Managing customer relationships through E-business decision support applications: a case of hospital-physician collaboration

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a valuable concept for hospitals to establish long-term physician relationships. Given predetermined reimbur sement amounts, clinical interventions by physicians can significantly impa ct hospital profitability and quality. Therefore, disseminating quality and cost information to physicians can build lasting relationships, while insu ring financial stability. This paper presents a CRM approach adopted by a hospital through a web-base d Physician Profiling System (PPS). We discuss physician involvement in PPS development and present a high-level cost-benefit analysis. Post-deploymen t results indicate that PPS strengthened relationship with physicians, impr oved efficiency of clinical operations, while simultaneously improving pati ent satisfaction. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.