As a provider with a small or mid-sized practice, you may think you don’t need a CRM system. For one thing, CRM stands for customer relationship management, and you have patients, not customers. Second, most CRMs are designed for large, complex businesses with a sales force. But there are new systems emerging for providers like you, and although they’re still called CRMs, the acronym stands for care relationship management. These systems not only help you with traditional lead management, they also help you build stronger patient relationships and maximize patient revenues.
Here are the top five things you should look for in a medical CRM.
1. Integration with Your Current Systems
It would make no sense to have separate databases, one for tracking patient interactions and another to track outreach campaigns. For a CRM to work properly, it must integrate seamlessly with the existing patient information stored in your EMR and medical billing system.
2. A Patient Portal
To have an effective relationship with your patients, you need to provide them with a way: to schedule appointments, request lab results, ask questions, get referrals, purchase supplements, and pay open balances. Patient centered care is always a priority for providers like yourself. Further, such a system should be fully HIPAA compliant. A patient portal is a necessity for robust care management, but a sophisticated portal goes beyond the basics, and tracks patient interests (recording the articles they read on your site) and generates corresponding offers (50 percent off a homeopathic treatment for the condition they just read about, for example).
3. Campaign Management
This function helps you understand exactly how a new patient arrived at your practice. If it was from an email campaign, you’ll know which one (regardless of how many were running concurrently). For example, you’ll know whether they clicked through from an ad, as well as any comments they left and articles they downloaded from your site.
4. Social Media Management
While social media may have few upfront costs, the time spent managing your accounts can be a resource drain. On the other hand, a comprehensive CRM gives you a dashboard that lets you manage all of your accounts from one page, quickly posting information and patient comments to different platforms.
5. Automated Lead Generation
This CRM function lets you automatically respond to patients and prospects visiting your website. Based on the rules you set up, visitors receive a response based on their site visit. For example, a prospect who clicks on a fitness article automatically receives an email or text message (depending on the rule you set) about your upcoming health seminar.
The main takeaway for healthcare providers? Medical CRM software is appropriate for practices of any size, as long as it contains the tools you need and leaves out those you don’t, including sales force automation and other non-patient focused modules. As always, the key is to find an unified platform that interweaves all the tools your practice needs.
One CRM incorporates all these points: PracticeSuite. To learn more, contact us today.
