Right now, the marketing team at Children’s Wisconsin is using its CRM as part of a campaign to encourage patients to get their annual flu shots—sending emails that are customized as coming from the specific primary-care clinic the patient visits, rather than the health system at large.
That “personalized” component makes patients more likely to open the email and schedule an appointment, Hanson said.
And since the CRM brings in patient encounter data, the marketing team can target messages to patients who haven’t received a flu shot yet.
Children’s Wisconsin sends these types of emails to all patients, but there’s an opt-out button that receivers can click in the footer of each message.
CRM systems leverage vast amounts of patient and consumer information “for the good of the patient,” said Jessica Friedeman, chief marketing officer for health systems at Healthgrades, the CRM system that Children’s Wisconsin uses.
Healthgrades also collects purchasing histories, internet activity and other data from sources outside of healthcare to build its consumer profiles, according to the company’s privacy policy.
Healthgrades is part of a growing industry of healthcare CRM tools, including competitors like Salesforce and Welltok. The global healthcare CRM market is projected to reach $17.4 billion by 2023, driven by hospitals’ growing focus on patient engagement, according to a report from market research firm MarketsandMarkets. That’s up from $8.8 billion in 2018.
“As patients are becoming more like consumers, they’re demanding a better experience,” Friedeman said.
Healthgrades signs business associate agreements with organizations it works with, so the company is also bound by HIPAA.
“Other industries have really set the tone of consumerism,” Friedeman added. “Healthcare is slower to catch up.”
But whether more targeted marketing feels personalized or invasive might depend on the patient.
It’s something for hospitals to consider, according to Marks. He recommended hospitals ask for consent before sending communications developed by analyzing health and consumer data to give patients more control.
“You can make the argument there will be people that might want to know about whatever services you’re offering them, but it is kind of an invasive thing,” Marks said. “Even if (hospitals) are technically allowed to be marketing to people, perhaps they shouldn’t.”
For COVID, many marketing efforts actually required less specific targeting than a typical campaign.
Hospital marketing teams were trying to get COVID-related messaging—about hospitals’ transition to telehealth, or how to continue accessing emergency and urgent care—to a broad population, and largely not focused on specific service lines or patient groups.
“What was unique about COVID and the pandemic was there was information that needed to go to all patients,” said Kathy Smith, vice president of marketing and communications at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
The Baltimore hospital did develop some targeted messaging for patients with medical conditions like cancer as well as racial minorities at a higher risk for COVID, but overall the focus was on getting the message out there, so all patients knew how to continue to safely access care.
The Johns Hopkins marketing team has access to information on medical specialties a patient is receiving care from, but not so-called “sensitive” health data, such as specific diagnoses. That access helps determine the right populations to target.