According to the 4th edition of the Report called “The use of SMS Messaging in Public Administration” conducted by Latinia among more than 400 mobile projects and services launched in the public sector and Government, the Healthcare Industry has been consolidated as the area with the greatest penetration of SMS services, “not led by a single service, and with a clear reflection on the sense and improvements that this technology contributes toward industrializing internal processes and relations with patients”, according to Oriol Ros, marketing director for Latinia, and in charge of the study.
Data analysis also determines that “the future of SMS messaging in the healthcare industry may be immensely productive. This is because the main indicators of the healthcare model we are focused on leave the doors wide open to new SMS opportunities and uses”, not only acquiring great relevance, but also complete coherence with the purpose sought which is none other than to adapt to a new socio-healthcare reality and toward a more sustainable management model whose resources are optimized.
It is no longer the success of the medical appointment service, that is showing such a good financial return, but rather all types of SMS services for the continuity of care or preventive care in light of the emerging reality of new patient segments (chronic illnesses, aging population) and the impossibility of sustained hospitalizations over time. There are already some examples that represent genuine success stories such as the policies implemented in Valencia or Andalusia, without a doubt precedents and models to be imitated by the rest of the governments with a rich and diversified service proposal.
Twenty-three percent of the messaging services analyzed belong to the area of Healthcare and the Environment, below what we could define as “Life in the city”, another group including from emergency messages to procedures or transportation with 4 of every 10 cases analyzed, “but without the uniformity that can be awarded to Healthcare and the Environment”, Ros pointed out. Farther in the background, we have another area with services with special success such as Education, though in this case, it is highly focused on notifications of child absences from class or information to students. Of special relevance, though quite seasonal, would be in the case of civil participation and elections, with informative news in real time on election results, with a worthy 14%.
In any event, and according to Ros, “the stage at which a public administration developed initiatives of a particular nature, very much centered on leisure and the youngest target group, is beginning to give way to a new scenario which promotes the use of messaging from a more global and strategic perspective, and unlike the previous stage, it is maintaining a strong will to stay and develop.”
