Proposal: add customer service messages using the WhatsApp Business API #8267
Description
It would be really cool to add WhatsApp messaging support to BHIMA. This could be done either through Twilio (link) or through the official Meta platform (link).
Here are the potential use-cases, that could be easily implemented into BHIMA:
Customer Experience Surveys
After a patient has received care at the hospital, it might be nice to message them a short customer experience survey to collect data on ways that quality of care might be improved. As an example, you could include questions such as "How would you rate your experience at Hospital X" with a Likert scale of 1-5. If the patient rates the experience poorly, follow up prompts could ask them to expand on their experience, with options such as "The staff is rude", "prices are too high", "medicines were not available", or their own custom text. The results of these kinds of surveys would inform where they can better improve the patient experience.
Abuse Hotlines
One can also imagine having a dedicated hotline that allows patients to report abuse or fraud via a WhatsApp text. These hotlines often are implemented in aid projects, so having it built right into the software would facilitate this kind of reporting. The use case is to report harassment (physical, sexual) or fraud (employees asking for out band payments). The WhatsApp number for each hospital could be displayed on posters, such as right outside of patient registration.
If BHIMA ever got project funding again, we could double down on this by ensuring the "hotline" number is printed on every receipt. That way, the institution's administration would not have a way of hiding the hotline information. However, this would require us to provide better monitoring support in case someone tried to call the hotline number, and may also deal with sensitive information.
Opt-in to Research
At Vanga, there is a team that is dedicated to doing research among the patient population to help improve quality of care. You could imagine that implementing a feature where a patient could opt-in to receive research messages after their visit, potentially for discounted care. This would be similar to how people sign up to take surveys in the US for research.
Other use-cases would require a bit more work:
Notifications/Alerts
You might imagine alerting a patient that their medication is ready at the pharmacy, the x-ray is available, or that the doctor is ready to see them. You could also send dunning letters (you have an outstanding balance of X FC). These notifications/alerts would require tight integration into BHIMA for things like stock movements.|
Subscribe for Campaigns or Discounts
This would allow patients to subscribe to alerts from the medical institution to learn of campaigns, such as cataract surgeries or fistula campaigns. It would require the development of an interface for hospital administrators to configure these messages and confirm that they were sent.
These are just some ideas for future BHIMA development.