LUTHERAN SENIOR SERVICES: SALESFORCE IMPLEMENTATION

SALESFORCE SOLUTION ENABLES ORGANIZATION TO DELIVER BETTER CARE

Lutheran Senior Services has a 150-year history of creating opportunities for older adults to reach their utmost potential. From its 19 locations across Missouri and Illinois, the organization provides a full range of services, including affordable housing, in-home care, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. A fundamental element of the organization’s mission is to deliver both quality and value, both to its constituents as well as to the hospitals, insurance companies and governmental agencies with which it partners. Salesforce, backed by XTIVIA, is one tool that Lutheran Senior Services relies on to deliver on its promises.

Need to Measure and Monitor

While the organization has long sought to monitor and measure its performance, it wasn’t until the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began to penalize hospitals for readmissions that Lutheran Senior Services recognized the value of a formal monitoring system. “We wanted to formally measure our patients’ outcomes,” explains Nancy Dorr, Director of Provider Relations for Lutheran Senior Services. “We saw it as a tool we could use both from a quality control standpoint, and also to help us build stronger relationships with our customers and patients.”

A Partner Who Understands

A colleague introduced Dorr to the team at XTIVIA, and she was quickly impressed with their capabilities and approach to the challenge. “They rapidly worked to understand our business model and the goals we had for the system. The solution they recommended was Salesforce. This is certainly not a traditional use for a CRM application, but XTIVIA was able to tailor the system to meet our organization’s needs.”

Salesforce is a cloud-based application, which offers the advantage of requiring minimal IT resources and delivering anytime, anywhere access. “It is a quick and nimble system,” says Dorr, “and it works very well for us.” As a Salesforce CRM consuling firm, XTIVIA was a great fit.

A Higher Level of Care

As a patient is discharged from one of Lutheran Senior Services facilities, a record is created in Salesforce, including vital patient monitoring data such as the date of discharge, diagnosis, prescribed medication and physician instructions. Alerts are automatically set within Salesforce to remind staff to call the discharged patient and check on their wellbeing.

Gathering Critical Care Data

XTIVIA built survey questionnaires within Salesforce to assist the registered nurses who make follow-up phone calls to patients. The surveys help to gather the information necessary for Lutheran Senior Services to determine whether the patient is recovering well or in need of additional services and support.

“Through these phone calls, we’ve been able to identify and help patients obtain any additional care and services they need. Without this type of follow-up, it’s possible the individuals may have had to be readmitted to the hospital or care facility,” says Dorr. “We’ve also identified opportunities to introduce individuals to our long-term care facility, when their situation warranted that type of move.”

Creating a Caring Connection

“In addition to addressing our obvious concern for patients’ health, these phone calls create an opportunity to make a caring difference in each individual’s life. In one case, our callers worked to find a prized photograph that had been left behind in the facility. Sometimes it’s the seemingly small things like this that have the most impact. Without this system of tracking and monitoring, we might miss an opportunity to create a caring connection.”

In the near future, Dorr expects that hospitals and insurance providers will demand the type of metrics Lutheran Senior Services now gathers through Salesforce. “For example, we can graph the number of patients readmitted within a specified time period, from which hospitals, and track which physicians are involved,” she says. “This is increasingly valuable data as providers are required to be more accountable for their patients’ outcomes.”

Setting the Standards High with Salesforce for Nonprofits

“The most rewarding aspect of this project was how our initial solution for the client opened up additional avenues that helped create goodwill and future opportunities with their patients, while still ensuring that the intended purpose was met with the Salesforce configuration,” adds Brent Clark, XTIVIA consultant. “Organizations in this industry that are not actively tracking this kind of information are going to fall quickly behind,” notes Dorr. “Salesforce is the vehicle we use to track and measure our performance, and XTIVIA is our trusted partner.”

To find out more about our Salesforce consulting service, get in touch!

XTIVIA needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at anytime, read our Privacy Policy here.