Customer relationship platform provider Salesforce is betting a bevy of new tools for its Health Cloud platform, and an expanding list of application development partners, will equip healthcare providers with the technology needed to put the patient relationship at the center of care delivery.

A newcomer to digital healthcare technology—Salesforce rolled out Health Cloud in 2016—Salesforce made the enhancements in response to the many challenges facing providers in the current healthcare landscape, such as identifying their most at-risk patients and engaging with them in more personalized ways, the company says.

Pricing for Salesforce Health Cloud starts at $150 per user, per month, the company says. Among the early customers using Health Cloud is  Easter Seals Bay Area in San Francisco.

The enhancements are intended to help providers improve practice management and develop better one-to-one patient relationships that pave the way to  a higher quality of care.

“In healthcare, the potential of CRM remains untapped,” says Dr. Joshua Newman, chief medical officer at Salesforce. “While individuals have always cared about patients, the organization and its systems have neglected the patient experience. This has bred disconnected care and disjointed relationships, and made effective collaboration difficult.”

By adding customer relationship management tools for Health Cloud, physicians can understand the person behind the patient, while achieving meaningful clinical and administrative outcomes, Newman says.

With insurance carriers moving toward outcome-based reimbursements, the need for providers to view risk across their patient populations to proactively deliver preventive care before a patient lands in the emergency room or hospital is growing exponentially, Newman says.

Health Cloud’s risk stratification app uses analytics to calculate risk scores for each patient based on the Center for Medicaid Services Hierarchical Condition Category mode, the company says. “Providers can view risk across their patient population in customizable dashboards to provide targeted preventative care to the patients who need it the most, while gaining new insights into the populations they serve,” says a Salesforce spokesperson.

The ability to gauge patient risk will make it easier for providers to segment patient populations and target them for outreach. A provider using Health Cloud’s segmentation feature, for example, can identify patients over the age of 65 with diabetes, or patients who have been discharged from knee surgery in the last 30 days, and send follow-up appointment reminders, surveys or educational materials to those patient populations.

While improving the quality of care and patient relationships are priorities for providers, medical practices, like any business, still need to attract new customers in order to grow. Health Cloud’s lead-to-patient app can be integrated with other Salesforce applications, as well as electronic health records, data warehouse and patient registration systems, or call centers. Once patient data has been entered in Health Cloud providers can use it to create unique care plans and map patient relationships.

In addition to adding new features to Health Cloud, Salesforce is building out an ecosystem of partners that are creating apps to extend the functionality of Health Cloud. Currently, 14 application developers have taken advantage of Health Cloud’s APIs to create new apps. The apps are available through the Salesforce AppExchange.

One app coming online is FormFast Connect, from FastForm, an online forms developer. The app enables patient-generated data to be collected via electronic forms that patients complete using a mobile device or computer. Information from the forms can be shared in real-time to engage patients, expedite care and increase efficiency for providers.

Higi, a Chicago-based health technology company, has also developed a population screening app that provides healthcare organizations with health assessment and biometrics data captured from patient screenings performed at higi stations located in pharmacies and grocery stores.

The other third-party apps include:

• A wellness action plans app from collaborative health platform provider Fitango Health. The app provides healthcare organizations with pre-built, interactive and customizable wellness plans for Health Cloud.
• A care coordination app from Healthwise Inc., that connects a patient’s care team to education materials that help them better manage patients’ health.
• ProviderMatch from Kyruus, a provider of patient access solutions, optimizes the patient experience across all access channels through patient-provider matching and scheduling within Health Cloud.
• Interpreta Inc. will integrate member prioritization and automated assignment of clinical goals with real-time analytics.
• MyStrength Inc.’s digital behavioral health resources app provides evidence-based tools and activities for behavioral healthcare.
• Prophit Insight’s Physician Engage app uses analytics to help healthcare organizations increase patient retention by building stronger patient relationships.
• Patient engagement and messaging platform provider Relatient’s RideToHealth app leverages a partnership with Uber for patients to book and manage Uber rides to and from health care appointments. Relatient is also making its health campaign manager app available. The app leverages integration with electronic health records systems to enable healthcare organizations to deliver timely health prompts to patients through mobile devices.
• Sirono Inc.’s app enables hospitals to manage high volumes of transactions in Health Cloud.
• Vocera Communications will help care teams to proactively address patient feedback, deploy improvement initiatives and recognize top performing staff.
• Telehealth platform provider VSee will enable providers to video conference with patients and enter patient health records directly in Health Cloud. Patient’s will also be able to self-scheduling telehealth appoints.
• An intelligent care management app from xG Health Solutions will allow healthcare organizations to manage patients with chronic conditions through evidenced-based care management content and workflow tools.
• Zynx Health Inc.’s PointOfCare app will manage patients across multiple care teams using evidence-based best practices to improve clinical and financial outcomes, decrease clinical variation and provide visibility into role-based interventions.

“Health Cloud’s new features and growing partner ecosystem solve an impressive and growing range of challenges, giving healthcare providers new tools to interact with their patients and provide them with connected experiences throughout their care journeys,” Newman says. “Our partners are a valuable part of our journey towards creating a modern healthcare platform for patients, doctors and extended care teams.”