The long periods between booster injections often result in children missing important jabs. According to iPlato, results have shown that sending targeted text reminders to parents and guardians of children being vaccinated vastly increases appointment attendance and patient compliance.
The Vale Medical Center, Lewisham PCT in south London has been using the iPlato system for the last year. We were able to put together a list of children that were overdue for their specific jab and whose parents had not responded to letters sent out previously, commented Stuart Hall, practice IT manager.
Using the iPlato system, we sent a targeted text message to these parents asking them to call the surgery to book an appointment for their child’s missed vaccination. More than half of the parents phoning the surgery in response to the text alert, to schedule a new appointment, he continued.
Immunization is a means of actively protecting a child against serious disease. Once children have been vaccinated, their immune system can fight off any diseases they have been vaccinated for. If a child misses a vaccination, however, they will remain at risk from catching that specific disease. If the level of compliance to an immunization schedule within a population decreases, the number of children at risk of catching a disease increases and, as a result, outbreaks of the disease are more likely to occur.
Tobias Alpsten, iPlato managing director explained, Improving patient compliance can be hugely burdensome especially when dealing with large groups of patients. iPlato’s text messaging system aims to help surgeries engage with their patients around compliance in a manner which is not only cost-effective but also personalized and immediate.
iPlato Patient Care Messaging is currently used in over 100 surgeries across 20 Primary Care Trusts in England.
