Most people like to be prepared in advance for anything that comes their way. This is why any kind of notification is so important. More so if these notifications come from your hospital or health center.
Patient notifications are important because they can improve a patient’s overall satisfaction with their healthcare provider.
In this blog post, we will discuss the role played by notifications in patient satisfaction and whether vernacular notifications would make a difference or not.
Patient notifications are a vital part of the healthcare process. They are used to communicate with patients about their health conditions and treatment plans.
One reason for their relevance is convenience, as notifications allow people to prepare for their upcoming appointment. This is especially helpful for forgetful patients, such as the elderly.
Notifications also make a difference in health outcomes. It is believed that patients who are more satisfied with their notifications report better scores on outcome surveys measuring pain, quality of life, and emotional well-being.
Considering all these facts, one can say that patient notifications are an important factor in patient satisfaction and provide patients with the information they need to make informed decisions about their care.
However, for notifications to be effective, they must be understandable by the patient in question. This is where vernacular content comes in handy!
Vernacular content contains words that are common in a specific region or country, making it easier for consumers from that region or country to understand what is being communicated.
It has been shown to improve patient satisfaction when notifications are in the same language as that used during a consultation. This allows patients and providers to have an easier time communicating because they use words that may be more familiar to the former, making it less likely for misinterpretation.
If notifications are not understandable and take away patient satisfaction, it could lead some patients down a path of more intense treatments, which may negatively affect them.
Vernacular content can be used as an educational tool to help patients better understand notifications and make more informed decisions about their care.
There are a few problems with notifications written in non-vernacular languages. Notifications not translated into the patient's language can be harder to read for patients with limited education. When notifications do not include content that the patient understands, they may be more likely to be ignored.
When a patient without a comprehension of the English language gets English notifications from his hospital or medical practitioner, he may feel alienated, and would never be able to connect with or trust the said institution.
Non-vernacular patient notifications steal from you the chance to build trust and credibility in your audience.
Neither would these notifications have all the information that is important to the patient. Notifications may lose their meaning in translation.
If you are a medical service provider, these are some of the things you need to keep in mind when creating content for your patient notifications.
Providers need to consider the cultural background of their patients and write notifications accordingly, as this can play an influential role in satisfaction with care!
Insta’s cloud-based hospital management system provides the following ways to provide services for patient notifications:
- Automated patient promotional/transactional message notifications by SMS/Email
- Configurations to setup which notifications are applicable per patient by SMS/Email or both or to be marked DND
- Support for automatically triggered transactional messages across the patient’s journey such as Appointment, Registration, Billing, Payments, and Discharge.
- Manually send bulk communication to the patient database.
- 2 Way SMS responses for patients to confirm or cancel appointments via Web API integration
- Email bills and diagnostics reports to patients.
- Configurable messaging setup for email / SMS using SMTP or Web-API protocols.
So, what are you waiting for? Book now for a free demo!
Arun Joseph Varghese on September 19, 2021