> On 24/11/2006, at 2:13 PM, Neil McAliece wrote: > >> At the moment the practice has trialled calling patients to remind >> them. They haven't been doing that for long, but they suspect that >> it hasn't improved the patient no-show situation much. >> >> I guess that if they can get a plan where SMS costs 10-15c per >> message, sending the messages isn't tedious & time consuming and >> they see a decent attendance increase it might be worthwhile. > > I'm polishing off an SMS reminder application (complete with multi- > database API) and hadn't even thought of the privacy concerns. > That'll be a spanner in the works given there is no such column in > any of the databases I've been working with. Guess it wouldn't be a > good idea for Gynos etc. > > Mainly targeted towards specialists and dentists - ie. the ones that > already phone to remind of every appointment because it's cost > effective for them to do so, and it will save them a lot of time and > a little bit of money. > > Retail cost of SMS will start at 21c for an Australian routed message > (guaranteed to get to your provider) but should drop to around 15c > once if we get good volumes going. Can route through South Africa for > much cheaper but there are delivery issues.
I'd never considered privacy as an issue either. I see where Neil is coming from, but teenage girls are the most privacy aware species on the planet, and some of the best bull shit artists to boot. I doubt any would "lend their phone to their dad", especially if she is pregnant etc. What would happen with a traditional telephone reminder in the same situation? Is there any consent given with home number reminders? Do receptionists declare where they are calling from when asking to speak to a patient? Round-trip SMS solutions (reminder & automated confirmation into the practice address book) are starting to emerge, as are solutions that "allows your practice to communicate sensitive patient information using secure recorded messages via a touch-tone phone". Obviously lots of issues to talk about. Cheers, Simon -- Simon James Publisher Pulse IT M: 0402 149 859 F: 02 9475 0029 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] W: http://www.pulsemagazine.com.au 3/61A Bream Street Coogee NSW 2034 _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
