From the past decade, we have witnessed the evolution of technology in the communication industry. Nowadays, you can easily reach everyone at any time, thanks to Email, SMS, and Chat application. Due to the easy accessibility of various technology, industries across the board wants to use them in a most relevant and effective way. WhatsApp is the most unconventional application of the last decade. WhatsApp has managed to garner 2 billion active users worldwide and has become a household name when it comes to communication, be it between friends and family or businesses and customers.
In the healthcare industry, companies, hospitals, pharmacies, and other medical organizations can all make use of the world’s most popular messaging app to serve their customer during such times of crisis and in the future as well. The World Health Organization launched WhatsApp Chatbot In Healthcare Sector in March 2020. With the help of WhatsApp Business API, this initiative allows users worldwide to access information and help spread awareness regarding Novel Coronavirus.
Digital technology presents healthcare professionals with a unique opportunity to serve clients conveniently and easily. Here are 10 use cases for WhatsApp Business API in the healthcare industry.
1. Scheduling appointment
WhatsApp chatbots for healthcare can quickly schedule appointments with doctors based on their availability. With third-party integrations, the chatbot can also keep track of follow-ups and visits of particular patients.
2. Symptoms Assessment
A patient can easily open the WhatsApp app on their phone and report their symptoms to the healthcare chatbot. The bot can recommend the patient to a relevant specialist based on the symptoms.
3. Request medical reports
By using WhatsApp Business API, patients can easily keep a track of their pending medical reports. It helps to locate nearby pathological and testing centers, finding out the price range of different tests can also be done using the bot, at any point of the day.
4. Daily health tips
WhatsApp chatbot for healthcare can be used easily to send regular health tips like exercising, maintaining hygiene, having a balanced diet to promote overall wellbeing and eating habits. This will also help to enhance your brand value.
5. Addressing FAQ’s
A chatbot can be trained to answer repetitive but important queries from patients. It is instrumental in improving the patient experience and at the same time saving ample time for the physician/medical staff.
A WhatsApp chatbot for healthcare can be customized to effectively answer frequently asked medical questions, such as how to get a prescription or how long a person would be infectious after a period of viral fever. Instant responses and smooth, two-way conversations, without the need to call up the clinic or the support company, will help inspire brand loyalty among customers.
6. Medicine Reminders
WhatsApp chatbot for healthcare can be used as an effective tool to remind patients to take their medicines on time.
7. Mental Health Counselling
A chatbot can help people in mental distress by holding conversations with the patients. Chatbots can be trained to give context-based responses using NLP.
8. Health insurance guidance
Insurance means a pile of documents, receipts, and queries. Patients can now easily get their queries addressed using the WhatsApp chatbot. Necessary documents can also be submitted by scanning and uploading them in the chat itself.
9. Internal Communication
WhatsApp chatbot for healthcare can also make life easier for the hospital staff. Information like availability or status of equipment, wheelchairs, oxygen cylinders, etc. can be easily fetched through a simple query in the WhatsApp chatbot.
10. Payments
While booking a visit to the doctor, patients can make use of the bot to make payments online. It simplifies and streamlines the multi-step process that once used to be tiresome for patients.
Accessible healthcare is a prominent issue. Using the latest technologies, health service providers can take their operations many steps forward to help more people. If you are a healthcare professional and want to find out more about how you can integrate WhatsApp with your business, kindly contact our sales team and we will get in touch with you. To explore the powers of WhatsApp Business API, you can schedule a demo with us.
