Customer service in healthcare-many would say that's an oxymoron. My auto mechanic does a better job of reminding me about the preventive care and maintenance my car needs than my doctor does of reminding me about the preventive care and maintenance my body needs. The lack of proactive customer service in healthcare might be because our waiting rooms were once overflowing, so retaining and attracting patients was low on the priority list. But times are changing. Providers are feeling more competitive pressure from new models such as retail clinics, which provide convenient, high-touch, high-tech service, and alternative practitioners, who are often very proactive about building relationships with clients-not to mention doctors on retainer who provide highly personalized service and access. In addition, patients can now research providers online-and will often travel to see the doctors they've researched-and can receive, and even expect, care consultation via phone or e-mail. The good news about the "everywhere availability" of healthcare services and information is that patients are taking a much more active role in their own health. These consumers welcome information about preventive health steps they can take and are interested in having more productive, ongoing relationships with their providers that are not just about disease and sickness, but also about health and well-being. Indeed, the healthcare industry as a whole is realizing the need to focus more on preventive care given an aging population, rising healthcare costs, and the trend toward pay-for-performance. Customer/patient relationship management comes to healthcareOther industries have long used customer relationship management (CRM) technologies to understand and anticipate their customers' needs-for instance, recommending a list of books a customer might enjoy based on his or her past purchases. Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps providers do the same thing with healthcare services. It offers tools that help clinicians proactively communicate with patients, whether for follow-up, to inform them about a new service or treatment relevant to particular health issues, or simply to send an e-mail with tips on preventive care. Providers can use these tools to strengthen their patient relationships and improve patient satisfaction and health. "Providers often interact with their patients only when they're experiencing symptoms, so the relationship between provider and patient has typically been very sporadic," says Senior Director Paul Smolke, Health Industry Solutions, Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft Corporation. "Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps clinicians stay in touch with their patients in a more consistent, long-term manner with an increased focus on education, prevention, and overall well-being. It also helps providers deliver care that is more streamlined and patient-centric." A patient relationship management solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the Microsoft Office user interface helps providers improve outreach and community relations, better coordinate care across departments and organizations, and enhance case management for patients with chronic diseases. Outreach and community relationsWithout the right tools in place, it's just too much to ask your already overwhelmed and overworked staff to put together a list of all patients with diabetes or at risk for the disease, then to call, send e-mail, or develop a direct mail campaign to tell those patients about a new diabetes program you've put together. And even if your staff had the time to do those things, such communications would generate even more work in the form of questions from patients, appointment scheduling, and the need to track the contacts and their outcomes. In the past, the workflow processes and tools to make this type of outreach possible were either not available or not even remotely palatable to staff. But now such processes and tools are here and available for immediate use. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, your staff can use automated tools to deliver the right communication to the right patient segments, promoting services and educational offerings relevant to a patient's or family member's health status. What's more, these tools can also be used for physician and nurse recruitment and general outreach to community members and clinicians. For example, perhaps your organization wants to make all the endocrinologists and primary care physicians in your community aware of your new diabetes program. Microsoft Dynamics CRM makes that possible. Similarly, Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help with fundraising by, for instance, engaging potential donors or updating existing donors on how their funds are being used. Case coordination to streamline the delivery of careUsing technology that's readily available today, a consumer can buy a plane ticket online, check in at an airport kiosk, and then be served a vegetarian meal on the plane, all without having to fill out a single paper form. Contrast this to a visit to the doctor's office, where that same consumer has to fill out a clipboard full of paper forms. Then when he or she goes to the lab for a blood test, there is another clipboard full of paper forms. And when the patient arrives for a follow-up visit with the doctor to go over the lab results, there's that clipboard yet again. Sound familiar? But when healthcare services are delivered in a cohesive process-as opposed to a disconnected jumble of services from multiple departments and providers-the patient's experience is much improved over the multiple clipboard scenario. Microsoft Dynamics CRM eliminates unnecessary steps for the patient and, in so doing, also cuts the administrative burden on your staff, improving operational efficiency and reducing costs. In addition, a more coordinated care delivery process helps prevent gaps in care and so can improve patient outcomes. With this solution, providers can customize process workflows to automate care coordination, such as referrals and transfers, among numerous provider organizations, including hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, home healthcare services, and hospice. These workflows can streamline the collection and authorized sharing of patient information across departments and organizations, provide alerts to remind clinicians of next steps, and automate follow-up tasks such as appointment scheduling. Instead of requiring patients to conform to each department's unique procedures, processes can be streamlined from end to end to be more convenient for patients. Now that sounds like customer service. Proactive case management for chronically ill patientsIn the past, a clinician might have sent a heart-disease patient home armed with recommendations and educational pamphlets about cutting down on saturated fats or starting an exercise program. But the clinician had no easy or structured way to help that patient stay on track to prevent disease progression. Microsoft Dynamics CRM facilitates increased patient-clinician interaction without adding administrative burden. Staff can flag patients with specific chronic illnesses and automate proactive communications to remind them of ways to manage their illnesses and inform them of upcoming educational offerings. When new clinical trials or treatments are available, staff can send e-mails targeted to a specific group of patients who could benefit from the new care options, and the resulting follow-up activities can be automated through, for example, voice mail systems, e-mail, or a Web site. With these tools, clinicians are better equipped to help their chronically ill patients manage their diseases and take preventive steps to reduce the number of trips they make to the emergency room and improve their overall well-being. Maccabi Healthcare Services uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM because it works the way they workAnytime you introduce a new software or workflow into your healthcare organization, it's vital that it makes your staff's day easier, not harder. That's why Microsoft Dynamics CRM maps to your current processes and works with the applications your staff already uses, such as Microsoft Office system, including Outlook and Word. Rather than increasing the burden on your staff with extra training and new applications, Microsoft Dynamics CRM makes their workflow easier and enables them to engage with patients in a more personalized and consistent manner through intuitive, easy-to-use tools. This ease of use was crucial to Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel, which implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM so that its call center representatives would be better able to provide high-quality customer service. "It is a known fact that the turnover for call center employees is around two to three years," says Director Josef Jan, Division of Information and Communication, Maccabi Healthcare Services. "We chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM because its interfaces are familiar even to temporary [call center] employees. Their ability to quickly understand and use the system was significant to us." "Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows us to connect a wide array of legacy systems that constantly provide information about our members' activities," says Nitz Gilad, national service coordinator for Maccabi Healthcare Services. "Before, we never saw the big picture. The value of this system is that it provides the ability to see what our members are interested in and what their needs are. Now we can provide proactive versus passive service, meaning when a member calls, our service representative will do more for him or her than what was asked for." Patient-centric healthcareConsumers have become accustomed to dealing with businesses that proactively understand and serve their needs-and they expect the same from their healthcare providers. Forward-thinking healthcare organizations are already focused on becoming more patient-centric. A solution such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which is designed to help organizations manage relationships based on customer needs, will help them get there. The future is patient-centric healthcare. And the future is now.
 | Dr. Bill Crounse, M.D.
Dr. Bill Crounse, M.D., is senior director, worldwide health for Microsoft Corporation. Dr. Crounse is responsible for working with industry partners and healthcare organizations to help them benefit from using Microsoft technologies and solutions. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Crounse was vice president and chief medical information officer for Overlake Hospital Medical Center and the Overlake Venture Center in Bellevue, Wash. Also, read Dr. Crounse's Healthcare Web log to get more insights into the latest technologies and trends in the healthcare industry. |
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