Three Opportunities to Improve Healthcare Performance

Three Opportunities to Improve Healthcare Performance

Marla Roberts

Grantham University

Abstract

This paper explores three “big ideas” that represent great opportunities to improve the performance of healthcare organizations. These will be identified as having the greatest, second greatest, and third greatest potential benefit for improving healthcare organizations. In the preceding order of importance, they are customer relationship management (CRM), team-based organizations and performance management systems to drive Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores, and core competency-based strategic management.

Keywords: customer relationship management (CRM), Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), core competency

Three Opportunities to Improve Healthcare Performance

Customer Relationship Management

The idea possessing the greatest potential for improving the performance of healthcare organizations is customer relationship management (CRM). CRM is a computerized system for identifying, targeting, acquiring, and retaining the best mix of customers. Customer relationship management helps in profiling prospects, understanding their needs, and in building relationships with them by providing the most suitable products and enhanced customer service. It integrates back and front office systems to create a database of customer contacts, purchases, and technical support, among other things. This database helps the company in presenting a unified face to its customers, and improve the quality of the relationship, while enabling customers to manage some information on their own (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/customer-relationship-management-CRM.html#ixzz3IAHm10hs, accessed November 3, 2014).

CRM provides a healthcare organization with a one-to-one communication solution that improves care delivery, lowers costs, and increases loyalty among the key stakeholders most...