Scripps Launches New Interactive Text Service

Appointment reminders, prescription refills and more

Patient responding to text message using Scripps new text service.

Appointment reminders, prescription refills and more

There's an easier, faster and more convenient way to manage your medical appointments, receive important updates related to your health care, pay your medical bills and more. Scripps Health offers patients a new two-way text messaging option that places the ability to do all of this on your mobile phone.

Patients not only receive text messages but also can respond with simple answers such as “Y” for yes, “N” for no and other options depending on the message content.

As a Scripps patient, you may opt in to receive and respond to two types of text notifications. Administrative texts include updates about your medical appointments, visit summaries, prescription refills and bills. Health updates include reminders about annual exams, vaccines, screenings and other preventive care. Both are designed to give you more control over your health care. If you wish to opt out of text messages, it’s easy to do so at any time.

What to expect from text messaging

Once you opt in to messaging, you’ll receive text notifications regarding various aspects of your medical care, such as reminders about upcoming medical appointments. You will have the option to instantly confirm or cancel the appointment via text.

“We know our patients have a lot going on and we want to make their care as convenient as possible,” says David Wetherhold, MD, Scripps chief medical information officer for ambulatory systems.

“Connecting with patients via text messaging makes it easy for them to remember their upcoming appointments and saves them time that might otherwise be spent on the phone handling appointment confirmations and cancellations. This also gives our office staff more time to help patients with other matters,” he says.

How to get started

You may already be receiving text messages from Scripps, but since this is a new program, you will also need to enroll in the new text messaging platform to activate the new capabilities. There are several ways to opt in:

During your next visit to a Scripps office, speak with a team member who can assist you.

Log in to your MyScripps patient portal and opt in for text notifications under Communication Preferences under Account Settings. You can select the specific types of notifications you would like to receive in Manage Subscriptions.

Opt in via your mobile phone.

Get notifications

Text START to 43583 to receive notifications about:

Appointment reminders
Prescription reminders
Billing
After-visit summaries

Text START to 40763 to receive important health care notifications related to:

Preventive care to keep you well
Vaccines
Annual physical exams
Reminders about various screenings related to your health

You can easily update your preferences, or discontinue notifications, whenever you’d like.

Remember, you don’t need to be connected to the internet to use the Scripps text messaging program. However, depending on your wireless plan, message and data rates may apply. You can opt out of text messages through your mobile phone or through MyScripps, under Communication Preferences.