Need to Visit the Emergency Room? For a Small Fee You Can Make an Appointment
Filed under: Emergency Services, ER Facts, ER Reviews, Other, Wait Times Health Services
A recent article written by the LA Times discussed how eight Southern California hospitals are now part of a system called InQuickEr, in which patients pay a monthly fee of $14.99 up to $24.99 giving them the ability to set up an online appointment for emergency care. This gives the patients the guarantee that they will be seen within 15 minutes of their arrival at the emergency department or they will receive their money back.
One of the hospitals which is now offering this service is Lakewood Regional Medical Center. Life-threatening emergencies will still be given priority. According to the LA Times, critics of the service worry that “letting people pay to secure appointments may just encourage patients who do not need immediate care to use emergency rooms anyway.” Reducing the ER wait-times of people who can afford the monthly fees, will increase the patient-satisfaction of said patients, but what happens to the rest?
With ERtexting this wouldn’t be an issue. It is a texting service that allows you to post your hospitals’ emergency room wait times making it available to anyone in the community. Since 4.5 billion people own a mobile phone world-wide, it makes this a valuable and highly accessible service while boosting patient satisfaction. For more information visit the ERtexting website.
HEALTHCARE MARKETING EXECUTIVES BILLBOARDS ARE ONLY THE BEGINNING IN THE ER WAIT TIMES WARS
If you spend anytime on the road these days, you’ve probably seen hospitals touting their short ER wait times “LIVE” on any of the highways’ many billboards.
HCA hospitals started the strategy in Florida, developed by their advertising agency, AB&A out of Miami. And the outcomes were fantastic. Some showed increases in ER traffic of up to 25%! Of course, HCA’s wait times were stellar, almost always less than 30 minutes, many times less than that.
But then came the new marketing wrinkle that REALLY got the ER’s cranking: Live ER wait times delivered to potential patients via text message in the middle of their emergency. That’s right, just think about it. Your daughter cuts her finger and needs 3 stitches. Don’t you want to know if you need to go to Hospital A and wait 18 minutes or Hospital B and wait 312 minutes? Pretty simple decision.
So what’s this whole text thing about anyway? Well, its about a trillion of them. Over a trillion texts sent in the US in 2009 and climbing. More and more, people are using their smart phones as the device of choice for making decisions on the go.
Many hospitals are turning to the industry leader for live ER text services, ERTexting out of Miami, Florida. Currently the company manages the 4ER411 system of ER text messages. The patient texts 4ER411 with their zip code and instantly they receive a text of the participating hospitals’ live wait times. Hospitals can secure zip codes on an exclusive basis and use the system to really dominate their competitors. And now 4ER411 even features outbound services to maximize their clients’ database. Patients can routinely receive text messages from hospitals on the system for pennies.
So if you’re looking for the wow factor, get that big billboard and let the whole world know! But if getting ahead of the marketing curve is your thing, text away and reap the rewards.
Sarah McCallister
Concept Behind ER Texting Service
Many People still aren’t familiar with the new phenomenon that has hit ER Waiting Rooms. A new service has been presented to hospitals all over the United States that allows patients to text their zip code to 4ER411 and get local (participating) hospital er wait times. The service is absolutely free to those who text in their zip code. The image shown depicts how the new system works:
Emergency Planning Via Texting
ER Wait Times: To Text or Not to Text?
That is the question and the answer is very simple.
If your hospital is focusing on ER admissions and generating
ER wait times under the staggering national average of 4 hours,
then yes, by all means, let people know about it. Texting ER
wait times is one of the strongest arrows in the healthcare
marketing quiver.
In 2009, over 1.6 trillion–with a “tr”–texts were sent and received
in the United States alone. People are texting more than they are
talking or e-mailing. Texting enables people to make a quick decision
about which hospital provides the shortest ER wait time and that in
turn enables people to begin their positive patient experience.
Studies show that many hospitals that market their ER wait times have
shown double digit increases in ER admissions. Although this has generally
meant a combination of tactics such as billboards, web site postings as
well as texting, the anecdotal evidence is there: people waking into the
ER, cell phone in hand, asking if the wait time is “really just 22 minutes?”
And speaking of people walking into the ER: some hospitals servicing larger
populations have worried over the idea of creating a further burden on their
already strained system. But think about this: marketing the text code
4ER411 to the marketplace is totally controlled by the hospital.
The hospital chooses who learns of the text code, how they learn about it,
when they learn about it. It can be geo-targeted, age targeted,
demographically targeted, so the hospital can maintain better control
of their overall ER targeting.
If your hospital is trying to open up that front door just a bit wider,
then promoting ER wait times is definitely the way to go.
written by Matthew Blakely
Marketing Emergency Medical Services
ER Texting Emergency Services
ER Texting, Inc., a Miami-based healthcare technology company today announced the launch of its ER Texting services for hospitals nationwide. Using ER Texting, patients can send a text message to a dedicated number (4ER411) and instantly receive a message in return which lists the emergency room wait times for participating hospitals in their area. The innovative application enables patients to find hospitals with short wait times and helps hospitals market efficient emergency rooms and emergency departments.
Rather than spend large amounts of money on traditional advertising for their ER’s/ED’s, hospitals can now utilize this low cost alternative for target specific areas of patients in their marketplace. The system allows hospitals to buy specific zip codes in their market, even on an exclusive basis. This allows them to control their ER/ED marketplace
by providing potential patients with the information they most need in an emergency.
HCA hospitals were the first to try this system in Florida in 2009. The results were so great, that it was quickly implemented across the HCA system nationwide.
Now, ER Texting has this technology available to all hospitals nationwide interested in creating a strong marketing effort for their ER/ED. For more information, log onto ertexting.com.
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