Textline
Humanizing Healthcare Communications

Text messaging has become a prominent mode of communication between healthcare providers and patients, especially for sending appointment prompts, medication notifications, and health report links. But according to a majority of patients, the commonly used automated one-way messaging approach of healthcare providers is often disengaging. For instance, if a patient receiving an appointment prompt finds the date or time unsuitable, they can’t reply to the same message to reschedule; they need to make a phone call instead. While some clinics try to make their patient communication more conversational and engaging through third-party messaging apps, these solutions often do not comply with the data protection rules set forth by the regulating agencies.

Textline—a provider of a business messaging platform—is solving this problem for both healthcare providers and patients by facilitating HIPAA-compliant, two-way text communication. On the one hand, the company is humanizing healthcare communication and improving patient engagement, and on the other, it is instilling trust into the client brands by making patient privacy its utmost priority.

“Our text messaging platform is preferred by our clients as well as their patients owing to its simplicity and ease of use,” says AJ Chan, COO of Textline. The plug-and-play platform neither requires extensive implementation time nor does it need training, enabling healthcare providers to use it immediately for communicating with their patients. Whether the communication is between front desk staff and patient, physician-patient, or sales team and patient, all a user needs to do is start texting as they would do in any other messaging app. The only difference is that Textline leverages native texting, and hence, the users don’t even have to download a third-party app.

Textline fulfills a broad scope of healthcare communication requirements, from streamlining patient appointments to facilitating remote care.

Especially in the case of home health and remote patient care, Textline can be used to seek text-based advice from physicians in a secure, HIPAAcompliant manner for non-exigent health conditions. For instance, the patients can send pictures of simpler, more visible symptoms and get relevant consultations via text without them having to go to the clinic. This saves physicians time and enables them to focus on more critical patients.

These capabilities are just the tip of the iceberg for such a versatile platform. Owing to its ability to combine automation with humanization, Textline is fast gaining popularity among the sales teams of healthcare clients, who can now go beyond the monotonous and automated sales pitches and engage their potential leads in more authentic two-way conversations. The platform can also be used to facilitate communication between the healthcare center and the field workers in remote places.

Textline’s focus on security and compliance, especially, is unparalleled in the industry. Any electronic health data and patient consent information leveraged during the text messaging is stored in highly-secure cloud environments and protected with a standard encryption protocol. The platform’s security is further testified by its numerous compliance certifications, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Privacy Shield.

The platform’s efficacy can be best exemplified by a recent case study when the company implemented Textline for a primary care provider after patient demand. The platform enabled them to send out automated texts on a mass scale when needed. But unlike the conventional messaging automation, Textline’s approach allows patients to reply with queries and get responses from the relevant provider teams. The platform not only increased their workflow efficiency but also boosted patient engagement significantly.

At a time when healthcare organizations are moving toward patient-centric care, a foresighted company like Textline is playing a prominent role in promoting a greater patient experience by improving engagement with healthcare providers.