SAP Brings 21st-Century Customer Service to Healthcare

WALLDORF, Germany, May 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the launch of the SAP® Patient Relationship Management solution, designed to help healthcare providers compete for increasingly assertive, knowledgeable and price-sensitive patients. With technology-driven advances in customer service transforming most industries, patients are demanding the same control over their healthcare experience. Healthcare IT leaders are addressing multiple challenges in treatment and payment, but patients have not typically enjoyed the visibility and responsiveness they now see in their relationships with retailers or financial institutions. SAP Patient Relationship Management closes the healthcare service quality gap, by putting the patient at the center of individualized care and supporting a treatment experience rooted in customer service.

According to Gartner, "healthcare delivery organization CIOs are now faced with a new type of patient who expects to be treated like a valued customer."* A customer-centric culture is critical for healthcare providers seeking to protect and grow revenues in an increasingly competitive environment. Once nearly immune from consumer pressures, the healthcare industry — in all countries, regardless of the regulatory or delivery setting — must now earn the business of consumers who shop around and cross international borders to obtain the best value for money. Today, healthcare purchase decisions mimic those in every other industry, and are driven by more than cost alone. Treatment decisions are also shaped by peer and network feedback on social media and on overall consumer experience, most evident in developments such as the rise of medical tourism.

Designed in this context, SAP Patient Relationship Management is an integrated offering, combining the best-practice patient administration and billing functionality of the SAP® Patient Management application with the proven service functionality in the SAP® Customer Relationship Management application. With SAP Patient Relationship Management, healthcare providers can maintain a holistic view of each patient to tailor treatment decisions and offerings. The solution also provides embedded analytics to support continuous service improvement, cementing consumer loyalty over the long term.

"While it will always rightfully have a unique role, the healthcare industry's business practices and imperatives are converging with those in other industries, a process driven largely by technology," said Martin Kopp, vice president, head of Industry Business Solutions for Healthcare Providers, SAP. "With SAP Patient Relationship Management, patients will be more active participants in treatment, leading to better health outcomes, and providers will better manage their finances, strengthening the healthcare system for all."

SAP Patient Relationship Management helps streamline the patient experience along the continuum of care and embedded analytics provide performance measurement. Healthcare providers can track their performance and, guided by the solution, take the lead in patient relationships or with conditions where they have proven especially successful. Provider call center staff can enhance the patient experience through immediate response, personalized interaction and speedy resolution. Additional benefits of SAP Patient Relationship Management include:

• A one-stop online interaction center with mobile functionality for patients, as they expect in other consumer experiences
• Optimized staff and resource utilization rates through insight into forecast demand and availability
• Ongoing patient relationship management, creating better patient experiences that may yield new revenue opportunities as an additional benefit
• Social media analyses that assist with the design and marketing of treatment offerings based on online trends

For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

*"A Superior Patient Experience Is a Meaningful Measure of Care Quality," Barry Runyon, Gartner, February 13, 2014

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