When it comes to health, we love small and simple interventions that make a big impact. A new study shows that check-in text messages sent after emergency care by a primary care team can significantly reduce hospital readmission rates.
Of course, text can’t diagnose or treat any disease, but it seems this little nudge is helping discharged patients take a moment to reflect on how their health is recovering and how they’re adjusting to new treatments.
The follow-up texts, sent over a 30-day period, appear to play an important role in keeping patients connected to a source of support.
“In a fragmented healthcare landscape, relatively simple applications of technology can help patients feel more connected to their primary care practice,” says Eric Bressmana internist at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
“This is especially important when patients are recovering from an acute illness as it reminds them they have a medical home to turn to for support.”
The researchers compared more than 400 who received text messages to more than 1,000 who didn’t. In the texting group, they were 55 percent less likely to need to be hospitalized again within the next month and 41 percent less likely to need any kind of emergency care during that 30-day period.
The SMS system started with three check-in SMS per week in the first week and decreased to a single check-in SMS in the fourth week. The normal text question was, “Is there anything we can help you with today?” with different answers such as “I don’t feel well” and “I need help with my medication”.
Patients were also advised to call the hospital or emergency services if needed to expand the available support options. After 30 days, a final SMS was sent announcing the end of the follow-up programme.
According to the researchersThe lyrics can help patients feel more connected and encourage them to seek additional help as soon as they need it—rather than waiting until emergency care or readmission to the hospital may be needed again.
Phone calls from nurses are often used to follow up with people who have recently left the hospital, but text messaging promises to be faster, easier, easier to scale and more effective. and while these calls helpthey also come up with some problems that a text messaging system could solve.
“In our experience, calls can be time-consuming, often go unanswered, and generally only see patients once, early in their recovery,” the researchers write in their published paper.
Researchers hope the study’s success — more than 80 percent of patients responded to at least one introductory text message — will lead to its adoption and wider adoption.
“We hope all of this will contribute to the adoption of more digital medicine applications that close gaps in care and offer patients easier ways to connect with their GP team.” says Bressman.
The research was published in JAMA network open.
