While it may be true that the EHR is the main tool for a clinician, the same is not true for patients.  Patient data is stored in a wide variety of systems including a CRM, health system website, secure messaging systems, call center systems, survey systems, mobile apps, iPads in the doctor’s office, kiosks, and much more.  Plus, patients are engaging with the healthcare system on social media, on ratings and review websites, through ads, and other third party websites.  Yes, and the EHR has patient data too.  However, if a healthcare organization doesn’t combine data across these systems, they can’t achieve the optimal patient experience that’s needed to create a welcoming digital front door.

This idea was illustrated to me really well when I learned how Celebrus collects the data that’s really needed to do better for patients and improve the patient experience.  Talking with Bill Bruno, CEO of Celebrus, he acknowledged that delivering a seamless online patient and member experience is more difficult than it has ever been before.  However, at the same time, he points out that it has never been more important either.

Bruno described some of the challenges that healthcare organizations face when it comes to creating seamless experiences for their patients and members:

• Digital Data is Difficult to Use
• Data is Incomplete
• HIPAA Restrictions on Data Collection
• Digital Identify Verification is Hard

Collecting all of the right data in a compliant way and then applying that data to improve your digital front door takes work and expertise to do it right.  Bruno described the challenge and Celebrus’ approach really well:

Many healthcare organizations have struggled with finding ways to compliantly use digital data from their websites and apps, and that has been more difficult in recent years. However, by exploring new options like Celebrus, these organizations can spend less time worrying about capturing the journeys and interactions and more time building positive patient experiences that foster the desired outcomes for patients, members, and the organizations themselves.

Many people reading this are probably wondering why a healthcare organization’s CRM doesn’t do this already.   CRMs are great for certain tasks, but they have their limitations.  For example, CRMs don’t do great with anonymous users and really only focus on the known, logged in patients. Nowadays, people rarely log in unless they have to.  CRMs also have never solved well for digital data and thus have a limited view, so they don’t have enough data to drive real use cases that change the patient experience.  Also, most CRMs are challenged in tracking the patient experience on portals like MyChart or on other domains not owned by the healthcare organization.

It’s also worth highlighting that most healthcare organizations are behind the curve in handling digital identity verification across all these disparate systems and points of engagement.  Plus, healthcare organizations need to make sure they have a complete digital profile on the patient too and that it is built in a compliant manner.  Most have gaps in these profiles that are needed to really care for patients.

We’ve all run a report before looking for certain data and the data we really need is not available in the report.  Sometimes the data just isn’t processed in a timely manner.  Other times the data is stored in a disparate system, but it’s not available in that report.  This is particularly frustrating since the team knows the data is there, but it is not available to them where they need it. It is even more frustrating for the digital front door, as you have very limited time to act and serve the patients and members.

This is why Celebrus is so focused on capturing and contextualizing all of the digital consumer patient data together in one place for a healthcare organization.  By having it all in one place they can create reports that actually have the data your teams need.  They can improve and personalize the experience of patients that are using your digital front door.  You can use this data to create advertising segments that will help encourage the right action by the right patients that has become so important as we move to value based care.

I’m excited to learn more about Celebrus at the upcoming ViVE conference in LA.  You can sign up to learn more about how they can upgrade your digital front door.

It’s great to see companies that are focusing on the patient journey.  For the longest time, it felt like many healthcare organizations were taking patients for granted.  The reality was that many of them could.  However, that’s quickly changing.  Patients are becoming more particular and more vocal about their desire for a patient journey that matches the digital experiences in the rest of their lives.