Customer Story
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Phoenix Children's Reaches More Patients Over Text with SignalWire Short Codes
Why one of the country's largest pediatric health systems switched to short codes when carriers began blocking 10DLC traffic.
Abbi Minessale
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Overview
Phoenix Children's adopted texting to reach patients and employees directly, instead of asking them to log in to an application or patient portal. SignalWire Messaging powers both one-way updates, such as lab result notifications, and two-way conversations between patients and care teams.
After moving to SignalWire short codes in 2019, the hospital saw a significant increase in throughput — at a price point disruptive enough to work for a nonprofit organization.
About Phoenix Children's
Phoenix Children's is a nonprofit children's hospital and one of the largest pediatric healthcare systems in the country, providing the most comprehensive children's care in Arizona. Its teams deliver inpatient, outpatient, trauma, and emergency care across more than 75 subspecialties. Text messaging has been part of its patient communication for years; in 2019, the hospital switched to short codes with SignalWire.
"Compared to our other solution, the throughput is much higher because I can push half a million text messages a month, a couple hundred thousand a day, and we get very fast turnaround time so those messages go out very quickly."
David Higginson
Chief Innovation Officer at Phoenix Children's
The Challenge
Phoenix Children's had used several SMS providers over the years, and throughput dropped sharply when mobile carriers began aggressively blocking 10-digit long code (10DLC) traffic. Reliable delivery to patients and employees was no longer guaranteed.
Texting had become the preferred channel on both sides of the conversation. Patients would rather receive a text than navigate a phone tree, and nurses would rather send one than carve calling time out of packed schedules. Campaigns cover appointment reminders, end-of-visit summaries, follow-up booking, surgery updates for waiting parents, and back-and-forth conversations with doctors. With use cases this important, high throughput was a top priority.
Cost mattered too. As a nonprofit that relies on donors, Phoenix Children's needed the best value possible, and other short code providers were prohibitively expensive given how many campaigns the hospital runs.
The Solution
Phoenix Children's uses SignalWire Messaging to communicate with patients and employees. Before texting, the hospital only called when lab results were positive — which taught parents to dread the phone ringing. Now a text with a link goes out as soon as results are available, whatever they show.
Usage climbed further during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every employee received a daily reminder to take their temperature and wash their hands before work, and test results reached patients as fast as possible.
The move to SignalWire short codes came in 2019, to solve throughput. Volume started at roughly 130,000 texts a month and has grown to half a million a month, with no deliverability issues or carrier blocking.
David Higginson, Chief Innovation Officer at Phoenix Children's, chose SignalWire after learning of its reputation as a disruptor in the space. For a nonprofit, pricing carries real weight, and SignalWire delivered SMS APIs and short codes at a fair and disruptive price point.
The Results
High throughput | Happy patients | Same-day launch | Better support |
|---|---|---|---|
Half a million text messages per month go out on SignalWire short codes, with no deliverability issues or carrier blocking. | Families get important information faster and reach doctors and nurses by text, without getting stuck in phone trees. | Implementation took less than a day; the Phoenix Children's text application was live on SignalWire within 24 hours. | SignalWire's Customer Success and Carrier Operations teams guided Phoenix Children's through every step of short code registration. |
"We never could have texted this amount of people with the old solution we had."
David Higginson,
Chief Innovation Officer at Phoenix Children's
Question: What's the difference between short codes and 10DLC for high-volume SMS?
Short codes are 5-6 digit numbers pre-approved by carriers for high-throughput application-to-person messaging, while 10DLC uses standard 10-digit numbers with lower throughput limits and heavier carrier filtering. When carriers began aggressively blocking 10DLC traffic, Phoenix Children's switched to SignalWire short codes and restored reliable delivery at half a million messages per month.
Why did Phoenix Children's switch SMS providers?
Carrier blocking of 10DLC traffic cut throughput on its previous solution, and other short code providers were prohibitively expensive for a nonprofit. SignalWire delivered the throughput of a short code at a price point that worked for a donor-funded organization.
How does a hospital use text messaging with patients?
Phoenix Children's sends one-way updates, including links to lab results, appointment reminders, end-of-visit summaries, and surgery status updates for waiting parents. Two-way messaging lets patients text directly with doctors and care teams instead of navigating phone trees.
How long does it take to register and launch a short code?
Short code registration runs through carrier approval, and SignalWire's Carrier Operations team manages the process hands-on. Once registered, Phoenix Children's had its text application running on SignalWire in under a day.
What message volume can SignalWire short codes handle?
Phoenix Children's sends half a million messages per month, including days with a couple hundred thousand messages, with no carrier blocking. Across its customer base, SignalWire carries billions of minutes and messages annually.
Does SignalWire support two-way SMS?
Yes. Phoenix Children's uses the same SignalWire Messaging APIs for one-way notifications and two-way conversations, so patients can reply and message back and forth with their care teams.
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