How Does EHR CRM Integration Help Providers and Patients?

A CRM (customer relationship management) is a software platform allowing companies to develop and foster customer relationships. Similarly, a medical CRM is a platform that enables healthcare organizations to keep track of patients’ information and helps boost patient engagement.   

Numerous surveys and research show that hospitals offering good patient experiences earn significantly higher revenues than those not. The reason for better experiences is superior engagement tailored to each patient’s needs. This is where a healthcare CRM platform becomes necessary. Since all medical organizations operate EHR systems to store patients’ clinical data, an EHR CRM integration helps them leverage that data to personalize engagement efforts for every patient, improving their overall experience.   

CRM Software for Healthcare  

While it is easy for commercial entities to use CRM software and remain connected with their customers, the same cannot be said of medical organizations. Hospitals and clinics do offer medical services for which the patients pay. However, looking at patients the same way companies look at customers does not seem ideal. That is where an EHR integration becomes necessary.   

An EHR CRM integration allows hospitals to leverage patients’ demographic and medical information from the EHR to use the CRM solution. The information from the medical records empowers a CRM platform to foster personalized patient experiences. Surveys have shown that nearly three-fourths of patients would choose providers who engage with them outside the clinic.  

Healthcare CRM software allows hospitals and clinics to keep up with the appointments, bookings, and the entire lifecycle of care for every patient. Doing so is important for building and managing patient engagement, which builds patient loyalty over time. As a result, they will be more likely to stick with one provider and finish their treatment life cycles. Needless to point out, this improves revenues and boosts patient clinical outcomes.   

Benefits of EHR CRM Integration  

There are numerous benefits of integrating healthcare CRM software with medical records solutions. Let’s look at some of the benefits in greater detail –

1. Consolidated Information

Since a CRM platform is used to connect with customers, an EMR integration with healthcare CRM software provides the necessary information. The demographic information in the medical records enables it to connect with patients with little to no human intervention. For example, if a particular patient’s appointment is coming up, the CRM sends automated text messages or emails reminding them of their appointment.   

If a patient misses it, the CRM receives a notification, not the EHR. In some cases, automated healthcare solutions for medical CRM also send out notifications about misses and provide links to patients for rescheduling.   

The information about missed appointments could also be entered into the EHR, providing insight to providers about patients’ care journeys. This could be especially useful for people suffering from chronic diseases. 

2. Automated Data Entry  

Without the integration of EHR with health CRM software, a team of people would have to manually enter patient data from one to the other. A customer management platform for healthcare would need peoples’ demographic information to function. Without integration, a dedicated team must enter each person’s data into the CRM to build relevant patient engagement. But large hospitals would have hundreds of patients, and entering all their data is slow and error-prone.  

EHR integration allows the CRM to obtain the necessary data automatically without human intervention. This eliminates the chances of data entry errors and optimizes larger organizations’ customer management. Additionally, it also lowers the overhead involved in CRM processes significantly.

3. Detailed Reporting

Hospital customer management needs to be run the same way as that at large for-profit corporations. This alone can guarantee adequate patient engagement for organizations that handle large numbers of patients. CRM healthcare software allows hospital administrators to know the status of patient relationships. This includes knowing patient outcomes, their satisfaction, and their overall experience. This information allows the managers to foster loyalty among the patients.  

Integrating CRM healthcare software with a patient EMR can make the engagement personalized for each patient. Moreover, this allows relationship managers to obtain detailed reports about the relationship with all patients. This information highlights which patient has what feeling about the services provided, whether they are likely to return, whether they will recommend the hospital to their acquaintances, and their overall experience.   

The insights from the reports generated by an EHR CRM integration allow hospitals to address internal problems. Doing so helps them serve patients better in the future. 

4. Business Relationships

Patients often approach medical specialists after being referred by primary care physicians. In light of this, specialists and surgeons must form networks and relationships with primary caregivers. A patient’s medical records contain information about the provider who referred him or her to the specialist. When integrated with a patient EMR, CRM software for healthcare will allow specialists to liaise with primary caregivers. A CRM allows all referrals to be tracked, allowing the formation of networks of cooperating doctors.  

Such liaising builds lasting relationships between specialists, surgeons, and primary care physicians, benefitting all three.

5. Improved Revenues

Since CRM allows organizations to build and maintain lasting relationships with customers, its purpose becomes purely business driven. For hospitals and clinics, being able to reach out to customers and improve their experience goes on to build lasting loyalty. As a result, patients are more likely to return to the same hospital and refer their friends, relatives, or colleagues there.   

In addition to existing patients, a CRM platform collects inquiries from a hospital’s website, online ads, social media, chats, etc. Subsequently, this allows a hospital or clinic to generate leads. This eventually leads to more patients, who can be engaged and harnessed for referrals and further leads. All of this ultimately leads to more patients, leading to greater revenues. 

6. Improved Patient Outcomes  

An EHR CRM integration facilitates better patient management. In other words, it allows providers to engage with their patients better. This can be in the form of appointment reminders, notifications for follow-ups, alerts in case of open booking slots, and so on. The CRM platform also collects information about the patient’s experiences, as mentioned earlier. This applies to in-person and remote care through telehealth solutions and remote patient monitoring platforms. All of these factors eventually lead to better outcomes for patients.  

Conclusion 

A CRM allows hospitals and clinics to operate like for-profit businesses while serving their patients well. Research has proven that patient engagement leads to better clinical outcomes and positive provider feedback. When integrated with medical records, CRM for healthcare providers facilitates business development and better patient relationships.  

At a time of increasing tech adoption, automation, and digitization of workflows, a CRM allows providers to leverage all three while helping patients better. So, it is all the more important for companies involved in EHR development to make integration faster and seamless for CRM platforms. 

References