Canaries, first autonomy in launching appointment reminders for hospital specialties

Canarias is the first autonomous community to launch a reminder manager for specialized hospital care appointments of the Canarian Health Service (SCS), to reduce involuntary absences and allow for the optimization of available resources.

This project, a pioneer in Spain, is part of the line of work promoted by the Directorate General for Digital Transformation of Public Services, dependent on the Presidency of the Government, to advance the digital transformation of the Administration and offer public services that are simpler, more efficient, accessible, and closer to citizens, leveraging technology to improve people's relationship with public services.

This orientation is also consistent with the objectives of the Government of Canarias to move towards a more modern, connected, agile, and accessible Administration.

The initiative is the result of collaboration between the Canarian Health Service and the Directorate General, who have worked together on the development and implementation of a tool aimed at improving communication with patients and facilitating more efficient use of public resources.

The reminder notification system began its deployment in May 2025 as a pilot project at the Nuestra Señora de Candelaria University Hospital, in Tenerife, and at the La Palma University Hospital. From these two centers, the system was progressively incorporated into the rest of the hospitals and health areas of the archipelago.

During the following months, new centers in the public network were added until the implementation was completed in November 2025. The incorporation of the Canarias University Hospital (HUC), on November 17, culminated the deployment of the system in all hospital centers of the Canarian Health Service.

Data

In its first months of operation, between May and November 2025, the system had already sent more than 1.25 million text messages and had registered a response rate of 85%, with more than 95% of confirmations among the responses received, both through the personalized link included in the SMS and through subsequent telephone contact with the Non-Face-to-Face Citizen Information and Attention Service, 012. In this regard, the system combines both channels to increase the possibilities of contact with the patient.

The tool, developed by the SCS with the collaboration of 012, was created with the aim of reinforcing communication between healthcare centers and patients, reducing missed appointments, and favoring better utilization of healthcare schedules.

The specialized hospital care appointment reminder manager has communicated a total of 2,414,615 appointments through this system during the first half of 2026, which allows patients to confirm their attendance or request a date change when they cannot attend a scheduled appointment.

First, a text message is sent with information about the appointment and a personalized link from which they can confirm their attendance or request a change. For appointments scheduled between eight and ten days in advance, if no response is received to the SMS, a phone call is also made through the 012 service.

During the first half of 2026, the 012 service made a total of 1,376,190 calls related to these reminders, of which more than 80% received a response.

Interaction via SMS is growing

Since the project was launched, there has also been a progressive increase in direct responses from patients via text messages.

In May 2025, at the beginning of the deployment, the percentage of responses received via SMS was 24%. Currently, it stands at 33%, representing an increase of nine percentage points and reflecting an increasing use of this channel by users.