Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare brings the best from organizations around the world

For years, Microsoft has partnered with many healthcare organizations to envision and deliver on their digital future. These past few months brought on an unprecedented urgency, as healthcare organizations pivoted to manage the unexpected. We have learned together, how to rapidly adapt and innovate in healthcare, in response to crisis, and continuously improve operations and insights in times of change.

With the launch of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, we deliver enhanced capabilities and templates that build on our learnings, and tap the power of Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft 365. I’d like to share with you my perspective on the digital aspirations realized by our customers through solutions now available in the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare preview.

First, we work with healthcare organizations to re-think how they engage with patients. Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare builds on Dynamics 365 with customizable templates and data connections to manage the full patient-engagement lifecycle. Communications tools increase the relevance of prospective and current patient outreach by matching content to its intended segment. A patient engagement portal provides self-serve appointment booking, physician referrals, medical forms, and virtual agents, or bots, that assist patients as they navigate the portal. The patient management app supports call center staff with patient and care team details, wellness coaching, and more. The patient scheduling and screening template provides patients with COVID-19 self-assessments and helps them book and perform a COVID-19 screening.

These healthcare organizations are using their digital platforms to engage with patients in new ways:

  • Imagine if … you strengthen patient relationships and improve health outcomes—from the call center. Providence St. Joseph’s developed a new white-glove concierge service that has grown satisfaction as patients gain control of their medical conditions and outcomes. A new chatbot fields patient questions about coronavirus and symptoms, enabling Providence St. Joseph’s to maintain their level of service during this peak time. Read the full story.
  • Imagine if … you multiply your patient care capacity—and patient satisfaction. Helsinki University and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) launched a virtual hospital, comprised of a network of hospitals across southern Finland. Hosting 300,000 televisits per month, the digital platform multiplies specialty team capacity. Obstetrics grew its capacity five times for women who have healthy pregnancies without complications. The weight control specialty can see five times more patients, and the psychotherapists can treat three patients in the time it used to take to see one patient. ​On the heels of this success, the hospital has launched a new Coronabot for patients to self-assess for COVID-19, and receive specific, personalized instructions on next steps. Read the full story.

We are also working with healthcare organizations to launch digital platforms that enable care teams to collaborate, coordinate care, and generate insights. With Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform at its core, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare helps organizations simplify physician referral management, so that care teams and referral coordinators can evaluate the best referral option for a patient based on relevance, satisfaction, and other insights.

  • Imagine if … your coordinated care teams manage 10 times more patients while reaching outcomes that are double the national average. Clinicians at AiR Healthcare Solutions increased their behavioral mental health caseloads up to 10 times by coordinating care teams to realize personalized outreach and clinical care plans through their Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power BI-based digital platform. Their 12-month drug abstinence recovery rate is 72 percent, more than double the national average. Read the full story.
  • Imagine if … your coordinated care teams identify life-threatening conditions in real time. St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN), with 10 hospitals and 200 sites, recently launched a pilot program to reduce the likelihood of pulmonary embolisms. With their digital platform in place, the organization leveraged Power Platform to create an app that collects blood pressure and compression-sleeve wear-time compliance data, and analyzes it in a Power BI dashboard. Data monitoring frequency increased from bi-weekly to real-time, and executives and unit managers can now identify patients most at risk. Read the full story.

We also worked with healthcare organizations to find new ways to improve clinical and operational data insights using Dynamics 365 and Power Platform together to share timely information and make data-driven decisions.

  • Imagine if … you increase timely discharges and reduce readmissions, overnight. Northwell Health is an integrated healthcare delivery network in the New York City area with 23 hospitals, nearly 800 outpatient facilities, and 72,000 employees. Their Power Platform-based app streamlines complex workflows and communicates important patient updates such as test results. It also keeps the care teams aware of what is required to discharge each patient in a timely manner and reduce the likelihood of readmission. Managers allocate staff and other resources for each floor by using a Power BI dashboard that aggregates the individual patient data. Read the full story.

What are your digital aspirations? Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare brings together trusted and integrated capabilities for customers and partners that enhance patient engagement, empower health team collaboration, and improve clinical and operational data insights. Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is available for a free trial over the next six months. See the launch during the Microsoft Healthcare Summit, watch a demo, or learn more about the preview.