SMS alerts on lectures for patients

Now, patients at AIIMS will get SMS alerts to attend public lectures at the hospital.

For the past few months, AIIMS has been conducting public lectures on diseases every month. Experts share their views on the possible precautions, causes and treatments available for the disease. However, with few options of advertising available, the hospital is finding it difficult to attract crowd at these meets.

“This is a small-scale initiative through which we are aiming to target specific groups of patients. SMS will help us reach a large section of the people, especially those who do not have access to the internet. This will be done through an integrated SMS system with the help of database of patients who are already registered with us,” said Dr Deepak Agarwal, Neurosurgeon & Incharge of the IT wing, AIIMS.

The hospital will send out alerts on topics that pertain to the patients’ visits at AIIMS. For example, if a patient visits the gynaecology OPD, she will get updates on lectures on cervical cancer. “If a patient has visited three OPD departments, she will get updates on all related topics, say – diabetes and hypertension. This will help raise the public awareness on a wide range of subjects,” said Dr Agarwal.

This service is set to start in the next two weeks.Meanwhile, registration for the online OPD system is gradually picking up pace at the hospital.

For the first few weeks, the hospital had a few glitches at making the registration system user friendly. After an initial lukewarm response, AIIMS is now observing between 50 to 100 online OPD registrations every day now. Patients get an SMS alert on the confirmation of the appointment once the booking is done.

The hospital is now set to add a link in the message which will direct users to information booklets. Smartphone users can click on the link and access two sections – “Frequently Asked Questions” and “Resources”.

“Besides being able to edit their appointments online, they will be able to read on the medical condition for which they are seeking appointments. This will be started in the next two weeks,” said Dr Agarwal.

However, the hospital will take time till March to launch the online registration for beds available to patients. This service is likely to bring transparency to the system.
DH News Service