Voice + SMS Governance

Two channels, one set of answers

When phones and texting are run separately, patients notice. The text says one thing about a refill, the person on the phone says another, and the patient calls a third time to find out which is right.

Governance here just means writing down a few rules that both channels follow, then checking every few months that they still hold. It does not need a committee, only an owner.

Decisions to write down

A single page usually covers it. The point is that the answers exist in writing before the first awkward situation, not after.

• Which call outcomes produce a text, and what that text may say
• Content never allowed in a text: results, diagnoses, medication details
• Who on staff reads and answers patient replies, and by when
• When a text conversation should become a phone call
• How text exchanges are kept with the patient record

Where MedReception AI fits

Katie handles the voice side: answering, booking into eClinicalWorks, routing, and producing the structured summary. Once your number is registered for patient text messages, a short text can follow the call, limited to logistics such as the practice name and appointment time.

Practices can also send appointment reminder, confirmation and recall texts through MedReception AI, so the policy should cover those messages too. Patients who reply STOP are opted out.

Keeping the record consistent

Whatever channel a request arrives on, the record should end up in the same place. For calls, MedReception Autopilot can file the summary to the patient's chart in eClinicalWorks from a staff member's own signed-in browser.

Decide where your team files text exchanges so the chart tells one story, and make sure that rule is part of new staff onboarding.

A patient who called on Monday, got a confirmation text, and replied on Tuesday with a question has had one conversation with your practice across two channels. Whoever picks up the thread on Wednesday should be able to see all of it.

Review on a schedule

Put a recurring review on the calendar. Pull a handful of calls and the texts that followed, and check them against the policy: did the text say only what it should, did replies get answered, did anything clinical slip into a text. Adjust the rules, not just the people.

Include the front desk in that review. They hear what patients say about texts at the window, which is often the first sign a policy is not working.

Keep the written policy short enough that a new hire reads it on their first day. A long policy that nobody reads protects no one.