When a CureMD practice posts news in the patient portal, it has told its portal users. Everyone else finds out at the front desk, from a neighbor, or not at all.
Federal survey data from 2024 found 65% of individuals were offered a patient portal and used it. The other third includes patients a practice most wants to reach. Think older adults, once-a-year visitors, and parents who skipped one more login.
Take one patient on a typical panel. A 72-year-old answers texts from her pharmacy and her grandkids within minutes.
She never set up a portal account. The practice's Saturday flu clinic comes and goes, and she hears about it at her next visit in March.
CureMD's AI Contact Center would have helped if she'd called, 24/7 and in 14 languages. She had no reason to call, because nobody told her there was something to call about. Repeat that across every patient outside the portal, and a clinic day that should fill runs with open chairs.
Our view: practice news belongs on the channel every patient already checks, and that's a plain text. A flu clinic, a same-week opening, an office closure, a new provider.
Each one fits in two lines and needs nothing from the patient but a phone. Patients who want to answer can reply in the same thread.
CureMD stays the home for records and scheduling. Patients who like the portal keep using it. A text reaches the rest, including the patients who've never once opened the portal.
CureMD gives patients good tools once they take the first step. The gap opens when the practice needs to take it.
Registered patients use the Patient Portal for records, refills, and appointment requests. The AI Contact Center answers calls around the clock and can book or move visits. CureConfirm calls patients the day before a booked visit.
All three reach patients who are already engaged. None of them, in CureMD's published materials, sends one announcement to a whole group of patients by text.
The federal 2024 patient access data brief found 77% of individuals were offered online access to their records. Only 65% were offered access and used it. Patients who never activated the patient portal still need flu shots. They still want to know when the office closes early.
Their cellphone numbers are usually already in the chart.
Each sample below is a full message, the way a patient sees it.
|
Announcement |
Sample text |
|---|---|
|
Flu clinic |
Flu shots are in. Walk in Sat 9 to 1, or reply with a day that works for you. |
|
Schedule opening |
Dr. Kim has an opening Thu at 2:40 PM. Reply YES to take it. |
|
Office closure |
We close at noon Fri, Nov 27. For urgent needs, call the main line. |
|
New provider |
Dr. Ruiz joins our team Jan 5 and is booking new patients. Reply to schedule. |
Flu shot announcements by text message and schedule opening alerts for patients by text both ask for one reply. Office closure text alerts ask for nothing at all.
Texts arrive on any cellphone, flip phones included. Pew Research Center's 2026 mobile fact sheet reports 98% of U.S. adults own a cellphone. Among adults 65 and older, 96% own a cellphone and 79% own a smartphone.
That 17-point gap is why patient notifications with no app download required matter. Geriatric patient communication without apps reaches the patients who'd never find an app store.
When a patient replies, the message lands in a shared inbox at the practice. A staff member answers, offers times, and books the visit in CureMD. Curogram for CureMD syncs upcoming appointments, so that visit then gets its reminders.
CureMD doesn't pass a patient's preferred language through the sync. Staff set it once in Curogram, and announcements go out in that language from then on.
A patient who replies STOP is removed from future broadcasts automatically. Under the FCC consent revocation rule, replies like stop, quit, cancel, or unsubscribe count as withdrawing consent. Senders must honor them within 10 business days.
Opting out of broadcasts closes nothing else. The portal, the phone line, and the front desk work the same as before.
Curogram Highlight: Mass TextingMass Texting sends one HIPAA-compliant announcement to a list of any size and tracks delivery and replies for each patient. Messages are encrypted and logged for audit. Curogram is HIPAA compliant and SOC 2 Type II certified and signs a BAA. Announcements keep diagnoses out of the message body. See the Mass Texting page for CureMD users for setup options. |
In one multi-location Curogram client, 35% of existing patients who got an SMS recall scheduled within a month. From recall messages alone, 1,240 patients were seen.
That's Curogram client data from clinical settings, and announcements follow the same path from text to booked visit.
These patients are illustrative composites. None of them needed a login, an app, or a phone call.
Text outreach for non-portal patients changes the questions at the desk. Fewer patients say they never heard about the clinic or the closure. Freed slots go to patients who said they wanted an earlier time.
Staff can see which patients the announcement reached, because delivery is tracked per patient.
The staff steps behind each send are in the batch patient texting workflow for CureMD staff. The full channel view is in broadcast texting for CureMD practices. When a patient's reply turns into a back-and-forth, it runs on two-way HIPAA-compliant texting.
Your CureMD portal serves the patients who log in. The AI Contact Center serves the ones who call. Practice announcements by text for CureMD patients reach everyone else on the phone they already use.
Look at your panel and ask which patients haven't heard from you this year. Many of them weren't ignoring the practice. The message never reached a channel they check.
A flu clinic, an opening, or a closure notice can reach them this week. It lands on the phone already in their pocket.
Book a Curogram demo to see an announcement go out from your patients' side of the phone. Bring your portal numbers, and we'll show how many more patients a text would reach on your own panel.