The Benefits of a Salesforce 360-Degree Patient View

It's been 12 years since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was adopted. An important part of the 2009 act was the requirement that public and private healthcare providers adopt electronic medical records (EMRs) by 2014.

Today, it's hard to remember a world where medical records were largely paper-based. Even with patient information being available digitally, many providers are still hamstrung by disconnected systems. It's challenging to get a complete view of a patient, especially if they see multiple healthcare providers.

Salesforce's Health Cloud is working to change that. Health cloud offers a host of features that streamline and simplify care management, communication, data collection and management, and analysis.

However, one place the platform truly excels is in giving providers a 360-degree view of a patient. Health Cloud's unique position in a digital healthcare ecosystem is what makes this possible - it doesn't replace critical systems like EMRs, accounting packages, or scheduling applications. Instead, it integrates with all of them to bring the data together. That means data both within an organization and between providers.

The result? The Health Cloud from Salesforce offers a host of benefits thanks to the complete view of the patient, from collaboration opportunities to better, more personalized experiences.

4 Benefits of a 360-Degree Patient View with Health Cloud

Innovative Collaborations

The ability to collect consent information from patients so that care providers can share information from one contact to another is a frequently cited example of Health Cloud's advantages. These examples typically center around instances when a patient has a history with a doctor and then later enters the hospital or visits an ER.

There are more innovative uses for the collaborative abilities that Salesforce offers with Health Cloud. A 360-degree patient view ensures a specialist has the information they need to consult with a care provider and patient. Combined with telemedicine, however, that specialist can work closely with a patient's regular care provider. This collaboration could mean that a patient in a rural area has access to a specialist in another city or even another state. It helps patients with complex or unusual diagnoses receive a higher level of care, regardless of location.

Increased Efficiency

The move to electronic medical records meant that care providers had to move fast to implement what was a completely new system for some. There was not the breadth of platforms and software that exists today, and many providers are still running one of these initially installed (now legacy) systems.

Staff must log into multiple systems to see all of the information on a patient. And, with patient data scattered, there is an element of risk added to the situation. It can be easy to confuse one file with another as support staff and physicians switch from one application to another. The result is an abundance of "chair turning" to complete tasks.

Not only does this limit the risk of mistakes, but it also makes support staff and care providers more efficient. With a single, complete patient view that aggregates data from multiple systems, care providers no longer need to shift focus or open multiple applications to see all of a patient's data. That saved time can be re-invested into time with the patient, offering more personalized and attentive care instead.

The Right Care and Cost Savings

When care providers have the information they need at their fingertips, they can make more informed decisions. Those decisions lead to better health outcomes. But a 360-degree patient view in Health Cloud can also lead to better financial outcomes for patients.

For example, imagine a patient who calls into a doctor's office complaining of headaches. Should the answering nurse send them to the ER? Should they be sent to a walk-in clinic? Or can they wait for their physician to have an appointment available? With Health Cloud, the nurse has all of the patient's information in front of them, including medical history, job information, and family medical history. The nurse's direction will depend on actual patient data, potentially saving the patient from a costly but unnecessary trip to the emergency room.

Lifestyle Information

A patient's medical record can include a lot more than just their blood pressure and heart rate. Information about a person's lifestyle - including the type of work they do, their habits, and even their family situation - is part of a patient's record but may be stored in a different system than the EMR.

However, when a care provider has the complete picture of the patient, including lifestyle information, they can take the patient's care to the next level. For instance, a patient visits a physician for a check-up, and the provider notes that the patient works as a painter. The doctor can then pay close attention to symptoms that point to lung disease or certain types of cancer, wherein another patient's similar symptoms might be less of a concern. Without a 360-degree patient view, the indicators may be missed until the patient's condition becomes far more severe. Early discovery of issues can lead to better health outcomes for the patient.

Conclusion

Having a complete view of a patient, from health history to current care to lifestyle data, can make the job of a healthcare provider easier. With Health Cloud from Salesforce, that data can be pulled into a single platform from across a provider's ecosystem and include data from other providers as well. This complete view reduces risk, improves recommendations, and ultimately helps patients achieve and maintain better health.

Salesforce is a powerful tool for healthcare providers, thanks to Health Cloud. But only if it's implemented to meet your organization's goals. At Six Consulting, our architects and developers have extensive experience helping healthcare providers, facilities, and pharma companies realize the benefits of the Health Cloud platform for their organization. Contact us today to consult on how Salesforce can help you care for your patients more completely and efficiently than ever before.