Shelton Dental Clinic, a busy dental practice on the East Rand has implemented SMS321 - a low cost short messaging service (SMS) to cell phones.
Dr Bernard Andersen of Shelton Dental Clinic explains that the practice currently spends over R4000 per month on telephone calls, many of which are to remind patients of their appointment. "Most calls are to cell phones, costing us R1.40 per minute. In many cases we have to leave a voice message and even phone back. It is imperative that we do get hold of the patient, because a missed appointment is lost income.
To solve the problem Shelton Dental decided to use SMS321. SMS321 is software that enables SMS messaging directly from a PC. Instead of phoning all patients on their cell phones the two receptionists send SMS to all patients who have appointments.
Keith Levenstein, CEO of Econoserv, suppliers of SMS321, explains: "We have included many time saving features in SMS321. For example the system allows the receptionists to use a template instead of typing up a message. It now takes each person no more than 20 seconds to set up an SMS message and transmit it. Our system connects directly from a PC to the Vodacom and MTN message centers, via a GSM modem, so there is no need to connect to the Internet or a third party to deliver SMS. Using our method delivers SMS to anyone`s cell phone, directly, within 20 seconds.
"This is faster and more efficient than making a telephone call. It also costs far less to send an SMS - 15 cents compared to a call of R1.40 per minute.
Dr Andersen said "SMS321 is useful to us because it allows us to add names of our patients into the database. Then, whenever we want to send the patient an SMS we can click on his name, without having to type in his cell phone number. One of the best features of the software is that our patients can reply to us also via SMS. The incoming SMS reaches us within 20 seconds. Our procedure is to send reminder SMSs every morning to all patients for the next day`s appointment. We regularly check for incoming SMS, and if a patient has replied via SMS or phoned in we mark the appointment as confirmed. Currently over 50% of all patients are replying via SMS, and most of the rest are phoning in to us. We used to make 50 cell phone calls per day - this has now been cut down to less than 10.
Dr Andersen continued "Although our users - the receptionists - have very little computer experience, within two weeks they were sending SMS faster than they could make telephone calls. Our most recent telephone bill was R1000 less than last month. We intend also using SMS as a debt collection tool, saving money in phoning patients, and we feel an SMS is less obtrusive and more discreet when asking for payment,
"Patients have become quite excited about this new technology, and seem to appreciate an SMS more than a telephone call. We do feel we are giving better patient service.
Levenstein explained that one of the features of SMS321 is the ability to delay a message. A person can type up an SMS, but get the system to delay sending it until a particular date and time. For example they are now able to create their SMS in advance, usually during the afternoons when the practice is quiet, and set the delay time to be the following day. Some patients who have appointments on Monday mornings have asked for an SMS to be sent to them on Sunday evening or Monday morning as an extra reminder.
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