8 Reasons Why Using Salesforce CRM is Beneficial for Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry has to deal with millions of patients every year. Thus, all the information must be well monitored, organized, and stored precisely. An outdated account booking system is not an option, as medical errors can cause deadly consequences. Healthcare industry either needs to update its old system or bring in a solution like the Salesforce customer portal that grows with the changing market trends and patient demands.

Since patients expect personalization and simplification, Salesforce CRM is the right tool for it has all the features for all types of medicinal organizations, including payers, providers, or pharmaceutical companies. Besides, it has recently introduced the Health Cloud, a patient relationship management solution, especially for healthcare providers. In this article, you’ll learn how it tackles the challenges faced by the healthcare industry.

1. Comprehensive Patient View

Salesforce customer portal offers a centralized data storage where all the information concerning patients is stored. A medical worker can view all the details in one place. They can retrieve patient history with a few clicks, including care plans and clinical and non-clinical data. Current conditions, appointments, medications, etc., are available on one screen. Moreover, it allows healthcare professionals to share particular information with their patients and vice versa. Healthcare professionals can make better decisions, work efficiently, and spend more time on patients’ care with all the information in one place. It’s also easy for patients to manage and track all their medical information.

Besides, Health Cloud allows integration with medical devices and wearables. For example, patients can set up their wearables to pass the data from the health app directly to the Health Cloud, from where doctors can analyze the patient's condition. This is beneficial for patients with diabetes, heart problems, and other chronic conditions.

2. Smarter Patient Engagement

Previously patients had to carry their past treatment files during every visit to the doctor. However, with the integration of the Salesforce customer portal and CRM, all information is available at your fingertips. You can access the information and provide quick solutions. Patients can access and manage their profiles and data. They can book appointments and select slots as per their preference from the portal without contacting the admin staff. They can learn about the dos and don’ts, basic exercises, aids they can use for their condition, and more from a knowledge base. They can even learn how to access the portal without anyone’s help.

As patients have the freedom to serve themselves, they interact more with the system and the healthcare institute. In-app chat, document management, community forum are a few features that empower healthcare professionals and patients to interact in a way that’s convenient to both of them.

3. Personalized Care

There’s no doubt that customers expect personalized experiences, which applies to the healthcare industry. Thanks to the vast data at their fingertips, healthcare professionals can use Salesforce CRM to personalize every stage of a patient's healthcare journey. You can use that data to understand a patient's demands. For example, contact agents can provide accurate and personalized answers to patients based on their data. Different patients prefer different modes of communication. Some like text, while others prefer to talk on call or receive information via email. Salesforce CRM captures these preferences and helps engage with them in a way they prefer.

Advanced predictive analytics helps segment patients into groups based on health conditions, surfacing risks, and various factors and provides services they might be interested in. You can embed AI into your CRM to turn data into insights. AI can suggest the next best step by analyzing the data and calculating the risk. For example, inform the support team to arrange transportation or alert patients' healthcare managers on falling care plans and offer personalized services.

With Salesforce, you can leverage countless personalization opportunities and deepen relationships with your patients, resulting in better outcomes - more patients or satisfied patients sharing positive feedback.

4. Data Security

Data security is of utmost concern for the healthcare industry. Data breaches can jeopardize patients’ safety and cost millions. Salesforce understands it and thus offers a Salesforce shield, which, when used with Health Cloud, ensures that all the health-related data is encrypted, and only the authorized users can access the data. It also helps monitor user interactions and retains customer audit trails.

Using the Salesforce customer portal means leveraging role-based access and two-factor authentication. Role-based access limits access to the portal, i.e., your staff and patients can only access the relevant information based on their roles and responsibilities. Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security. Salesforce and its AppExchange make security vetting even easier. Healthcare professionals can integrate apps like document management, insurance verification, and telehealth solutions without worrying about security.

Overall, it makes data management easy and helps stay compliant with HIPAA and HITRUST.

5. Coordinated Care

Collaboration between healthcare professionals and patients is crucial to delivering an outstanding experience. However, siloed systems tuck data and prohibit proper patient’s view.

An integrated Salesforce CRM gathers all the data and keeps it updated in real-time. For example, if a patient asks a complicated question and the first line doctor is unavailable to answer it, doctors and nurses in the second line can answer that question in proper time to avoid complications. This is possible only when the data is updated. If a further step involves a blood test, the patient can be informed about it. The details regarding appointments and lab can be sent over to patients via their preferred communication channel. And if the system detects that a patient lacks transportation based on their social data, it can update the provider, and they can arrange the transportation for the patient based on their policies.

These seamless experiences improve the collaboration and enhance productivity between patients and healthcare providers, making it a win-win approach for both.

6. Specific Data Compilation

No matter what industry you are in, the result and outcome is what matters at the end of the day. Salesforce CRM gives healthcare professionals actionable insights to meet patients' demands and needs with its dashboard and reporting features. You can use the gathered data to analyze patients’ preferences, identify high-risk patients, staff performance, and a lot more. All in all, Salesforce CRM makes it easy to make data-driven decisions that will lead to better health results.

7. Increased Efficiency

Collecting patient information from multiple systems manually is time-consuming. Switching between systems, collecting data, printing, and mailing can slow down, especially when patients expect fast and personalized communication. Even if they are able to increase their speed, the data may or may not be up-to-date.

An integrated customer portal reduces staff inefficiencies and lets them focus on trivial tasks. It automates the workflow and assigns tasks to those best suited to handle it. Self-service further enables patients to manage basic activities themselves, such as case generation, updating profiles, documents, and more.

With CRM, staff can get a 360-degree view of the patient. They can quickly access patients’ provider details, plans, medical history, action plans, claims, preferences, etc., and optimize the workflow. All the data in hand shortens the call time and improves first-hand resolution.

8. Beneficial for All

Whether you’re looking for a solution to ease providers’ efforts or offer convenience to payers and medical companies, Salesforce Health Cloud CRM is advantageous for everyone.

Providers get a 360-degree view of the patients' details, including minute details such as current conditions and appointment history. They can then use it to create customized care plans and assign caretakers to look after patients all the time. With the help of communities and messaging, they can communicate with the patients in real-time, sharing updates and other relevant information.

Patients can manage their profiles and medical data. They can book their appointments, claim insurance, interact with care providers and pharmacies directly from the portal.

Biotech and pharma companies can collect patient information, track fulfillment from a centralized system. They can collect feedback directly from patients, their HCP script, product complaints and analyze it to improve services and customize enrollment programs.

Summing it up

As we move into 2022, healthcare professionals must be more realistic about the technological impact. While coping with the pandemic, they have to make sure to treat patients where they are and in a way they prefer. A digital solution like the Salesforce customer portal is exactly what you need to bring in. One of the major reasons is the comprehensive view of the patients. Streamlined operations, convenience, productivity, and efficiency are other benefits that Salesforce CRM offers.