Customer relationship management, perhaps best known as a tool for managing interactions with sales prospects and customers, is moving beyond that focus when it comes to the newly minted regional extension centers.
Those centers, or RECs, offer technical help to healthcare providers aiming to achieve meaningful use of electronic health records. The Department of Health and Human Services in February awarded grants to establish the first group of RECs"32 in all. About the same time, HHS's Office of the National Coordinator awarded a contract to Acumen Solutions, a Vienna, Va.-based business and technology consulting firm, to provide Saleforce.com's cloud computing-based CRM product.
The RECs initial use of Salesforce. com isn't in the traditional CRM mold. Instead, the 32 RECs have been using the software-as-a-service offering as a collaboration tool.
"HHS is very focused on collaboration and social CRM," said Marty Young, managing director of Acumen's public sector practice. "They want to create a sense of community among the RECs, so the Virginia REC shares information with the Maryland REC and they are not treating one another as competitive."
Thus far, RECs have used Salesforce. com for exchanging ideas and documents, Young said. A module dubbed Salesforce Answers lets a staffer in one REC post a question and receive answers from the community"REC crowdsourcing.
The first group of RECs is now working toward adopting the full Salesforce platform, which lets centers manage interactions with providers as well as track and report on their technical assistance efforts.
Acumen plans to meet with each REC to provide customized training. At press time, 12 of the 32 RECs had completed training. The second group of 28 RECs, which were awarded grants in April, will also receive training. Acumen plans to add functionality as well as users. The company is in the process of developing a feature for managing health information exchanges, Young said. Some of the organizations awarded REC funding also operate HIEs. The HIE capability will help them keep tabs on milestones as they roll out strategic plans, sustainability plans and other deliverables.
Acumen is also exploring the potential of using the Salesforce CRM platform in other areas, such as tracking the effectiveness of Beacon Communities, Young noted. ONC in May awarded funding to 15 communities.
