Nowadays, people use text messaging to do everything. I can only imagine when we don’t need to troop to the balloting centers to vote and instead just text our chosen candidates to a certain number just like in TV competitions (it might be better off this way since results could be faster).
Now, emergency room wait times can be texted. A major children’s hospital chose to begin posting its urgent care center wait times for individuals to access it using their mobile phones.
Called ER Texting, it was launched at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center to inform their patients about current wait times.
This is how it works: people can text “ccurgent” to 4ER411. They would then receive the current wait times, hours of operation and contact information.
According to Coordinator of Community Relations of CCHMC Kurt Myers, “When examining how to reach our patients and families, we knew we would have to meet them in the mobile space. Providing an option to receive wait times via text was a logical first step into the mobile arena. Arming patients with information is one fo the key components to achieving high patient satisfactions scores. We want our patients and families to know what to expect when coming to one of our urgent care centers. Additionally, the service allows families to self-select which of our three locations they want to visit, helping control patient flow.”
Now, people don’t have to wait for long queues at the hospital.
Image source: adrenaline.russellherder.com
