Home Forums Texting patients and doctors

Our office only has 1 doctor, myself and a RN. I have been trying to find a way that we can TEXT our patients. Has anyone heard or used OhMD? The site says that they are HIPAA compliant, EHR intergrative and free. I found an office in Texas that is very similar to ours that uses OhMD. I will call them but, I wanted to check with the AC community also.

Thank You

I just looked at their website and it looks interesting.
Let us know what you find. (I have asked them for more information, and will do the same)

Hi Alley,

It does look interesting. Thanks for sharing. Three questions either from them or from you:

1. It seems like it would be difficult to get others to agree to accept text messages. I get really excited when they like emails better than calls. I could just see offices, especially those that have one designated doctor on call for that day, not wanting to be texted. In fact, many would say, "Please don't send those. They disrupt my visits." The problem is that specialists psychologically feel we need them more than they need us. At least in areas where there is little competition. Sometimes I wish I could just blast fax to all specialists and see what they are comfortable with. Now, if I could send to pharmacists, that would be awesome. Except it would have to be set up to delete my swear words. Because, there would be plenty.

2. It seems that it could be a great way to do reminder texts. Wouldn't be hard to teach. Simply get my receptionist to change from texting her boyfriend, daughter and friends, to text on this.

3. Some on call stuff would be good. The only problem is I wonder if they would then have your text and text you when they wanted.

Thanks Wendell and Bert. I appreciate having both of you interested in this. I read a lot of your posts.
The RN in our office looked on her Android phone and found that the App for the OhMD had some great reviews but of course they can be paid for.
I am so surprised by the number of patients that tell us that they no longer use their email.
I am not surprised by the number of patients that have elected to use the portal but, have never used it and then say it is too much trouble. They will however text. (like everybody else including employees)
The great thing about Ohmd is that the office is supposed to be able to send the text by an email and receive any text by email.
My doc likes to text me. She has the voice command on her phone and uses it like crazy when she works at her other office. She tries not to use swear words. I said TRIES.
The Appointment Reminder is the biggest reason that we were looking into this. We leave a message and they do not check their voice mails, they don't check emails, they don't like the portal and they don't for some reason keep the appointment card that we so nicely and old school give them.
Thank You and I will update if you will
Alley

I spoke with an employee at the doctors office in Texas that uses OhMd. She said that the entire staff including the physician loved the Ohmd texting program. It is an independent 2 physician pediatric group (they just had a new physician to join). The only complaint that Jamie had was that there were server issues. Like any system the issues usually arose when they updated. She said that she has learned how to handle that.
She gave rave reviews to the system support team. She also said that the patients really liked it and found it easy to join and use.
I did ask her if there were any hidden fees. She said to her knowledge there were not.
My next call will be to Ohmd themselves.
I will try to do that Wednesday. We are "OFFICIALLY" closed so, I can spend time on the phone if needed.
Alley

I am also interested in hearing more about this. It is impressive how technology slowly moved from snail mail to phone to email, but is now quickly going to texting for many people.
One thing to keep in mind... we learned from a recent malpractice prevention seminar that texting (and any portal) can open a Pandora's box when it comes to liability. For example, if someone texts you at 2AM with an emergency concern, but you do not see the text until the next morning - or perhaps even later than that - you may have significant legal liability. The attorney suggested that we only use portals, emails, and texting for outgoing info, as well as receipt of prescription refill requests and appointment requests.

Yes, texting patients appointment reminders is currently an unmet need in my office. It looks like "OhMD" is a messaging app, not a true texting/SMS app (as, correct me if I am wrong, both parties must use the OhMD app,and can't use phones built in texting/SMS capability.)

I echo Allyc's comments about how many patients rarely check their emails and ignore voicemails.

Ken, both parties do have to use the OhMd app. I will be doing more research on Wednesday. I know it seems like forever. I am the front person so I wait till Wednesday when we are closed and I can spend time on the phone or online chatting.
My understanding is you have the option of when the Texting will be in service. I think that we have decided that we will not use it after hours urgent needs. It will only be for appointment reminders and for those patients that do not want the portal or email. NO AFTER HOURS. We have an after hours phone for any urgent needs.
As I said, I will do more research Wednesday.
I can research a thing to death but, I would rather be thorough then sign up for something and get scr____.
If anyone finds out something before me please post.
Thank You

I just found out that right now they are not integrated with Amazing Charts, but they are in the process of it. "There is a button in the OhMD web dashboard that initiates the PDF export. The document would be saved to your local server and you could then upload it to the EMR."- This is from one of the consultants that I spoke with. She also said that "We do charge $5/practice user/month for some EHR integrations -- I'll ask my team about Amazing Charts. We hope to offer additional "premium features" in the future that might be on a subscription basis, but those would be optional add-ons to our free core platform."

I know some find it expensive but Amazing Charts offers appointment reminder calls and Texts to those patients who request it - it runs me about $50 per month for about 500 appointments monthly. It only does appointment reminders but you can send blast messages based on people who have appointments for instance if you need to contact everyone scheduled for the next 3 days to have them call in and reschedule.

What would really work well is an effective 2-way confirmation. We told people for a long time to confirm in Updox, but almost no one does this. We still call to confirm appointments. If we could text them, have them text back, and have it marked as confirmed in AC that would be great! Otherwise, it just sounds like more work.