While it is important for modern clinics and hospitals to invest in medical equipment and trained staff, it is equally vital for them to look after the interests of their customers. Investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) system allows you to better serve your patients, build long-term relationships with them, protect their data and prevent errors.
As MarketsandMarkets reports, this is quickly becoming an industry standard, meaning those who fail to adopt will be left behind. The CRM market is estimated to reach USD 17.4 billion by 2023 from USD 8.8 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 14.6% during the forecast period.
According to RTS Labs, “Marketing is much more effective when you know your audience. So is medicine. Having a CRM system that can keep track of who your patients are, what medications they’re on, who else provides them with care, and other important pieces of information can help you get a picture of who your patients are overall.
“CRM gives you the ability to keep track of each customer (because patients are customers) on a micro and macro level. On the micro level, CRM can give you a timeline of your patient’s health. On the macro level, it can give you the ability to pull data about who your customers are overall, which can help you make better decisions about your practice overall.”
What is a healthcare CRM?
In the healthcare industry, a CRM system allows you to manage patients and their health information efficiently. Similar to the CRM systems for sales, there are standard modules in a healthcare CRM.
Communication module – This has features that help schedule, initiate and track interactions that the hospital or clinic has had with patients. You also have the option to schedule and confirm appointments, as well as set reminders.
Task management module – Allows your staff to add tasks, assign those tasks, view and update the tasks, and track the progress of each task up to completion.
Report module –Allows you to customize and generate numerous reports, such as campaign ROI report or the average number of patient no-shows report.
Patient management module –Allows your employees to add and update patient records, segment patients according to their conditions and effectively interact and communicate with patients.
Healthcare facilities that can benefit from a healthcare CRM include retail health clinics, primary care physicians and primary care offices, urgent care centers, emergency facilities, outpatient medical centers, etc.
The benefits of using a healthcare CRM.
While there are several benefits to using a healthcare CRM, here are the top five reasons.
It improves your billing process – A CRM system can improve your billing process tremendously. You can use the software to collect and update customer payment details. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, healthcare spending in the United States grew 3.9% in 2017, reaching $3.5 trillion or $10,739 per person. Health spending accounted for 17.9% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Using a CRM makes it easy to track transactions and bill patients. Many CRM systems have analytics tools that provide real-time insights into payment processing. You can use your CRM to monitor outstanding bills and send reminders to patients to make the payment on time.
It helps in your patient outreach program – With a CRM system in place, you can segment your patients into different target groups and send them marketing materials and relevant medical information. It allows you to communicate with your patients between their visits, which promotes healthier outcomes. You can send appointment reminders to your patients or keep them posted on general health and wellness issues.
It automates and improves your workflow – When you have a CRM system in your facility, it automates your workflows – such as patient referrals and prescriptions. Your practitioners save a lot of time and resources, and they provide their patients with more reliable services. A CRM system also helps reduce patient defections.
It helps you meet your compliance requirements – HIPAA and other compliance norms are not all that easy to meet. A CRM system simplifies the process of storing patient records in a safe way that follows various state and federal legislation. With the right CRM system in place, you can avoid penalties for unlawful data storage and negligent handling of patient info.
With HIPAA breaches on the rise, it is vital for medical facilities to adopt a CRM to avoid penalties.
It enhances the patient experience – If your facility can’t keep existing patients satisfied with its level of care and services, it is difficult to retain them and attract new patients. A CRM system helps improve communication between the patients and your staff; it delivers appropriate medical information to your patients and reduces waiting times – all of which contributes to a positive patient experience.
Also, a CRM system improves data security. Data breaches in the healthcare industry are on the rise, and you need to protect patient information by every available means. With a CRM system in place, you can set up access controls so that only those who are authorized can access patient information. Moreover, a cloud-based CRM improves security because data recovery is possible after a malicious attack or natural disaster.
If you own or manage a healthcare facility and want to improve your workflow, enhance your patients’ satisfaction, keep your data secure, meet all compliance norms and streamline your billing process, eZnet CRM is a cloud-based CRM that can help improve your medical facility on all of these fronts. Contact us to learn more about our industry-leading, customized healthcare CRM solution.
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