Ask a hospital chief financial officer what he or she thinks of CRM, and there's a good chance you'll be met with a groan or a blank stare. CRM, sometimes referred to as patient relationship management, tends not to be a popular concept among hospital CFOs, and for two good reasons: It's been oversold, and it has failed to live up to its promise.
Over the past 30 years, CRM has been pitched to hospitals and health systems by consulting firms, software vendors and healthcare publications as a means to address nearly every financial and operational challenge. The proposed CRM success formula appears simple: collect and integrate customer data, apply that information to make customers feel appreciated, and reap the economic benefits of long-term customer relationships.
However, too often this formula has failed to produce the desired results. Why? For one, hospital managers have been unable to establish a defensible return on investment for CRM-related investments, which has caused interest in, and funding of, CRM programs to wane due to a lack of quantitative evidence to support their development or continuation.
But maybe it's time to reconsider.
Source: CRM Buyer, http://crmbuyer.com