If you’ve landed on this page, you might be looking for some tools to help you and your team communicate with patients, especially for those daily conversations like “can I reschedule?” or reminding patients to complete their Intake Form for the umpteenth time. We’re hearing from our community that it’s a challenge to keep on top of these types of conversations, especially as technology evolves and more people prefer alternatives to phone calls and emails. While we’re working hard to bring you communication tools like secure, private messaging, we know you might need a solution ASAP, and there are so many options out there for you all to consider. So we created this Guide as a round-up of sorts. These are frequently mentioned solutions for patient communication that we hear from our community. We hope it helps on your journey to providing better patient communication!
These are some possible callouts to put at the start of the guide. We want to get across that we’re not “recommending” anything, but just rounding up info to help folks. We also want to remind people of HIPAA/ Privacy laws to ensure texting is an appropriate solution for them
Jane doesn’t receive any sort of kickback or compensation for you choosing to use the services mentioned here. These suggestions are based on community feedback and our own research. Pricing and features may have changed since writing the Guide.
We suggest brushing up on the Privacy Laws that govern patient data, how it’s stored and what forms of communication are appropriate to discuss treatment and care in your area. Typically, SMS is not considered a secure method of communication for discussing patient health concerns or disclosing any personal health information. We suggest using SMS as a tool for administrative-type conversations that don’t disclose personal health information, to keep your patients’ information safe.
Solutions for Solo practices
If you’re a solo practitioner then you’re probably a one-stop-shop for all things to your patient. You handle the scheduling and front desk tasks, follow up on billing and bookkeeping, and of course, treat your patients. For those wearing multiple hats we’ve compiled a list of some simple tools that we hope will help you communicate better with your patients.
Jane’s Messaging feature
I think when this is live it could be a good solution for the solo practitioner. Since no one else needs to be privvy to this conversation, secure messaging could be a good admin communication tool.
Pros: Everything is through Jane, it’s HIPAA compliant, patients can communicate with you right alongside the documents you’ve shared.
Cons: Patients need to sign-in to Jane to view / respond.
Using Dual Sim Cards
If you have a smartphone that supports dual sim cards, this option allows you to have two phone numbers working on the same device. For example, you can call or text patients from your business phone number while keeping your personal number private. It’s perfect if you’re providing mobile services on the go or if you don’t have a dedicated landline for your business.
For those using Apple’s iPhone, here’s a great document explaining how to set it up and which models it’s available on: https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT209044
For those on Samsung devices, head on over here for which models offer this: https://www.samsung.com/au/smartphones/dual-sim-hybrid/
Pros: One device to rule them all, text and call patients from one number, no need for a dedicated landline.
Cons: Your personal device is also your work device with patients listed as contacts.
Having an ‘office’ cell phone
If your cell phone doesn’t support dual sim cards, or you don’t wish to store patients as contacts in your personal device, a popular option we’ve seen used is it have a ‘clinic phone’ that’s just for calling or texting patients. Yep, this looks like having a completely separate cell phone, with its own number, just for the clinic. This way you can keep more boundaries between yourself and your patients, while still being able to text / call patients from the one phone number.
Pros: Dedicated device for work, call and text patients from one number, portable, no need for a dedicated landline.
Cons: Need to purchase a separate device for work.
TextNow
Available in the USA and Canada.
TextNow is a free service that allows you to set up a local number for texting and calling. It’s great for clinics who just want a simple texting app that takes minutes to set up and start using. TextNow can be used on your desktop computer or mobile phone. The app is funded by advertising which you’ll see on the clinic side, but they don’t upset the functionality and your patients don’t see them at all.
Pros: Free and simple to use.
Cons: Cannot import contacts, cannot use your own phone number.
Solutions for practices with administrative staff
For those clinics who have administrative staff, you may be looking for a solution that ensures multiple people on your team can manage patient communication. We’ve also compiled options here that let you use your existing clinic phone number for texting, but you’ll need to check with your existing carrier if they allow this with a third party. More on that here (insert to article about text enabling a landline)
Google Voice
https://cloud.google.com/voice
Available in the USA, UK and Canada with Google Workspace, Google Voice is mentioned frequently in our community Facebook group as a solution for clinics wanting to call and text from a single number. You can work with Google to port over your existing phone number (from your current telephone line provider), or use the new one assigned to you by Google. If your clinic lives and breathes with Google Workspace then this option might be a good one for you.
SimpleTexting
Available in the USA and Canada, SimpleTexting is a great solution for clinics who want to have two-way texting with patients, manage lots of contacts, and create texting ‘campaigns’ to communicate with multiple patients at once. Choose a local number, enable your landline for texting, or use the free number assigned to you by SimpleTexting. We personally love that you can see which member of your team sent a message and that you can assign conversations to certain people — nice! Last but not least, we thought SimpleTexting’s customer support was responsive, friendly and helpful!
Pricing:
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Starts at $25/ monthUSD for 500 SMS.
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Buy ‘credits’ to use for sending SMS and MMS. Credits never expire and roll over month to month which is great if your SMS volume fluctuates. You only pay for what you use.
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14-day free trial.
Phone numbers:
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Enable your existing landline / VoIP line for texting, or receive a local number.
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You can use dedicated short code phone numbers (five or six digits long) at an additional cost.
Features:
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1:1 chats
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Campaigns to communicate with groups of patients all at once
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“Away” auto reply so you can set up an auto-responder text message outside of office hours
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Create templates for quick responses
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Import contacts easily from Jane
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Create profiles for your team members and assign conversations as needed
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Create lists to segment your patients
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Mobile app
Things to note:
- While there is a mobile app, there isn’t a native app for desktop computers; you just access it from your browser.
TextMagic
Available in most countries, TextMagic allows you to have 1:1 SMS chats with patients, as well as create ‘campaigns’ to send to multiple patients at once. There are user friendly desktop and mobile apps available and multiple users can be logged in at once. We loved that you can create custom profile fields in TextMagic to bring in any information from Jane that you like.
Pricing
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It’s a cost-per-text-message-sent + a monthly charge for the number you choose to use. Price varies by country but in Canada and the US texts start at $.04 each and a local number costs $4/month.
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30-day free trial.
Phone numbers:
- You can enable your existing landline for texting, or get a local number assigned to you.
Features:
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Desktop and mobile apps
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Import contacts easily from Jane
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Create custom fields to import additional info like patient number or DOB
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1:1 chats
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Campaigns to communicate with groups of patients all at once
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Create templates for quick responses
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Create lists to segment your patients
Things to note:
- There’s a monthly cost for the number you use
Other Resources
This list by no means is an exhaustive one for great patient communication solutions – there are a lot to choose from depending on where you are, your preferences and what communication needs you have. Our last plug here is to also check out the Jane Community Facebook Page where folks often spin up conversations around patient communication tools (and where some of the info for this guide came from!).
If you’ve got questions, thoughts or just want to say hey, we’d love to hear from you a [email protected]
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