Regular text message communication with patients and families can help improve the patient experience, as well as a hospice’s performance on crucial quality metrics.

Village Home Health & Hospice, through the use of an electronic texting platform, increased patient and family touchpoints leading to a 3% boost in Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Services (CAHPS) scores. The multi-modal communication also increased family awareness of the survey. To achieve this, Village used the Betterleave communications platform.

Caregivers among all age groups can benefit from text communication with their hospice providers, according to Betterleave co-founder and CEO Cara McCarty-Abbott.

“There is an expectation for the Gen X and the Millennials, that they should have multiple modalities of communication,” McCarty-Abbott told Hospice News. “But that’s not to say the Boomers are not texters. On average, across our entire customer base, we see around 50% engagement, and the majority of family caregivers are probably going to be between 40- to 80-years-old. That really spans three generations.”

In addition to the CAHPS score increase, text messaging services also allowed Village Home Health & Hospice to reduce preventable hospitalizations by 50%. The additional touchpoints enabled the hospice to identify and respond to moments of crisis before a patient resorted to an emergency department visit.

The hospice also saw 45% fewer missed visits due to automated reminders and updates designed to help clinicians keep their schedules on track. Village also saw 8% growth in Google reviews. Nearly half of the organizations’ families actively used the two-way messaging system, according to a case study report by Betterleave.

Also, through two-way text communication, Village was able to address 35 emergent situations before they became complaints, according to the report.

Betterleave’s electronic platform was initially designed as a benefit that companies can offer their employees who have lost a loved one, a pregnancy or a pet, including access to care coordinators, death care experts, products and counseling services. Though the company still pursues those employer relationships, in late 2022 it began to seek partnerships with hospices like Village Home Health & Hospice, among others. The platform allows for multi-channel communication beyond phone calls, pamphlets and mailers.

“The more engaged and involved family caregivers and family units are in plans of care, the better the patient experience can be,” McCarty-Abbott said. “You have a lot of top- and bottom-line drivers for these hospice groups — like growing their referral bases, making sure that families have high satisfaction that show up on their CAPHS scores — that are significant to their business operations, and can really impact their ADC. By engaging family members proactively, we can even get ahead of some challenges or issues.”