It's one of the ironies of modern life that while we are more connected than ever it can be harder than ever to reach someone. A call to a home phone during the day is likely to go to voicemail; if you call their cell number they'll see it's you calling and may not answer, even though they appreciate the reminder.

This is why I recommend that you ask patients for permission to text them with appointment courtesy notices. Texting is great because it's immediate. It gets looked at (usually right away) but doesn't require an interruption to take a call. It can be replied to instantly, making it hassle-free for the patient and your team.

More and more people, especially young people, are moving away from calls and prefer to communicate by text or email. So it makes sense to use the method of communication they're most in tune with. (If you want to call your teenagers to the dinner table, try texting. It gets their attention right away.)

At the start of each day, look at the schedule for two weeks out. If you can deal with most of those patients through text message, it takes about 10 minutes to contact 20 patients. (It's just a matter of cutting and pasting and editing the appointment time.) Nowadays it's simple to send a text message from your office computer using Skype or Google Voice or other services. And all you're looking for is a simple “OK” response.Then, in the afternoon, call those people who didn't respond. Not just as another follow-up for the appointment, but as a way of training them to respond to the text messages you send.

So stop leaving the robo-calls on answering systems and start communicating with patients in a way that fits with the way they live today.


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