Solutionreach’s platform takes the burden off the orthodontic team, offering practices an automated alternative for managing appointment reminders, recall, communication, and payment.
Managing recall, reminders, scheduling, and intake can be chaotic and often feel like busy work for the orthodontic team; but they are the key tasks that drive practice success. To help lighten the load, Solutionreach, a healthcare communications company with over 20 years in business, offers a modern, personalized, and accessible platform that can innovate the way orthodontic practices handle their patient engagement. Orthodontic Products spoke to the company’s CEO Josh Weiner to find out exactly how Solutionreach’s patient relationship management platform can take on those endless tasks for the orthodontic team while also giving patients the digital communication experience they demand.
Orthodontic Products: How is the Solutionreach platform unique?
Josh Weiner: Solutionreach has its roots in the dental industry. More than 20 years ago, we sent the first text message in healthcare, and we’ve been leading the industry ever since. With our two-way texting platform and our sophisticated appointment preparation communications (including reminders, intake, education), the average Solutionreach customer—orthodontists included—achieve a no-show rate of less than 5%.
Orthodontic practices have told us that our two-way texting platform is crucial to patient communication and scheduling. It allows busy orthodontic offices to confirm appointments in real time. Additionally, it saves office staff time, allowing patients to text spontaneous questions or images of insurance cards, without having to call the office. This is significant when you consider a single phone call can cost an office $20 or more.
When it comes to recall and appointment reminders, we offer the most robust and customizable solution. In fact, seven out of 10 customers who decide to try a different solution come back to Solutionreach within the first few months. Our reminder and recall platform allows offices to choose to automatically remind patients of upcoming appointments weeks, days, and even hours before their scheduled exam via text or email. We recommend the 3-3-3 method—remind patients of upcoming appointments at intervals of 3 weeks, 3 days, and 3 hours before an exam. That way, if a patient cancels, it gives the practice enough time to fill the appointment with another patient, and it makes it easier to reschedule the first one.
OP: Why is the automated recall tool crucial?
Weiner: Orthodontic practices are unique in the fact that they schedule more appointments with a single patient over the course of treatment than many other healthcare providers. For example, a family dentist may schedule the majority of patients every 6 months for routine cleanings. But most orthodontic patients must come in for adjustments much more frequently—on average, every 4 to 6 weeks for 12 to 36 months.
This is where the Solutionreach automated recall feature is a vital part of providing optimal patient outcomes. Automated recall helps identify patients who have missed appointments or those that are behind on follow-up visits, so the office can send out reminders and deliver the best care. Additionally, practices love the fact that parents can receive text reminders about their kids’ appointments well in advance.
For orthodontic practices, the entire process of booking and reminding patients of upcoming appointments goes together. Automated recall is a safety net of sorts; a critical component to ensure the healthiest outcomes for patients, so fewer of them—if any—fall through the cracks.
Another feature that’s very popular is SR Pay—our text-to-pay platform. Because texting is instrumental in daily communications, both personally and professionally, we received many requests in the past about making two-way texting more robust. Practices are excited about SR Pay because it allows them to automatically request payments from patients. And patients prefer the convenience of being able to pay via text link rather than having to login to a portal to keep their accounts up to date.
OP: What other feedback have you received about the platform?
Weiner: We recently completed a patient survey, finding that 64% of patients under the age of 50 would consider switching healthcare providers to receive more modern communication. This statistic shows the economic imperative of cutting-edge digital communication. Put simply, many of your patients will leave if they aren’t getting a modern, convenient experience, even if the orthodontics you provide are world-class. On the other hand, if you offer an amazing patient experience, you stand to grow your business meaningfully as patients seek you out!
Customers tell us again and again that Solutionreach is like having another team member. Since our platform automates so many tasks, practice team members save a ton of time, and can focus on bigger projects, like patient education, and providing an outstanding patient experience.
OP: What’s next for Solutionreach?
Weiner: Going through a global pandemic accelerated the demand for a complete digital experience for patients and their healthcare providers. We continue to update and improve our software and services to enable practices to offer patients an exceptional digital experience—from their initial contact with a provider to online schedule requests, park-and-text waiting rooms, digital intake forms, and even telehealth appointments.
We believe patient communications should be bidirectional. This year, we will invest nearly $15 million in research and development to accelerate innovation in this post-pandemic world, and our ongoing quest to transform healthcare through communication. We admire how orthodontic practices have adapted their operations over the past year. We consider it a privilege to serve orthodontic practices in partnership to deliver an extraordinary patient experience while driving revenue and increasing efficiency for the practice. OP
