Healthcare - Image Source Pixabay/GeraltThe industry is moving towards an inclusive coordination of all involved in a patient’s health from doctors, nurses, payers, but, also increasingly so, family members. The transition to customer management is needed as it also marks patients coming of age in a digital era. We have seen this transition happening in other industry sectors.

Easterseals Bay Area (ESBA), a provider of behavioural health services and a founding member of one of the largest behavioural health networks in the U.S., has brought this vision to life in the healthcare industry. It did so by deploying the Salesforce Health Cloud service and the wider Salesforce Cloud portfolio. The organisation has been one of the first to go live with donor management capability on the Salesforce platform and has implemented and deployed a range of capabilities that puts it ahead of what has been achieved by others using Salesforce in this field.

“We are pioneering new ways of delivering services to people in our communities which takes a tremendous amount of innovation and is an exciting opportunity. Today, we’re serving thousands of clients in the Bay Area that just a few years ago were in the hundreds. To be able to scale to meet these needs we require technologies such as Salesforce which we are using as one of the main platforms because of its flexibility.” Robert Van Tuyl, Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), Easterseals Bay Area (ESBA)

Trailblazing credentials

CIC’s case study on ESBA’s use of Salesforce Health Cloud showcases how in partnership with Salesforce and implementing Salesforce’s Health Cloud solution, ESBA developed a connected platform that enables the organization to:

  • Perform actions and execute work that needs to be done but which was not automated.
  • Automate the management of its network of individual practitioners and company providers and the complex care regime that it offers.
  • Articulate more effectively and distinctly its capabilities and services.
  • Deliver a comprehensive care and management service with the capabilities of the digital technologies available to meet the expectations of customers today and in the future.
  • Align with a healthcare sector that is transitioning from a patient-centred operation to a customer-focused engagement and experience model.
  • Make progress through digital advancement particularly through the support for electronic signatures for every appointment made with its network of practitioners all of which goes to support process automation and paperless engagement.
  • Provide accessible, frictionless, secure and compliant interactions between patients and its care team network.
  • Be a trailblazer for future progression with the support of advanced features such as smart analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) services.

Societal impact that validates the technological use case

Perhaps the most significant value that ESBA is demonstrating with its implementation of Salesforce Health Cloud is the societal impact that the organisation is making. By way of evidence, ESBA is showing that providing behaviour health services for people with disabilities, for example, it can have a direct impact at both the personal and societal level. Creating such opportunities also has a positive impact on other people in the extended care team.

“When Easterseals [Bay Area] came on board, it was a blessing, a god send, now [that] we had help. It turned [around] our son, who was just oppressed and upset and frustrated and angry all the time, to now start living again.” Mother of a young client of ESBA

The combination of enabling its patient customers to achieve greater levels of independence and higher states of happiness has an inherent positive impact on society. ESBA is seeking to obtain greater interactions from parents and approved caretakers, all of whom show excitement and a willingness to participate, demonstrates an organisation with vision and support for transformation.

In time, ESBA’s connected, integrated care management systems and operational transformation will allow it to serve thousands effectively and tell a better story of enhanced engagement.

In this regard ESBA has been deservedly rewarded with the 2017 Salesforce Healthcare Trailblazer Award.

About CIC ESBA Case Study

Read CIC’s study to gain an in-depth guide to how ESBA leveraged Salesforce Health Cloud to transform itself from a pure provider of behavioural health services into a supplier of network management capabilities.

Crucially, the case study offers a business and technical blueprint for the efficient and effective management of a network of distributed services and providers within a healthcare environment using the core Salesforce platform and, in particular, Salesforce Health Cloud.


CIC logoCreative Intellect Consulting is an analyst research, advisory and consulting firm founded by Bola Rotibi, an experienced and renowned expert analyst in the field of software development, delivery and lifecycle management processes, technologies and tools.

The blog was written by Bola Rotibi and Cornelia Wels-Maug. It was first published by Creative Intellect Consulting and is reused here with permission.

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