General FAQs What if I don’t want patients to communicate with me directly?
No problem. Patient communication on OhMD was designed with the flexibility to allow for each provider to use it in the way they’d like. That means you can set OhMD up to allow patient texts to go to your office staff, or if you’d like, you can receive them directly.
Can I text colleagues in my practice?
Yes. OhMD allows providers to communicate quickly and effectively with colleagues to ensure the best care is provided.
Can I text with doctors outside my practice?
Definitely. Our HIPAA compliant messaging platform allows all types of healthcare professionals to communicate with referring providers.
I keep hearing the word “eVisit”, but what does it mean?
Electronic visits can happen via several different mediums but all have one thing in common: direct electronic communication between patient and provider. This communication may be through video calls, online forms, live chatting, or two-way text messaging.
How can I minimize no-shows in my practice?
Text messages reach patients between 97% and 99% of the time. Practices that implemented text appointment reminders, rather than calling or emailing patients, decreased patient no-show rates by as much as 60%. Schedule a demo today to learn more about integrating our reminder system with your practice today.
How do I increase loyalty among my patients?
Patient loyalty and satisfaction is essential to the success of a practice. To increase loyalty, there are several steps you can follow.
- Maintain contact with patients
- Keep patients informed at all times
- Get patient input when making decisions
- Implement a patient communication platform
How can I improve engagement with my patients?
Patients are no longer satisfied with an automated phone call or generic email. They want personalized interactions. With custom text from OhMD, your patients will feel engaged in a completely new way.
How can I save money and lives by improving communication in my practice?
With OhMD you can send urgent messages to colleagues to improve care and health outcomes, and remind patients about bills to increase payment collection. Prevent communication mistakes and save more lives, all while increasing revenue with OhMD.
Why does my practice need HIPAA compliant instant messaging?
The five fundamental benefits of implementing a HIPAA compliant messaging application with your practice are: improved response time, enhanced security, healthier bottom line, streamlined workflow, and ease of use.
Is the live chat feature HIPAA compliant?
Yes, it is! We encrypt all data to prevent unauthorized access to health information at all times. Additionally, users must verify their identity through a multi-factor authentication. A unique username and password combination ensures only authorized users have access to data.
What’s wrong with using email for communication?
Email is not HIPAA compliant, nor is it the best method to ensure patients receive and read your message. Successful read rates of email are only about half that of the rate at which texts messages are read.
What is the price of not using a HIPAA compliant application?
Not complying with HIPAA standards can be very expensive for your practice. In fact, a single incident can cost up to $50,000. Common messaging applications like iMessage, Facebook, and WhatsApp are not HIPAA compliant and using them for healthcare communication can result in unnecessary fines.
How can two-way patient texting be HIPAA compliant?
Not all patient texting is HIPAA compliant. With OhMD, it is. This is thanks to a combination of two factors:
- All messages exchanged between patients and providers are encrypted on the provider’s end in OhMD. Providers text patients from either the OhMD web app or mobile app, both of which require a login, so patient PHI is protected and not stored on the provider’s device.
- Organizations using OhMD are required to ask for patient consent to communicate with them by text prior to exchanging any information in this way. If patient consent is not gathered before texting a patient PHI, that is a HIPAA violation. As a best practice, we recommend creating a saved reply in OhMD so that you can easily request and capture patient consent any time you add a new patient to the platform.
For tips on how to phrase your Patient Consent saved reply, check out our Text Templates blog in our Content Library.
How can my practice benefit from adding a care coordination platform?
When done well, a successful care coordination platform improves the care experience, advances health outcomes, and reduces costs. Retain patients, lower costs, and maximize incentives with better patient experiences.
What should I expect in a healthcare messaging platform?
There are several components you should expect. Two-way secure messaging, file delivery, cross-platform functionality, a system-wide directory, a broadcast and reminder system, and reliable customer support are integral parts of a successful messaging application.
How are HIPAA compliant messaging applications different from my normal messaging apps?
Standard messaging applications were created for deliverability, not security. HIPAA compliant applications were constructed for compliance and secure messaging. OhMD is built for security, but it was designed for optimal user experience.