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As wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters threaten healthcare operations, WELL offers the flexibility to text all of your patients at once.

When the largest wildfire in California history to date roared through Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, many Community Memorial Health System locations had to close. Providers couldn’t go to work. Even the call center had to move to another location to escape the fast-moving blaze.

“It was a massive undertaking trying to reach that many patients,” recalls Lori Hooks, Director of Practice Systems at the prominent Ventura, California health system.

Phone calls are tedious and ineffective. Whether it’s due to a wildfire, hurricane, or simply a provider calling in sick, calling a large group of patients at once is tedious. When the conditions change minute by minute, it’s virtually impossible. For CMHS, by the time they had reached patients to let them know of location and schedule changes, the appointment time slots had already arrived. Now the health system uses WELL. Its Broadcasts feature allows CMHS to schedule a message to go out at a moment’s notice.

“WELL is a mini-preparedness kit,” Hooks said.

Text all of your patients at once with Broadcast messages

Broadcast Messages provide an easy solution to text all of your patients at once and at the last minute. Here’s how it works. In the WELL platform, you can quickly select up to 1,000 patients per practice per day and send them all a customized message.

Make it even easier by using Smart Phrases and Quick Response Templates.

Smart Phrases are like shortcuts and allow you to customize communication with your patients. Compose a message as you would otherwise and insert Smart Phrases into the text. For example, {clientFirstName}. Once the message is sent, the data dynamically populates from your EMR or scheduling system and automatically tailors itself with each patient’s specific information.

How it looks to your staff: Hello {clientFirstName}, this is {staffFirstName} with {practiceName}. Due to the rapidly spreading LCU Lightning Complex fires, your appointment has been moved to our {eventLocationName} at {eventLocationAddress}. {eventConfirmText}.

How it looks to your patients: Hello Kevin, this is Bridget with Valley View Health. Due to the rapidly spreading LCU Lightning Complex fires, your appointment has been moved to our Almond Grove location at 1000 Main Street. Reply Y to confirm or N to cancel.

Disaster preparedness can start now

WELL Quick Responses are pre-written responses for common scenarios and questions. They’re ready to go when disaster strikes, there’s a power outage, or a provider comes down with the flu. For example:

Hello {clientFirstName}, this is {staffFirstName} with {practiceName}. Due to the construction on State Street, please use our Anacapa entrance and allow an additional 10 minutes to arrive.

Field patient questions with ease

With WELL’s conversational functionality, if patients have questions or concerns, they can easily send them via text. Call centers can respond as they have time and speed things up with Quick Responses when appropriate. Conversational texting in healthcare keeps call volume low and patients informed.

WELL’s Broadcast feature coupled with Smart Phrases and Quick Responses ensures your health system can handle whatever nature throws your way. ♥

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