DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT RELATIONSHIPS WITH PATIENTS AS A FACTOR OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF HEALTHCARE INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

In today’s healthcare sector, in which the influence of competition is very important, there is a need to collect information about current and potential patients to provide them with adequate healthcare services. The more efficient the service that healthcare organizations provide to their patients, the step further will be made in retaining patients and their loyalty. Systems of managing relations with patients (Customer Relationship Management - CRM) provide healthcare organizations complete solution for managing of patient care. One of the most interesting aspects in healthcare is the question how to manage relations between givers and receivers of healthcare services. CRM for healthcare contains a number of software products which will help healthcare organizations to maintain efficient relations with their patients. CRM solutions are focused on helping healthcare organizations to prepare suggestions and proces applications in faster and more accurate manner, as well as to understand the needs and habits of their patients in order to give then better services on time-efficient manner. CRM concept ensures that marketing policy of the healthcare organization is in accordance with market needs. Adequate CRM system gives a healthcare organization a chance to win over patients as well as to maintain relations with them. Primary task for managers in healthcare sector is to create an insight into patient perception on service quality as well as their appropriate sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The role of informations in creating competitive advantage for CRM business strategy for healthcare institutions is crucial. Quality of information is necessary for it to be useful in creating competitive advantage, information must be accurate and accessible to all who need it. CRM systems for healthcare provide services for sale, marketing and demands of customer services to the biggest healthcare organizations. CRM system covers all the processes that healthcare organization uses to organize and monitor interactions with potential or current patients, while with the use of CRM tools it is enabled to efficiently advertise healthcare services that organization provides. This paper points that necessary requirement of efficient use of CRM is that healthcare organizations must know needs of their patients, which is accomplished with collecting and analyzing data about patient preferences and behaviors and this way it is allowed to get competitive advantage. Corporate image, patient satisfaction and their loyalty can help health institutions to participate in market competition in a highly competitive environment.