Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Healthcare Organisations

Louise Alderton, 25 April 2011

Of course the number one priority for healthcare organisations is delivering the highest quality of care and service, but reducing costs and maintaining efficiency is also a vital component. Healthcare organisations and providers face numerous challenges some of which include - accuracy and sensitivity of patient information, cross-department coordination, regulation compliance and effective promotion and recruitment. With a tailored Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution for healthcare many of these challenges can be overcome through centralization of information, easy accessibility from anywhere and any department, automation of processes, comprehensive reporting and timely synchronization.

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Patient Management
A central and accessible system of patient information allows you to efficiently deliver care and saves time by removing the need to repeatedly enter the same information. With less time spent on administrative tasks you are able to concentrate on more important things such as patient care and service.

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Regulation Compliance
Healthcare providers and organisations must comply with various regulations and standards. With the right Dynamics CRM system in place this is made stress-free. You can easily store, categorise and search documentation with built-in SharePoint functionality. Managers are provided with the necessary data to manage and maintain compliance and messaging can be kept consistent.

Strong Communication Channels
Centralised information and workflows streamline the collection and sharing of information across departments and facilities within a secure environment. You will maintain consistent processes and create strong communication channels to support referrals between clinicians, specialists, departments, and facilities.

Streamline Business Processes
Microsoft Dynamics CRM can improve your service while also creating huge administrative efficiencies by eliminating tedious manual processes and breaking down silos of information. Tasks such as invoicing can be streamlined. You can also integrate Dynamics CRM with any existing IT infrastructure, such as your accounting or financial applications that will allow you even more operational efficiency.

Effective Recruitment and Promotion
Marketing tools within Microsoft Dynamics CRM can assist you in delivering effective promotion and recruitment programmes. You are able to easily coordinate outreach and educational activities that target specific communities. Meet the challenge of recruiting high-quality healthcare professionals with tools for automated communications and analysis.

Let’s take a look at a couple of real-world Microsoft Dynamics CRM Healthcare solutions in action…

Wise Group

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Wise is a large non-government provider of mental health services in New Zealand. With more than 700 employees, the organisations paper-based processes became a less streamlined and ultimately unsustainable means of distributing information between offices. Wise required a technology platform that would meet three key business challenges: reduce costs, increase productivity and promote greater environmental sustainability. By committing to an infrastructure investment strategy based on several Microsoft platforms including Dynamics CRM they were able to achieve all of their goals. Since the implementation, the new application has processed more than 1000 forms with an estimated 5000 to be processed electronically over a 12 month period - all of which would have been delivered by hand, posted or couriered from one site to another. Having reduced production, postage and courier charges, as well as the time spent waiting for forms to arrive and the manual record management process, the overall cost saving and productivity gains for Wise have most definitely achieved their goals.
Read the full case study

Hunter New England Health

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Hunter New England Health is one of eight area health services managed by the New South Wales Department of Health. It delivers healthcare services to approximately 840,000 residents in an area of 130,000 square kilometres. It has approximately 14,500 staff including 1,500 medical officers, and an annual budget of $1.3 billion (AUS). Their HR contact centre for staffing and human resources issues ran on manual record-keeping therefore had very limited data on case histories, outcomes achieved and common problems. To address these issues they implemented a case management system based on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. This system recorded all staff interactions with the HR centre allowing greater transparency and more detailed data for reporting – which is important for regulation requirements in this industry. HR staff can now share workloads, identify trends and recognise problem hotspots. Overall, this solution means better morale and employee engagement; reduced staff turnover and less time spent managing reactive people issues.
Read the full case study

*1 Image from: http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/10611/news-analysis-lawson-software-closes-healthvision-acquisition-for-160m-deepens-healthcare-specialization/
*2 Image from: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jim_glass/archive/2008/10/01/microsoft-dynamics-crm-healthcare-organizations.aspx
*3 Image from: http://www.wisegroup.co.nz/page/5-Home
*4 Image from: http://www.hnehealth.nsw.gov.au/