{"id":47701,"date":"2021-05-17T04:00:18","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"\/us\/en\/blog\/?p=47701"},"modified":"2024-08-08T07:51:07","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T14:51:07","slug":"automated-patient-outreach-how-much-is-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/automated-patient-outreach-how-much-is-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Automated patient outreach: How much is too much?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s patients are more sophisticated. They\u2019re looking for a positive patient experience, and they expect their providers and insurers to abide by patient communications best practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this article, we\u2019ll explore how much automated patient outreach is too much, and how you can use a unified communications platform to personalize patient communications to retain and engage them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Quick\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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\nQuick guide to automated patient outreach<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the Guide<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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What is automated patient outreach?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Automated patient outreach refers to text messages or<\/span>\u00a0phone calls that provide call-back or next step interaction choices via an <\/span>interactive voice response (IVR)<\/span><\/a> system, that are sent automatically by a healthcare provider.<\/span><\/p>\n

IVR allows people to interact with a phone system through speaking or through their keypads. Most people are familiar with IVR<\/a> systems when they call an organization and a pre-recorded voice answers, routing them to their destination. In the case of IVR messages, the IVR system is programmed to make outbound calls; when the patient picks up the phone, the recording is activated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The benefits of automated patient outreach<\/b><\/h2>\n

There are clear benefits of\u00a0<\/span>automated patient outreach<\/span><\/a> for providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

For a start, automated patient outreach saves time and money. It frees up staff members to do other things aside from reminding patients it\u2019s time for their flu shots.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, automated patient outreach is flexible\u2014providers can use it to target their entire patient population or a specific segment (such as older patients who should receive a shingles vaccine).<\/span><\/p>\n

Is automated patient outreach alienating patients?<\/b><\/h2>\n

In a study published in JAMA at the end of March 2021, researchers learned that\u00a0<\/span>automated patient outreach<\/span><\/a> has the potential to alienate patients.<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers studied over 428,000 adults from an integrated health system between October 2018 and September 2019. Two and a half percent of patients opted out of future text messages, while 1.5 percent chose not to receive future IVR messages.<\/span><\/p>\n

While 2.5 percent and 1.5 percent don\u2019t sound like big numbers, researchers saw a deeper trend emerge from their data. They discovered that patients who received a high volume of messages were more likely to opt out of future communications. Patients who received more than ten automated text messages were more likely to opt out, while those receiving more than 20 texts per year were three times more likely to opt out than those who received two text messages per year.<\/span><\/p>\n

A similar trend became apparent for automated IVR messages: patients who received more than 10 automated phone calls per year were more likely to opt out of future communications than patients who only received two such calls, while those who received more than 20 IVR calls on an annual basis were the most likely to opt out.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were two other points the researchers made:<\/span><\/p>\n