Wellstar builds stronger ties to patients through Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Cloud for Healthcare

Turning healthcare into people care 

In healthcare, data is critical to ensuring the best outcomes. The more that is known about a patient, the more accurate the diagnosis and the more targeted the treatment. However, collecting data is only part of the solution. Positive outcomes also rely on applying that data accurately to address the specific needs of individuals. 

That approach is what Wellstar Health System calls “PeopleCare,” which means delivering personalized expert care to the whole person. Wellstar is one of the largest and most integrated healthcare systems in Georgia, offering services in virtually all fields of medicine. As part of its “PeopleCare” approach, Wellstar gathers patient data from a wide group of sources, and then uses that data to define and perform effective follow-up actions customized to each person’s needs.

“The PeopleCare approach helps providers get to know their patients better,“ says Tyler Roy, Manager of Digital Performance at Wellstar Health System. “Getting to know what is important to individual patients, and what those patients may need to work on, helps build trust.”

In 2019, Wellstar was already using digital tools to build a record of patient engagement and care but found it challenging that these tools did not connect seamlessly together.

“One of the biggest challenges in healthcare data technology is that the data originates in numerous systems and platforms,” says Nick Yaitsky, Vice President, Head of Digital Platforms at Wellstar Health System. “Many of those data sources use common data formats but with different structures. Cross-referencing and unifying data from these systems can cause inconsistencies resulting in ambiguity and confusion. This is what we aim to solve with Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.”

A prescription for more effective data

The organization needed a way to unify all the data collected from multiple sources, clean it to resolve inconsistencies or errors, apply analytics to identify relevant data, and make it easily accessible to authorized clinical and business users. 

“Our intent as an organization is to treat every patient, every time, with the best possible care that they can receive,” says Yaitsky. “We’re not in a healthcare modality where a doctor can sit down with you and learn everything about your health and wellbeing in 20 minutes and then give you a prescription. To provide direct personalized care, we need to apply technology.” 

Rather than only treating the sick, Wellstar wants to pursue broader goals, like early detection and prevention to decrease patient hospitalization and costs and improve overall patient health. Patients’ clinical records are stored in the Epic electronic health record system, which provides a comprehensive clinical view of the patient. However, it is difficult to access that data to create workflows to automatically alert patients of the need for certain tests, vaccines, or preventive measures based on their specific health risks. 

In response, Wellstar launched the Omnichannel platform initiative to create a cohesive system that provides a 360-degree view of each patient. The solution collects data from all touch points—clinical, administrative, customer service, and digital engagement channels—and uses that information to personalize communications and care experiences for each individual. 

Gaining a 360-degree view of each person

Wellstar chose to build its Omnichannel solution on Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare because the platform meets healthcare-relevant compliance, security, and interoperability standards while helping providers improve the healthcare experience for both patients and medical teams. Cloud for Healthcare helps break down data silos while maintaining ultimate data privacy, thus enabling Wellstar to create personalized, automated processes to support its hyper-personalized PeopleCare model. These capabilities create actionable insights that help providers deliver better care faster and at a lower cost.

“Our vision is to use Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare capabilities to create a more holistic 360-degree picture of what a patient looks like, not just from their patient record, but also from their community, family, and activities,” says Yaitsky.

By bringing together Cloud for Healthcare with Epic, Wellstar is able to pull all patient information into a single view that providers can use to proactively respond to patients’ needs. This unified patient profile helps providers deliver personal recommendations that promote long-term health while also addressing the current situation. 

“From Epic, we push near-real-time and batch data into Cloud for Healthcare,” says Yaitsky. “We’re also tying in other data sources and data feeds around fitness and activity—for example, around SDOH (Social Determinants of Health)—to feed into this platform. Our intent is to create a holistic picture with the kinds of data that would not be present within that patient chart in Epic.”

Sending the right message at the right time

Wellstar’s first use case for Cloud for Healthcare is a marketing communication automation solution that focuses on proactive patient engagement. The solution uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to analyze data from the Epic system to create patient segments based on clinical data. That segment information is sent to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and then Dynamics 365 Marketing, which tailors a message to each situation and sends relevant information and action alerts to each patient through email. 

The system also provides behavioral information related to appointment and encounter data, such as the locations they visited and the physicians and specialties they engaged with, and even how far in advance they typically schedule routine appointments. All of this allows Wellstar to better tailor and time its messaging to patients. 

Wellstar uses a variety of tools included in Cloud for Healthcare to secure data at the program level, the business unit level, and the individual level and to provide an audit trail. “We designed our data ingestion process so that anything we're pulling into Customer Insights is HIPAA-compliant already,” says Roy. 

Broadening benefits within the organization

The second solution Wellstar launched in Cloud for Healthcare was a physician relationship management (PRM) system that went live in February 2023. This is used to streamline onboarding of new physicians and ensure their experience with the broader Wellstar System feels seamless, well-coordinated, and proactive. Next on the agenda is Provider Lifecycle Management, which will help patients receive more timely notification when their physician retires, or moves to a new location, and will help to improve the quality of general provider data. 

“The breadth of the Cloud for Healthcare platform is really exciting,” says Rob Zanin, Executive Director of Digital Consumer Products at Wellstar Health System. “We are able to use it to tackle business problems, clinical problems, and user experience problems.”

Focusing on individual needs

With Cloud for Healthcare, Wellstar is now able to better direct patients to necessary care based on real-world encounter and appointment data. It will continue to expand Wellstar’s ability to put together a full picture of patients that includes their patterns and preferences that weren’t included before.

“Through the ‘360 patient’ concept, we are establishing air traffic control for communications and the ability to intelligently adapt to a patient’s changing needs,” says Zanin. “This requires us to inventory and ingest each messaging source, modality, and type of communication a patient receives, and orchestrate prioritization using Customer Insights and Dynamics 365.” 

To expedite this process, Wellstar uses Epic’s CIS Registries to gain insight into large cohorts of patients and to set priorities. These registries hold data on large groups of patients that can be used to manage chronic disease and support clinical decisions. 

“Epic Registries is basically a series of diagnostic codes that indicate whether somebody’s at risk for certain conditions,” says Roy. “We can use that information to personalize communications saying, ‘OK, we know you’re at risk, but here’s some information on how you can mitigate that risk.”  

The ability to segment patient populations can also guide the volume and types of communications. “For example, if a patient is added to a ‘Cancer Population Registry,’ we can pause seasonal, loyalty, and nurture campaigns to that patient to ensure a zero-noise focus on that vital care journey,” says Zanin. 

Engaging patients more effectively

Because Wellstar can now see behavioral, appointment, encounter, and demographic data all in one place, it can help nudge patients to become more proactive in their engagement with healthcare. Dynamics 365 receives crucial, up-to-date information about Wellstar’s patient population from Epic, which enables the organization to reach out to at-risk parts of its community. 

“Using data from Dynamics 365, we can engage our patients with relevant, localized campaigns about urgent care, primary care, and specialty care for heart health, digestive health, and other targeted issues that benefit from screenings and early detection,” says Zanin. “We look for a variety of cues—both clinical and non-clinical—through Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 to guide message type, tone, and content.” 

A recent example is a campaign to convert patients from using urgent care facilities for primary care, to engaging with a primary care provider. “Since launching our urgent-care-to-primary-care campaign, we’ve seen our primary care appointment volume increase significantly, which helps improve patient care and their experience with us,” says Roy. 

Access to all relevant patient data in one highly secure place also helps customer service assist callers faster because they have better visibility into customer data. 

“The standout feature will be our ability to help a patient get on the phone with an expert when they need care, fast,” says Zanin. “And when they don’t want to talk to somebody, we can provide them with a speedy web interface that provides self-service elements that all feed back into the same system. That way, we don’t overload people with needless touch points.”

Closing gaps in care 

Wellstar also expects to improve its ability to identify where patients have gaps in care because they may not be fully aware of the coverage their insurance provides—especially for certain preventative screenings or procedures. 

“We’re always looking to better serve patients who may not realize that there are services available to them,” says Yaitsky. “Through the use of Dynamics 365, we’re able to close key care gaps by reaching out to people based on their specific needs and help them understand what they can or should do next to be healthier overall.”

Although still in the initial stages, the personalized care supported by Cloud for Healthcare is helping Wellstar fulfill its PeopleCare mission of addressing patients’ needs with personalized recommendations that promote long-term health. “With the unified picture of the patient provided through Cloud for Healthcare, we are able to reach out to patients proactively to help them take full advantage of all the services that are available to them,” says Yaitsky.

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