The main problem with Datamed’s operations is the inefficient use of accumulated information. The storage and organization of patient information with the Electronic Health Record makes the current business process efficient. It allows a central repository for information enabling easy access to clinic employees. However, it does not make DataMed effective in providing quality customer service and patient care. This organization of information makes it difficult to understand the needs of the patients and difficult to provide an open communication to learn what the patient wants.

By only capturing patient information, this is impeding DataMed to build personal relationships with their patients. It does not facilitate open communication between patients and the clinic. It is only an ‘in and out’ process. It is also difficult for DataMed to reach the target market of the Chinese Demographic as they do not have the information of what the majority of Chinese want or need.

We propose the implementation of a customer relations management system to better understand the patients needs and wants and their medical history, to make better future predictions on health offerings catered to the patients. This will integrate with the existing database to allow DataMed to better organize data, manage requests, and create queries to navigate data, and find optimality in scheduling and on patient requirements easily. It will monitor DataMed’s leads so that it can increase their efficiency in securing new patients and provide effective service and better connect with existing patients.

The CRM system will help understand patients medical history better and allow DataMed to direct patients to specific specialized doctors if necessary. It will have the ability to instantly find the most popular or prominent health issue amongst DataMed’s clinic and provide services and marketing campaign specific to this issue. It is also important to understand the preferences of appointments of the patients, the CRM will provide the option to look for optimal times and dates for scheduling. The CRM software can also be used to identify and reward loyal customers over a period of time.This enables DataMed to create a more personal relationship with their patients.

We also propose linking DataMed’s website to the database to provide online appointment booking, transactions, and an online community platform which includes an online chat. This makes learning, interacting, and connecting with DataMed easier, extending the ‘appointment’ with patients, and a chance to increase the number of patients.

The limitations of the CRM is that it will not provide the best prediction of the needs of the patient(s). For, the patient’s health state is constantly changing.
For example, a patient may have a history of low cholesterol, but all they need is a flu shot.