Brand
The Municipal Health Department of Maceió , Brazil, used utility and marketing messages on WhatsApp to reduce missed appointments, recover thousands of bookings and bring healthcare access to citizens’ mobile devices.
Their Story
Healthcare access built on better communication
The Municipal Health Department of Maceió in the state of Alagoas, Brazil, is a public healthcare organization that serves citizens across the city through Brazil’s Unified Health System, known as SUS. Guided by its mission that “When communication improves, access to healthcare improves too,” the department wanted to use digital tools to make patient engagement and service delivery more efficient.
Their Goal
Missed appointments created barriers to care
Maceió faced high rates of missed appointments and exams, while citizens often traveled to healthcare facilities simply to request specialized care appointments, follow their place in the queue or obtain information. These unnecessary journeys cost citizens time and created barriers, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Their Solution
Scheduling and reminders delivered on WhatsApp
To address these issues, Maceió integrated the WhatsApp Business Platform into its healthcare scheduling and access processes, creating a direct communication channel with citizens on WhatsApp. By using an app already embedded in people’s daily lives, the city accelerated adoption without the friction of introducing a new app.
Through a single conversation on WhatsApp, citizens could interact with multiple stages of their healthcare journey. They could request support and appointments for specialized consultations and exams, receive information, confirm attendance or cancel appointments, receive exam preparation instructions and re-engage with healthcare programs and services. Utility messages enabled timely appointment confirmations, instructions and reminders. Marketing messages helped expand the reach of preventive care programs, public health campaigns and initiatives designed to keep citizens connected to care.
Conversational automation enabled thousands of interactions to be handled simultaneously while directing more complex situations to human teams. This reduced repetitive administrative tasks and allowed teams to focus more attention on cases requiring human intervention. WhatsApp enabled continuous engagement across the healthcare journey, connecting scheduling, remote monitoring, preventive care and telehealth services. By digitizing many of these interactions, Maceió reduced the need for citizens to travel to healthcare facilities for needs that could be handled remotely, making access more convenient and immediate.
By maintaining a single conversation for multiple interactions, Maceió created a two-way experience that minimized friction, reduced inbound inquiries and built a more reliable communication channel for citizens. The approach helped streamline healthcare operations and enabled a more responsive, accessible system across the city.
Their Success
High adoption and thousands of recovered appointments
The initiative drove strong engagement and reduced no-shows. Approximately 75% of the city’s SUS beneficiaries registered on WhatsApp, and timely utility and marketing messages on WhatsApp helped recover thousands of appointments.
- 4 million messages exchanged per month on WhatsApp*
- 90 thousand active citizens connected on WhatsApp*
- 150 thousand appointment confirmations through utility messages on WhatsApp*
*Results are self-reported and not identifiably repeatable. Generally expected individual results will differ.
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