Referral Analysis Needs – (EMR/EHR Integration)
- The key to this entire process is integration to the clients’ EMR system. We will definitely need to integrate to their EMR. The good news is, that this is doable for almost any EMR built after 1995! For older or non- API’d systems, we would make the disclaimer that the integration might be complicated, but using various methods from SQL views to flat file integration, we can likely get the data out of their EMR.
- Right now, this data is in their EMR, but:
- Reporting is convoluted and locked down
- Reporting cannot be defined or manipulated by users
- Signing in to ERP and finding reports is not convenient
- And it’s not Mobile usually
- Having a staff of Account Reps to visit practices is hugely expensive. This analysis comparing drop ins, events, and other touch points to referrals is really the main ROI analysis our prospects need to do, and if they don’t have a PRM system, they likely are doing it in spreadsheets occasionally (its lot of work to coordinate) or NOT AT ALL. These clients are usually flying blind
- It is hard to overstate how important this analysis is for these Prospects. They are spending huge sums (typically) attempting to build their Referral network, and then maintain those relationships in hopes of increasing the referral rate. Without understanding where those referrals are coming from (and where they are not coming from) this expense cant be understood.
- Simple reports and Dashboards showing Referrals compared to Visits, Referrals connected to a Campaign (we do this in the integration) or TY/LY comparison of referrals is absolutely key. And, using base Reports & Dashboards, we can build these reports easily once the integration is complete. Eventually, if Tableau ever becomes a thing, we could it to get to the next level.
How can we Help?
- With HealthCloud, we could integrate to their EMR and pick up critical referral information. This data needs to be tied to the physician (typically by NPI Number) but IT DOES NOT NECESSARILY HAVE TO HAVE HIPAA RELATED PATIENT DATA for it to be effective. We CAN get Patient data, and tie that referral to both the physician AND the patient. This is typically a call made by the prospect, and will likely be influenced by Marketing or other needs
- We believe that we can do most integrations for between $12K and $15K one time (not counting the rest of the project).
- Mulesoft is a possibility, but the pricing typically removes the tool as a possibility. We can and have used Middle ware to do the integration, BUT, in our opinion, we are better served writing APEX code to do the integration. Middleware such as Jitterbit or Informatica can START at $20,000 a year.
- And by using this information in Salesforce Reports and Dashboards, we could deliver this analysis to the Account Reps’ pocket. They can use this information to analyze referrals by time (This Year/Last Year), by category, by Practice, by individual Physician, or even by territory.
- Executives at the business can begin to understand the effectiveness of their overall PRM program:
- How many visits are being made daily, weekly, monthly?
- Who are reps visiting? Who are they NOT visiting?
- How does the visit data correlate to the Referral data?
- Are Reps only seeing practices where referrals are good? In other words, are they only going to see their good customers?
- It’s easy to visit someone who is on board and believes in what you do. The hard part is visiting the practices who aren’t (yet) buying what you’re selling.
- PRM Analysis can help these businesses begin to understand that, and then make data driven decisions to manage the referral process.
Questions to Ask
- How do you communicate next steps? How do you analyze referral data?(EHR, Spreadsheets, PDF Reports, etc.)
- How much of your business is New practices vs Existing practices
- What is your EMR System?
- Do you track any kind of Event Effectiveness? Do you know if a Lunch and Learn for example, can you track attendance and resulting referral volume?
- Is there any kind of analysis between Visits and Referrals?
- Are you aware of trends? Declining Referrals by Physician or Practice, declining referrals by Service Type, etc.