Serving more than 1 million individuals every year, Inova Health System (Inova) is Northern Virginia’s leading not-for-profit healthcare provider. Through its six hospitals, outpatient facilities and healthcare centers around the region, Inova’s 17,000 employees provide the community with expert, world-class, compassionate patient care. Consistently acknowledged for its outstanding care, its Fairfax Hospital has been ranked one of America’s Best Hospitals 12 times by U.S. News & World Report. The organization received the National Research Center’s Consumer Choice Award for the Washington D.C. area four years in a row and has made Working Mother’s magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers for seven years running. Inova invests in its facilities, its staff, its patients and its communities. To measure and improve the results of that investment, the organization turns to Strategic Sales Systems and Sage SalesLogix.
 
No Centralized Data
 
Physicians are the number one referral source for Inova’s hospitals, so their satisfaction is of critical importance to the organization. Inova employs Physician Liaisons who work to strengthen these physician relationships through active communication and responsive action. Just one year ago, though, Inova had no formal tools in place to track these valuable relationships.
 
“Our Physician Liaisons each kept their own notes and details of their interactions with physicians,” recalls Jeff Carr, senior director of sales and growth for Inova. “The organization had no visibility into the contacts made with our 4,000+ physicians and no central database to log and track service issues the physicians reported.”
 
A Prescription For Success
 
In 2008, as part of a renewed sales and growth initiative, Inova sought to implement a centralized solution that staff in all locations could access. The solution would standardize the way it tracks physician relationships and would allow it to manage service issues and help form stronger relationships with its referring physicians.
 
“Sage SalesLogix, represented by Strategic Sales Systems, is the tool we selected,” says Carr. “Strategic Sales Systems is a highly capable business partner and they understand the healthcare industry. They have developed a series of customizations to the software that we were able to use and build on to create a solution that has turned out to be perfect for us.”
 
The Support component of Sage SalesLogix has proven ideal for tracking issues or complaints from physicians. “We now create a Ticket for each dissatisfier and record all the details about business unit, department and other relevant data,” explains Carr. “The Ticket data is automatically routed by e-mail to our operations personnel for follow-up and resolution.”
 
Boost Service Levels
 
Carr says that Sage SalesLogix has enabled Inova to track service issues and identify areas for improvement—leading to better service for its physicians and patients. “As a result of the data we draw from the software, we’ve been able to take action, such as reallocating personnel to boost our resources and consequently we have improved our level of service. Our physicians appreciate that we’re giving their issues the attention they deserve.”
 
Inova also uses the software to track the number of referrals and the nature of those referrals.
 
“We can identify trends, such as an increase of referrals in a certain specialty area or a decrease in another area,” says Carr. “By analyzing these patterns, we are able to better understand where our business is coming from.”
 
Build Strong Relationships
 
Sage SalesLogix serves as a practical scheduling, e-mail and communications tool for Inova. The Physician Liaisons rely on it to schedule appointments, track their tasks and record the details of their calls and visits with physicians. Strategic Sales Systems configured the software to hold the details of these relationships, such as specialties, birthdays and hobbies that help Inova build strong relationships. Today, each Physician Liaison carries a laptop and wireless card, giving them the ability to connect with the Sage SalesLogix database from anywhere.
 
“Each Physician Liaison works with an average of 300 physicians, sometimes visiting five in a day, so having a communications tool to help them stay organized and focused is imperative,” says Carr.
 
Measure and Monitor
 
Strategic Sales Systems has given Inova the ability to measure and monitor the activities of the Physician Liaisons. “Liaisons are expected to communicate with every physician on a quarterly basis and now they have the tools to track those visits. Plus, the organization has the tools to hold them accountable,” says Carr.
 
An Ideal Partner
 
Carr praises the business relationship Inova has developed with Strategic Sales Systems. “They understand the hospital business and the data-intensive drivers of our industry. As a result they’ve helped us tailor the system to get the data and results we wanted. They are a pleasure to work with.”