“Satisfaction is a part of good patient communication and good patient flow in the hospital,” said Christy Dempsey, senior vice president for clinical and operational consulting services at Press Ganey.

Another key finding from the survey is that regardless of what metro area patients live in, they placed the highest priority on being kept informed about emergency department delays. This need was given a greater emphasis than on how well their pain was controlled or the overall ratings of care received.

One important lesson hospitals can draw from the report is that ER patient satisfaction has a direct correlation to a hospital’s bottom line.  If you are considering enhancing your ER by communicated expected wait times, please contact ER Texting for a free demonstration and consultation.

About ER Texting

ER Texting provides texting services to hospitals and urgent care facilities that want to post their emergency room wait time and allow consumers to access those times via text message. By virtue of its dedicated and highly recognizable SMS short code 4ER411, ER Texting offers a complete, secure, compliant and integrated texting and marketing platform. For more information on ER Texting and our capabilities, please visit www.ERtexting.com.

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A recent Wall Street Journal health article focused on the rising percentage of emergency room (ER) patients that leave without being seen (LWBS). According to the most recent government statistics, LWBS patients jumped from 1.7 % between 1998 and 2006 to 2.7 % between 2007 and 2008.

The opportunity cost of these lost patients is significant. Emergency Department Chairman, Joe Guarisco MD of Ochsner Health Systems in New Orleans, commented, “Revenue of about $450,000 is lost even if 1% of patients walk out of an emergency room in a facility that has an annual patient volume of 50,000.”

Fewer ER’s, more patients and physician shortages have all contributed to the current environment. Accordingly, hospitals are addressing the issue in two ways: 1) Reducing ER wait times and 2) Posting live, actual ER wait times in order to better set patients’ expectations.

Streamlining flow and processes are critical to a more effective and efficient ER and thus to reducing patient wait times. In addition, staffing with less costly nurse practitioners and physician assistants allows physicians to stay focused on patient care and manage their time more efficiently.

Providing current ER wait times properly sets patient expectations, thereby reducing those that could fall into the LWBS category. Effective communication of ER wait times can be accomplished by posting the wait time on the hospital website, highway billboards, smart phone apps, and even more conveniently via simple text message. In this manner, patients are quickly, economically and conveniently made aware of wait times at an ER of their choice.

About ER Texting

ER Texting provides texting services to hospitals and urgent care facilities that want to post their emergency room wait time and allow consumers to access those times via text message. By virtue of its dedicated and highly recognizable SMS short code 4ER411, ER Texting offers a complete, secure and integrated texting and marketing platform. For more information on ER Texting and our capabilities, please visit www.ERtexting.com.

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Through a $100,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation, Temple University will deliver cardiovascular health information to neighboring communities through text messaging. Using a novel approach, cardiovascular health information will be channeled through community leaders and organizations, thereby giving it added weight.

Verizon’s grant will be used by Temple University to expand its Telemedicine Light program, by which doctors develop targeted, customized messages with community leaders that address the unique concerns—cultural, economic or linguistic—of a specific community. Once those messages are relayed by community leaders to the targeted population, community members are urged to sign up for weekly messages.

Tremayne Askew, a member of Triumph Health and Social Services Ministry as well as Temple’s Community Ambassador Program, told the university newspaper that the cell phone is the ideal method for getting the message out. Not everyone will see a news report, she said, but they all have cell phones, and they will get a text message.

As consumers rely more and more on mobile channels for their information—including that which is healthcare related—many hospitals are implementing a text strategy in order to deliver valued medical information to consumers’ cellular phones.

ER Texting provides a messaging platform that allows targeted outbound communication to past and future patients, as a way of “deepening” the hospital / patient relationship and without intrusion of privacy.

About ER Texting

ER Texting provides texting services to hospitals and urgent care facilities that want to post their emergency room wait time and allow consumers to access those times via text message. By virtue of its dedicated and highly recognizable SMS short code 4ER411, ER Texting offers a complete, secure and integrated texting and marketing platform. For more information on ER Texting and our capabilities, please visit www.ERtexting.com.

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Recent survey results validate just how engaged mothers are in terms of their cell phone use and accordingly their responsiveness to information and services delivered via this medium.

The data shows that mothers are ahead of the curve in terms of cell phone adoption in many respects:

• 9% more mobile than general population
• Over 50% have smart phones
• 53% purchased smart phones as a result of becoming a mother.

Their usage and the various features they utilize are also of interest. Mothers spend 6.1 hours a day looking at their cell phone and are 284% more likely to text rather than call friends. Their favorite uses of their cell phones are for taking photos and / or videos, applications, calendar, internet access, email and texting.

Specific to healthcare and mothers:

• 90% research health conditions via their phone
• 60% research health and wellness information, using their phones
• 50% more likely to be using smart phones for health and wellness than the average adult

Accordingly, many mothers admit that they are addicted to their phones and recognize that their mobile “environment” is of critical importance.

In line with this trend, many hospitals are starting to post their emergency room (ER) wait times online and also accessible via text. The convenience of accessing a hospital’s current ER wait time is not just what mothers need but it’s now what most demand.

About ER Texting

ER Texting provides texting services to hospitals and urgent care facilities that want to post their emergency room wait time and allow consumers to access those times via text message. By virtue of its dedicated and highly recognizable SMS short code 4ER411, ER Texting offers a complete, secure and integrated texting and marketing platform. For more information on ER Texting and our capabilities, please visit www.ERtexting.com.

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My Record Journal interviewed Dr. Jeff Finkelstein, the hospital’s chief of emergency medicine, he stated “I have yet to see a person who doesn’t have a cell phone.”  The number of Americans who are now using a texting service is on the rise. Patients can text their zip codes to 4ER411 (or 437411) and will be provided with a list of wait times for the hospitals at New Britain General and Bradley Memorial, in Southington.

This service helps increase patient satisfaction since it is widely accessible and very easy to use. Dr. David Buono, medical director of the New Britain General emergency department affirmed, “I think it’s a fairly simple system.”

If you would like to find out more about this texting service, contact ERtexting.

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Posting ER wait times can be done by either posting them on a website, on billboards, using phone applications or a texting service. Hospitals understand this will allow patients to know just how long they will have to wait when seeking health care and result in higher patient satisfaction.

Transparency results in many benefits. Patients are demanding more and more information in making healthcare decisions and posting ER wait times falls into line with these demands. Increased communication equates to a better overall experience.

Why use a texting service such as ERtexting? According to the GSM Association currently an amazing 6.25 billion text messages are sent in the United States per day. Using a texting service will allow you to make your wait times accessible to a great number of individuals in a convenient, economical and instantaneous manner, thus increasing patient satisfaction.

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Firstly, hospitals should avoid not making their call of action prevalent. According to Mr. Hasen, hospitals should try “engaging consumers and turning passive activities into interactive ones, making traditional and non-traditional dollars work harder, and being able to measure effectiveness in real time.”

Shawn Schwegman, chief marketing officer at ChaCha, Indianapolis, IN, explains how “often, when marketers think about mobile ad dollars, SMS marketing is overlooked.”  He went on to say “With SMS mobile marketing, brands gain extensive reach. It is key for brands to reach the right audience and maximize their reach,” he suggests how” by leveraging SMS marketing, marketers can achieve their goals.”

Finally to keep patient satisfaction at its highest, you should avoid bombarding them with messages once they have acquired the service. It is also important to be original. Cat Enagonio, vice president of marketing at ChaCha, Indianapolis, IN explains “Brands will do best when they view it within the context of the medium. A key best practice is for brand marketers and agencies to understand the different mobile products and map their advertising into that which will yield the highest conversion rates.”

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