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3 Keys for Using Salesforce to Improve Patient Engagement

Sep 29, 2021 Six Consulting

A patient’s understanding of their condition and their participation in their care plan - also known as patient engagement - is an important element in helping them achieve the best possible outcomes.

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A patient’s understanding of their condition and their participation in their care plan - also known as patient engagement - is an important element in helping them achieve the best possible outcomes. When positive engagement strategies are used, patients are more confident in their actions to support their health and have a greater feeling of independence. This can lead to improved healthcare outcomes and fewer emergency-related visits, and unnecessary ER visits.

For the provider, patient engagement is multifaceted, and it involves three key areas for a practice, clinic, hospital, or care center. To successfully improve the patient experience, providers must be willing to tackle the patient experience, personalization, and patient enablement, which can be a tall order.

The good news is that Salesforce’s Health Cloud can help you do all three and do it well.

The 3 Keys to Better Patient Engagement with Health Cloud

Improved Customer Experience

Although patients have a path that is different from a traditional customer, there are enough similarities that it can be helpful to think of some of the patient experience as a customer one. Specifically, when considering how to improve engagement, customer service and customer expectations can help providers visualize areas for improvement.

For instance, onboarding and referral processes may not seem cumbersome on the provider side, but these can be complex and overwhelming for a patient. Plus, if the information is not passed somewhere along the path from one provider to another, the patient is responsible for providing details. This can lead to hesitation and delays in engaging with the new provider.

Health Cloud can streamline this process in several ways. When onboarding is digitized, sharing patient information and data across departments and providers becomes more manageable, including easier to recover if paperwork never makes it to the right practice or department.

Referrals can be equally fraught with misplaced or delayed files. But, with Salesforce’s inherent integration capabilities, referrals can not only be forwarded while the patient is still in the office, but they can be augmented with additional notes and information from the referring physician. Even the burden of insurance verification and approval can be managed through these connections so that patients can see immediately that they are authorized for a specialist’s or referral practitioner’s care. When the nuts and bolts of the healthcare process become simpler, patients have more energy left to follow through with their care plans.

Improved Personalization

No one wants to be just a number in any situation, but certainly not with their healthcare provider. However, it can be difficult for a practitioner to remember the details and information about someone they only see once or twice a year. They need patient files to help them remember who they are seeing and what’s been done before.

Even if the provider is great at remembering and engaging with the patient while in the exam room, the feeling of being cared for can all fall apart at any other touchpoint along the care journey, from making an appointment to picking up a prescription.

Just as a provider needs a 360-degree view of the patient to make informed care decisions, the provider’s care team needs complete data in one place to ensure a patient has everything they need. When patients don’t need to repeat information they have already provided or communicate within the ways they prefer, it creates an environment of care and concern for them as an individual and not just a payment.

This is an area where Salesforce shines for patient engagement. Built on the foundation of a CRM, Health Cloud offers a wealth of patient data to every staff and support member on the care journey. Importantly, it provides the correct information to the right team members, thanks to role-based access management.

Health Cloud also stores a patient’s preferences, like communication methods or practitioners. Patients can receive personalized communications at the appropriate time on their customized care plan in the channel they prefer, whether an appointment reminder or educational content.

Improved Patient Enablement

A patient carries the lion’s share of the responsibility for their care. A provider acts as an advisor and a resource, but it’s up to the patient to maintain their care plan. This is why improving enablement is so essential.

To truly feel involved in the process, though, patients need to own their health information and be able to access their data whenever and wherever they see fit. The ability to check on test results, configure communication preferences, and update insurance information at any time puts the patient in the driver’s seat.

In conjunction with Health Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud puts that control in the hands of the patient. With the ability to log in from nearly any device, patients and family with permissions can manage their data, view visit information, pull up health records, and even make appointments. Not only does this encourage patients to take control of their health information, but it also alleviates work from support staff, who can spend more time focusing on the patient experience, which, in turn, improves patient engagement.

Conclusion

A patient’s health isn’t in the hands of their providers alone. It’s the patient who is the primary driver of their healthcare outcomes. A patient that feels cared for and empowered is more likely to participate in the process. Reaching a higher level of engagement means giving the patients the things they need to feel like a member of their care team - the service, personalized attention, and enablement to determine the direction of their health.

If you’re looking to improve patient engagement with Salesforce Health Cloud, Six Consulting is the perfect partner to make that happen. Our architects and developers have extensive knowledge of Health Cloud implementation for providers of all sizes. Our deep experience with Salesforce means we bring a wealth of expertise to every project. Contact Six Consulting today to learn more about how we can help you get better outcomes for your patients.

“The good news is that Salesforce’s Health Cloud can help you do all three and do it well.”

  • Parth Patel
  • CEO
A provider acts as an advisor and a resource,

but it’s up to the patient to maintain their care plan.

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