Community Health Network removes friction for patients with Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

Connecting with the community

The relationship between a patient and their healthcare provider can have a tremendous impact on patient outcomes. Patients who feel heard and understood are more likely to stay engaged and follow healthcare guidance, leading to better results. With a community presence spanning more than 60 years, Community Health Network is driven by its mission to put patients first. Community delivers outstanding healthcare services when and where patients need it—in hospitals, health pavilions, and doctor’s offices, along with workplaces, schools, and homes.

“At Community Health Network, we are known for giving exceptional care,” says Deb Kenemer, Executive Director of Marketing Communications at Community Health Network. “We are constantly finding innovative, unique, and simple ways we can deliver that care.”

Community offers access to hundreds of physicians, specialty and acute care hospitals, surgery centers, home care services, prescription management, behavioral health, and employer health services across central Indiana. Patients and their families interact with the system at many different touchpoints, ranging from searching for care and making appointments all the way through to the billing process. Previously, Community housed all the data required to handle public-facing interactions in multiple systems. Staff would have to toggle between different applications, limiting efficiency and creating a frustrating experience for patients.

“One of our values is ‘Patients first,’” says Dr. Patrick McGill, Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network. “We want to remove the friction in the patient journey and make it seamless, make it more patient-friendly all along the way.” He adds, “We also want to enable our caregivers to work more efficiently and seamlessly, whether it’s in the emergency room or at the operational level.”

Community stored large amounts of patient data in its previous systems, and all that data needed to be moved to the cloud. The organization began by migrating its data warehouse to Microsoft Azure, which offers access to a more complete view of patients because all relevant information is located in the same place.

Elevating customer relationship management with Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

With its data now situated in the cloud, Community began looking for technology solutions that would help the organization reduce friction for patients throughout their medical journeys, and Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare was a promising option. “We have a longstanding relationship with Microsoft. Since our data was already in Azure, it made perfect sense to consider Cloud for Healthcare,” says Dr. McGill.

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare offered all the solutions Community needed, with the advantage of interoperating seamlessly with the company’s existing technology ecosystem. “From the time we started working until the time we went live was only nine months, which is unheard-of speed,” Dr. McGill says. “That really speaks to Microsoft, but also to our own internal teams and capabilities.”

One of the key solutions Community rolled out in the initial phase was Microsoft Dynamics 365, including Dynamics 365 Customer Service. Implementing this powerful customer relationship management tool has helped Community streamline the patient experience by making interactions more efficient. The organization was able to combine both its Microsoft and non-Microsoft tools into Dynamics 365, enabling agents to access all available data without switching screens or applications. Community saw an immediate increase in productivity and efficiency that, in turn, improved the caller experience.

“Our staff uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service to know if a patient is contacting us in response to a marketing campaign or for some other need, so the patient doesn’t have to spend time relaying their history—the information is all in the system already,” says Julie O’Toole-Black, Vice President of Access and Operations at Community Health Network. “We can immediately get to addressing why they called, removing that friction.”

Delivering messaging that’s right on target

Managing customer calls is just one way Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is helping Community achieve its “patients first” goal. The Community marketing team is also using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to segment and therefore better engage patients for marketing campaigns.

“The segmentation piece is one of the things I’m probably most excited about,” Kenemer says. “With Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, we’re finally able to create a segmentation strategy that includes everything we know about the individual.” This might include clinical information, behaviors, diagnoses, or social determinants of health, such as the patient’s work environment or housing situation.

“We’re not lacking for data points,” says Kenemer. “The difference is now with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, we can create segments using that data and reach out to individuals with very specific, targeted, one-to-one marketing initiatives that may vary from visit to visit or specialty to specialty. We can also track and tweak messages in real time—it previously could take two to four weeks to do that.”

For example, the Community team might send out a targeted message informing a set of patients about a new trial or service related to their interests, making communications resonate with each individual. Visitors who have not yet become patients might receive information about booking a new patient appointment. By layering Qualtrics patient satisfaction data, Community gains further insights into patient experiences and can pivot messages appropriately for even better targeting.

“With Cloud for Healthcare, we’re removing friction that patients feel when interacting with us and making their healthcare journey more seamless,” reports Dr. McGill. “We’re making it easier for caregivers to deliver what they’re trained to do: putting patients first.”

“The faster a patient can gain access to care and get treated, the more likely we’re going to diagnose them early or get them the treatment they need,” O’Toole-Black says. “That’s putting patients first.”

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