Hopefully, this article can come in handy for you when looking at functions and benefits of CRM in healthcare. Most systems of this type offer free trial periods, so you'll be able to compare several solutions before making the final choice. After you choose a worthy product, make sure to conduct training for all your employees. Your healthcare facility will be able to make the most of this software only if every staff member perfectly understands how to handle it. Bitrix24 is a highly popular and powerful healthcare CRM that receives steadily positive reviews from medical professionals from all over the world — so you might want to opt for it.
What Is a Healthcare CRM?
It's an indispensable tool that enables healthcare professionals to carry out the following tasks:
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Gather up-to-date information about their patients
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Accumulate precious insights
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Improve the quality of medical support
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Provide personalized treatment for every patient
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Boost the efficiency of their customer management processes
Such a healthcare system collects patients' demographics, financial reports, the history of customers' interactions with the organization's website and call centers and a lot of other information. It structures this data in a comprehensive format and makes it accessible for everyone who has the relevant rights.
Moreover, a healthcare CRM can proactively come up with smart ideas. For instance, it might suggest that a certain group of patients might benefit from a specific treatment or it can detect patients who neglect their tests and follow-ups.
What to Expect from a Healthcare-Oriented CRM
A healthcare CRM is much more powerful and functional than a database of patients' contact details. It combines the functionality of the following entities.
Using this software, medical professionals can create tasks and distribute them among themselves. They can set deadlines for each task, define its priority and track its progress.
Such systems automate many processes. Since medical staff don't need to carry out these duties manually anymore, they can concentrate on the patients' treatments and more strategic projects. Customers will report greater satisfaction and their health problems will be solved more rapidly.
Thanks to in-built analytical tools, a CRM can segment the patient population to analyze and understand them better. It can calculate patients' length of stay, retention rate and other informative metrics. Based on these indicators, the system can assess the performance of a healthcare solution over a certain period of time. Normally, a CRM should contain templates of reports that can include both internal issues (such as staff churn) and external ones (patients' complaints). Plus, each healthcare facility might be able to create custom reports for itself.
CRMs easily integrate with many other types of software that a healthcare facility might use. It can boast excellent interoperability with existing caregiving tools, be it HR management apps, radiology information systems or appointment calendars. To access such a system, medical professionals don't need to stay chained to their computers. Most CRMs today are cloud-based, so users can log in to their accounts with their mobile devices while doing rounds and checking on patients. Such a solution will save them from the necessity of taking paper-based notes and typing them later into the computer.
A CRM is probably the most convenient solution for staying in touch with one's patients. It can track customer satisfaction and their likelihood of referring others to that particular healthcare facility. It supports mailing campaigns: if a person has visited the website of a healthcare facility, the CRM can automatically send them an introductory "Welcome to our clinic!" email. Alternatively, it can remind parents about the necessity of a preschool vaccination for their children and invite them to do it at a particular facility.
A worthy healthcare CRM is customizable and can adjust to organizations of any size and profile.
10 Benefits A CRM In The Healthcare Industry Can Provide
A CRM in healthcare can provide the following benefits.
- Automate resource management. This software can quickly suggest the most suitable appointment slot for a particular specialist, considering the location and the nature of the appointment. It can reschedule appointments and send notifications to patients about them. Programs that include HRM modules can also manage employees' payroll, sick days and vacations.
- Improve patient experience. Such a system automates appointment reminders and allows immediate rescheduling if the patient cannot make it on time. Plus, it stores exhaustive personal information about every patient: their gender, birthdate, the sphere of activity and so on. Based on this data, it can remind people about medication intakes, offer discounts on relevant medical treatments, congratulate them on their birthdays and so on.
- Track and manage referral patients. If a patient hasn't arranged for an appointment, the system will detect it. The representatives of the healthcare facility will reach out to the customer and resume the interrupted care. Such an approach will prevent financial loss for the clinic and health complications for the patient.
- Ensure 24/7 support. Human specialists might not be available at certain times of the day. CRM chatbots can attend to patients 24/7, reassuring them and sharing basic healthcare recommendations.
- Automate post-discharge support. This implies sending out medication intake reminders, as well as follow-up emails with health tips and healthcare services relevant to the patient's condition.
- Attract new patients. A CRM enables medical professionals to create targeted campaigns and send useful content to groups of prospective patients.
- Collect feedback. This software can automatically send post-appointment feedback surveys to patients and analyze the gathered data. This should facilitate the process of evaluating and improving the quality of medical services. Also, professionals will be able to take timely action to win dissatisfied customers back.
- Enhance the billing workflows. A CRM can collect and update a patient's payment details and generate bills. Its in-built analytical tools can track payments in real time, which enables the healthcare facility to schedule automatic reminders if the payment is not through on time.
- Ensure security and compliance. To protect the information they store, the best CRMs rely on such security mechanisms as multi-level authentication, digital signatures, data encryption, HIPAA-compliant data storage and so on.
- Facilitate outbound and internal communication. Medical staff shouldn't discuss work-related issues by email or in everyday messengers because these communications channels might be prone to hacking attacks. Thanks to a well-thought-out communication system, patients won't need to refill their medical history several times at different providers and redo the same tests. The response waiting time will be reduced since the information will be synchronized across touchpoints.
The more costly and complex a healthcare system for customer relationship management is, the more benefits it can bring.
Bitrix24 as the Best Healthcare CRM
Bitrix24 is not exactly healthcare customer relationship management software. It's a versatile solution that is used in many industries. It boasts an intuitive interface and a superb support center. Its official site offers a comprehensive knowledge base with text and videos. Its team regularly hosts free webinars and is always ready to answer users' questions.
Bitrix24 has all the functionality that was described in this article plus many extra functions. It enables you to use live chat and video conferences for internal communications, carry out project and event management, build landing pages even if you completely lack coding skills and complete many other tasks. Unlike most other modern CRMs, Bitrix24 is available not only in cloud format but as an on-premise solution too. The latter option might come in handy if your customers insist on the maximum level of confidentiality. Your staff will be able to access the system either from their computers or mobile devices (Bitrix24 has a handy mobile app for iOS and Android).
To familiarize yourself with the basic functionality of this product, you might request a free trial period. It imposes no limitations on the number of users — but you'll get access to only 5 GB of online storage and will be able to explore such elements of the system as a product catalog, client profiles, quotes and some others. After you upgrade to a paid plan, you'll be able to use analytics and reports, automate your sales and marketing processes, make the most of the contact center and so on. Depending on the size of your establishment, you would probably want to purchase either the Standard or Professional plan. The former accommodates a maximum of 50 users and costs $79 per month. The latter costs $150 per month and can handle an unlimited number of users.
