messaging stands out as a highly effective communication tool.

Texting offers practices numerous advantages, including low setup and outreach costs, minimal manual labor compared to other forms of communication (e.g., phone calls, printed and mailed letters), and strong engagement rates. Modern text messaging solutions also provide an easy, reliable way to track and monitor outreach efforts, better ensuring your practice stays on top of where patient communications have been successful and where they may need further support.

Texting is also useful when a preventive service reveals a diagnosis requiring ongoing education, support, and engagement, like an AWV that finds diabetes or hypertension. Text messaging can further help the individual with the new diagnosis better manage their condition in ways that may include using remote patient monitoring.

Reducing gaps in care is a worthwhile goal for 2025, and now is a good time to begin establishing the foundation for how you will achieve this improvement in the new year. Adding a modern texting platform with capabilities like those described above will put your practice in a stronger position to successfully engage with patients about their preventive services and better ensure patients keep these vital appointments.

Brandon Daniell is co-founder and chief revenue officer of Dialog Health, a provider of a HIPAA-compliant, conversational two-way texting platform to organizations which they can leverage as a communication and engagement channel.