Computers today are found everywhere. Hospitals of all kinds use them to give their patients an automatic appointment reminding message. This beneficial practice has developed into many benefits but undoubtedly the most important benefit is that these automatic appointment reminders have in effect practically stopped all patient “”Did Not Attends”.” This is of course wonderful news for medical offices that now can create new appointments rather than having an empty room due to a particular “Did Not Attend”. If you are considering an appointment reminder, you should realize that there are basically 3 different kinds. These are an email, the SMS, or using the telephone with or without a computer.

Email reminders. Email reminders are sent out via a computer. One of the important things about computer email reminders is that one can easily put in personal information of any type. For instance one could attach a test result to it, or an email may just contain a salutation from the office, followed by the precise name of the person who has the appointment, the precise appointment date, and the time. Should the clinic have more than one site, the address of which site this figures into is important. Email reminders also need to include a phone number or perhaps a site address in case the patient needs to change the appointment. Appointment reminders such as this may also include other information such as the length of time the appointment will take. Many young people have made it a habit to check their emails very frequently as well as in the evening, and therefore prefer email reminders. Young people also frequently respond using an email of their own if they cannot make the appointment.

SMS reminders: These are in actuality text message reminders that send text ordinarily between cell phones. SMS stands for Short Message Service, and they are sent to smartphones or what’s known as smartphones such the iPhone, Black Berries, or any number of web phone technology. Basically it a short message because most messages are limited to a grand total of 160 characters, thus all the personalization that is listed in the email reminder will be consequently absent from an SMS reminder, other than the name of the healthcare professional, or the clinic name, the date and time of the appointment and perhaps the name of the patient. Young people are extremely fond of these SMS reminders, and they often spend hours texting each other and therefore are frequently referred to as the “thumb generation” as the typing is done on the tiny numerical pads. The younger the patient, the more likely they will prefer a SMS appointment reminder.

Telephone reminders: Now the more elderly generation will prefer telephone reminders instead of SMS reminders or email. Telephone reminders are getting rare. It is too expensive to keep a live person on the phone to make sure that someone remembers their appointment. The hassles of redialing numbers when there has been no answer, is very tedious, but this is not necessary with email or SMS. Computers are also tireless and do not get paid by the hours.

Therefore any medical service center should plan on using all three methods of appointment reminder types. As you can see, the length of the appointment reminder besides the age of the person receiving the reminder will call for one of the three and not just one or two different types.

AssistMedic has been providing automatic medical receptionist services to companies worldwide for several years. You may want to try their virtual office receptionist that has appointment reminder service.