Improving healthcare and reducing costs is on everyone’s minds these days. But how? Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN) is building connections between every healthcare provider in the state to help doctors better understand patient needs. The agency uses Salesforce to make it easier for the state’s healthcare professionals to get the information they need when they need it to eliminate inefficiencies and improve care.
“Almost 90 percent of the $7.2 billion in medications dispensed in Michigan each year have unintended consequences — ranging adverse side effects, to symptoms that require re-admission, to nothing at all,” explains Tim Pletcher, Executive Director. “Not only is it inefficient when prescriptions don’t work as intended, but it’s inconvenient and unsafe for patients. Care coordination — the kind facilitated by our use of the Salesforce Platform — is the magic that will help reduce that $6.3 billion dollar problem.”
The agency uses Sales Cloud to maintain information on 275,000+ providers and to track and understand the connections between doctors, hospitals, and healthcare facilities, and between all of those providers and patients. “Removing fragmentation is key to transforming healthcare. We need a way to track all of the providers and how they work together.”
A custom tool — built on the Salesforce Platform — creates unique identities to track complex relationships among healthcare providers, and stores their electronic delivery addresses so electronic health information can be transmitted securely. The ability to share information throughout a care team will reduce redundant care (such as repeat tests), make it easier to assign and handle referrals, and improve overall care.
“Providers in a patient’s care team need to be notified when the patient receives treatment. The Health Provider Directory built on the Salesforce Platform will help providers work better together.” It is essential that any shared data is routed properly, to only the right organizations and the right people within organizations. Controls within Salesforce ensure that privacy is maintained and information sharing meets compliance regulations.