A typical patient’s health care experience not only includes top-notch clinical care but should also address every aspect of his or her interaction with a hospital or clinic. Health care experience needs to factor in their physical comfort, their understanding of what’s happening, and their emotional needs. The intricacies of healthcare put a lot of burden on the patient. From finding the right care, to disclosing relevant medical data before appointments, and reaching for help in-between visits. Now the pain points:

• Scheduling their appointments is never easy, and there is a long wait time on the phone.
• Sharing their medical records is more or less filling out paper forms to update their health records periodically.
• Communicating with their providers outside of the clinic, which is critical, becomes herculean without the right digital communication aids.
• Now add the nitty-gritty of the numbers of tests, scans, and prescriptions that add on after each visit.

Today, the single most critical element in improving inpatient experience is the effectiveness of the communication received from their health care provider. How the pain points are addressed plays an influential role in determining inpatient care and the health care institution chosen. Beyond just improving interpersonal relationships between patients and providers, medical organizations (regardless of the size) can also tap health technologies to make the experience of care better for patients.  

Also Read: Salesforce Health Cloud: The RX for HealthCare Providers

Deloitte’s take on global health care states the following- “…. Changing patient demographics. Evolving consumer expectations. Newmarket entrants. Complex health and technology ecosystems. Health care stakeholders need to invest in value-based care, innovative care delivery models, advanced digital technologies, data interoperability, and alternative employment models to prepare for these uncertainties and build a smart health ecosystem…”

Fundamental Gaps in Inpatient Care That Can Be Improved by Health Care Technology

1. Automating Appointment Schedules

Setting up web forms routed via the website, or digitizing call centers or helplines with an interactive voice system or prompts can help streamlines issues. The method of being able to intervene when human assistance is needed can be established on a need basis.

2. Digitizing Patient Data Collection and Centralizing the Same

Obtaining updated information about the patient at the time of registration, assessing insurance status, and understanding patient needs during the patient intake process is lengthy and time-consuming. The waiting room can be effectively used to log this information via digital tools that interface with the physician who can then access the information online when they meet with the patient. 

Remember that an excellent healthcare experience occurs with a patient-centric attitude and time spent on attending to needs rather than administrative and documentation processes.

3. Enabling Uniform Availability of Information and Communication Via Patient Portals

With access to patient records at all times, there are third-party tools that can be tapped to enable direct messaging to patients. These direct messages can help keep unnecessary calls/walk-ins at bay while improving patient experiences.

Healthcare organizations need to continually improve inpatient experiences and look beyond interpersonal relationships with patients. Health technologies today can help alleviate issues with patient care and establish trust, leaving staff with more bandwidth to communicate with patients.

Balancing information from multiple sources of hospital software applications demands extensive communication among care teams, resources, and patients. Comprehensive, integrated hospital management software will help health care workers to view health records, understand communication preferences and follow-up mechanisms, and dispense focused health care. This will empower support teams out front to confidently interact with patients during the intake process and set  the ball rolling for an optimal health care experience.

Salesforce CRM in health care

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology that helps handle all the back end and operational aspects of any business, particularly those associated with sales and service. The objective is straightforward- help cut down operational costs, optimize the performance of resources, stay connected with customers, and improve profitability.

A CRM solution helps focus on individual relationships with customers, service users, colleagues, or suppliers throughout the entire transactional journey with them. This also extends to discovering prospects, winning them over, and supplements these efforts with additional support. A CRM tool helps store customers and prospects identify sales opportunities, record service issues, and manage marketing efforts and consolidate them in a single central location. Uniform availability of information to all stakeholders helps everyone collaborate better, increases productivity, and helps in informed decision making.

Salesforce now extends to embrace the operational environment of healthcare- seamlessly connecting systems of records, enabling personalized interactions that strengthen relationships and build trust with patients, members, health practitioners, and partners. Salesforce Health Cloud actively helps teams across all sections of healthcare disciplines drive digital transformation on a secure and customizable CRM. This will help forge stronger relationships, collaborate effectively while tracking updates periodically. It drives better patient outcomes and also helps the health care service provider closely monitor operations in an integrated system.

The Role of AppShark

Team AppShark is a Salesforce gold consulting partner with consulting and implementation expertise in the Salesforce suite of products across ten verticals and over 500 projects. We have a consistent 5-star rating in customer satisfaction in custom development, implementation, and integration of various applications with the stronghold in Salesforce CRM.