Here is another method that we use to get out practice wide (or group specific) messages. We are not yet using a portal, so we do a phone message. My secretary keeps referring to it as our "Robocall", although I prefer "automated reminder" since we are not politicians.
Generate a report of patients in AC using whatever parameters you wish. Then, use the show fields function to leave only the phone numbers. Use the export function which sends it to an Excel spreadsheet.
We user a service called Call-Em-All. It is very reasonably priced, charges based on the length of your message and number of calls placed. Create an account and add funds to it. Then you can set up a broadcast, import your phone numbers from the spreadsheet, record a message, and set parameters for when it goes out. You can also set up text message notifications, although we have not used that. It takes less than 5 minutes to set up a broadcast. After the broasdcast, it generates a report as to how many live answers, messages, etc.
These messages have been well received by our patients, they like hearing my voice on the message. (Some of them try to talk to me until they realize it is a recording!). We can reach everyone, even our older patients who may not use Email. We have mainly used it for flu shot reminders.
We were introduced to this by our vaccine supplier, Sanofi. If you have an account with them, they offer a free trial of the service and discounted rates. You can find it on their VaccineShoppe website, they call it WellConnect.
