HomeCare Connect launches TextConnect, a free texting service, to make communication easier and more convenient for injured workers, it notes in a media release.

During its initial contact with an injured worker, HomeCare Connect asks if they prefer to communicate via texts or phone calls. Texts can be received in either English or Spanish.

“Texting is convenient and fast,” Managing Partner Vonesa Wenzel says in the release. “People tend to send calls from unknown numbers to voicemail and end up playing phone tag with the clinical care coordinator. With TextConnect, injured workers and their families respond at their convenience.”

While piloting the text service, the company found that texting improves patient engagement, per the release.

“Injured workers ask questions and tell us how they’re doing more often,” Wenzel adds. “When patients are well informed and feel heard, they take a more proactive role in their treatment and express higher satisfaction with their care.”

The company periodically texts short satisfaction surveys on services so injured workers can rate an encounter with a provider. Survey results help rank the providers in the HomeCare Connect’s network. When a referral comes in, this ranking combines with other factors, such as expertise, location, cost-effectiveness, and client-specific requirements, to help select the best providers for the case.

HomeCare Connect developed its TextConnect technology internally, integrating it into its proprietary, HIPAA-compliant CareLink platform that drives home health management services in workers’ compensation. Care coordinators text to check in with injured workers and answer their questions, and CareLink automatically texts injured workers regarding nursing visits, durable medical equipment deliveries, and updates on home modification and prosthetics, the release continues.

For more information, visit HomeCare Connect.

[Source(s): HomeCare Connect, Business Wire]