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5 Strategies for Building Lasting Client Customer Relationships

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In today’s dynamic business landscape, creating lasting customer relationships is more important than ever. In my role as the Chief Experience Officer at Interlace Health, I have the privilege of leading our efforts that ultimately strive to place people over paperwork. From my two decades of experience in the healthcare IT industry, I’ve learned that building long-term customer retention is a combination of mutual trust, passion, dedication, and a commitment to excellence.  

Listed below are 5 essential steps that, I believe, have enabled us at Interlace Health to build long-term client relationships over the past 32 years that have contributed to our 97.4% customer retention rate. 

 

Step 1: No Matter What, Put People First  

At Interlace Health, our mission is clear: we put people over paperwork. We provide healthcare organizations with forms automation solutions that simplify processes, enable electronic signature capture, and create workflows that save time and reduce costs. But the key to our success is listening to our customers. We understand that while we offer electronic solutions, many organizations still rely on paper-based processes. It’s about meeting our customers where they are and addressing their unique needs today.  

We work hard to be a true partner to our customers. We strive to understand their priorities so we can build strong, long-lasting relationships and help them achieve sustained success. This starts by providing a hands-on partnership and support during every step of their journey with us. Our customers can rely on us when things are working well, but more so when things aren’t going as expected. For example, during the COVID pandemic, we ensured that all Interlace Health operations continued unaffected, fully staffed in services and support teams, with the ability to continue implementing critical projects and to provide enhanced customer support for those customers who were up and running. For some customers, we became their IT department when their internal staff couldn’t effectively support their Interlace Health solutions. We had customers relying on us to help set up COVID testing units in different areas throughout the hospital. In addition to technical support, our implementation team, who has always operated with robust remote capabilities, were ready and enabled to continue working on critical project implementations at a time when customers needed automated digital workflows the most.  

  

Step 2: Build a Dedicated & Caring Support Team 

Behind every technological solution lies a specialized support team. I believe in the power of personalized and attentive support to customers. We’ve built our product support team from the ground up, focusing on what makes our customers stay with us—highly engaged customer support. These individuals are the backbone of our success, working tirelessly to maintain a consistent level of service quality and support standards to ensure our customers have what they need to thrive. 

In times of crisis, such as the COVID pandemic, our support team was ready to provide enhanced support services to our customers who needed assistance beyond regular technical support. When a customer needed to set up workstations and printers along with the creation of their intake forms under a tent in their parking lot for COVID testing, our support team quickly adapted to the customer’s needs and was instrumental in successfully managing the situation.    

 

Step 3: Embrace Feedback: Both the Good & the Bad 

Creating a culture of continuous improvement is vital. We’ve established a Customer Success Council of our most engaged and knowledgeable customers who advise us on our products, solutions, share best practices, and provide candid feedback. We also conduct surveys during and after implementation and hold quarterly check-in meetings to ensure we are adapting to our customers’ evolving needs. Their feedback and insights help us make informed decisions to improve our products and services which guide our path forward.   

Since the start of the council, our council members have served as a sounding board for proposed strategies, initiatives, or new product/service ideas. They bring fresh perspectives and creative ideas to the table, validating our plans and providing constructive criticism or suggestions for improvement. Our Customer Success Council has not only helped improve our current products and solutions, but has also helped shape Interlace Health’s new platform, Informed Consent Nova.  

 

Step 4: A Constant Focus on Innovation  

Innovation is at the heart of our approach. We’ve established a Managed Services Program that offers fully outsourced services to enhance efficiencies and assist customers with their workload. This has become a critical resource for many of our customers recently amid healthcare resources and budget constraints. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we faced unprecedented challenges, but we were prepared to respond.  

 Our focus, then and now, is to enhance customers’ delivery of patient care while increasing operational efficiencies among their valuable healthcare staff. It’s our mission to offer digital healthcare solutions and provide lasting support to customers while building strong relationships. 

  

Step 5: Remember: Customer Support Doesn’t Stop After Implementation 

Customer relationships don’t end after implementation; they deepen. We provide continuous support, working hard to validate that customers are getting value from their Interlace Health solutions and proactively address their needs and concerns. Even after our customers are comfortable with our solutions, we remain committed to their success. It’s about going the extra mile and being there when they need us most.  

Customer needs, preferences, and circumstances can change over time or instantaneously – as it did with COVID. We did everything we could for our customers during COVID times to allow them to continue delivering patient care while we focused on their operational needs and effectively supported their Interlace Health solutions.  

Building long-term customer retention is not just about offering products or services; it’s about building meaningful and lasting connections. At Interlace Health, we’ve embraced these five essential steps—putting people first, building a dedicated support team, embracing feedback, offering innovative solutions, and committing to continuous support. With a relentless focus on customer satisfaction, we’ve achieved a 97.4% customer retention rate and look forward to continuing long-term partnerships with our customers.  

 

 

About the Author:

Maggie Peña is the chief experience officer at Interlace Health (the next generation of FormFast), a 30-year-old privately held healthcare IT firm that helps healthcare organizations put people over paperwork with forms automation solutions that enable electronic signature capture and create workflows that save time and cut costs. She brings 22 years of experience in IT to her role and leads one-third of Interlace Health’s employees.

With a fierce focus on customer satisfaction and retention, Maggie created and built Interlace Health’s customer support team and its customer implementation strategy, she built out the company’s fully Spanish-speaking team for project implementation and ongoing customer support, and she has managed the company’s managed services program to create efficiencies for customers. She believes in a proactive approach to customer service, and it shows, with happy and successful customers. Interlace Health provides workflow solutions to 1500+ healthcare organizations and under Maggie’s leadership, Interlace Health currently has a 97.4% customer retention rate. Maggie serves as co-leader for the HIMSS Clinician Burden Reduction Task Force and was recently named to Becker’s 2023 Women in Health IT to Know list.

 

 

 

Embracing a Collaborative Mindset: Revolutionizing Healthcare Technology Through Partnerships

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Let’s face it, healthcare technology can be a real headache. From navigating complex electronic health records (EHR), to trying to engage patients in their own care, it can feel like an uphill battle.    

Healthcare technology has come a long way, from clunky systems to the cutting-edge digital solutions we have today. But how did we get here?   I think to answer that question accurately, it is important to first understand why and how we got to the place we are at today. I believe it boils down to a multitude of things: regulatory requirements, interoperability mandates, and the need for innovation, just to name a few. But overall, it was and still is just a simple need.  A need to be better, a need to improve.  So, how did we get here? I believe the answer to that is tied to strategic partnerships and the rise of third-party vendor integrations. 

Certainly, regulations have helped ensure that disparate systems communicate and share information, but it is oftentimes the sub-components of these systems that are sometimes seen as an afterthought that I am most interested in.  Third-party vendors often have solutions that fill a specific need, a specific use case that is a component of the patient journey or care continuum.  Alone they are just a piece of the puzzle, but together with other technologies, they can create more efficient and cost-effective solutions. 

MEDITECH, a leading EHR vendor, announced its Alliance program earlier this year with a goal to create a better ecosystem of solution vendors to support their health system clients. Interlace Health was named an Innovation Partner, providing the ability for a deeper integration between our eSignature solutions and the Meditech Expanse EHR. As a result, nurses, doctors, and patients will get a seamless workflow when completing registration, consenting, and discharge documentation. 

But customers are looking for all their vendors’ products to work well together – not simply work with the EHR. At the MEDITECH Live 2023 event, a Midwestern CIO shared this request: “I need all of you guys (3rd party vendors) to work well together so my patients and doctors have a hassle-free experience”. Along those lines, we are working with key members of the MEDITECH ecosystem, including Forward Advantage, to make sure that our solutions are not only compatible with each other but that the workflows are optimized. 

 Bottom line, the Healthcare Technology industry needs partnerships to help ensure improvement and innovation continue.  Partnerships with, and among, third-party vendors provide the extra boost of support and expertise that can make all the difference.   There is not one size fits all.  This is no truer now than it will be in the future; gaps in functionality exist and will probably continue to exist.  Which is why partnerships are so important.  To create a full-scale solution, one that fits the needs of each unique organization, it is crucial that technology vendors have partnerships that enable them to work together in a united front.  

With these partnerships, healthcare organizations can access cutting-edge technology, gain valuable insights, and tap into specialized knowledge and experience. 

  

 

About the Author:

Kristin Shores is a results-driven Strategic Partner Executive with a proven track record of cultivating and nurturing high-value partnerships that drive business growth and innovation. With over a decade of experience in the field, Kristin’s expertise lies at the intersection of relationship-building, strategic planning, and business development. As a strategic thinker, Kristin leverages her comprehensive knowledge of market trends and emerging technologies to craft innovative partnership strategies that position her organizations at the forefront of their respective industries. Her ability to adapt to evolving market landscapes and pivot with agility has been instrumental in delivering sustainable growth.”

 

 

 

How Automating Discharge Acknowledgement Forms Can Benefit U.S. Hospitals 

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Over 34 million discharges occur from US hospitals each year (Statista). Each of those discharges requires a discharge acknowledgement form that a patient or their representative sign when they leave a hospital. These forms serve various purposes, such as informing patients of their rights, responsibilities, and follow-up care instructions, as well as obtaining consent for the release of medical records and billing information. Discharge acknowledgement forms are also important for hospitals, as they can help prevent disputes, lawsuits, and audits, as well as improve patient satisfaction and outcomes. 

However, creating and managing discharge acknowledgement forms can be a tedious and time-consuming task for hospital staff. Nurses often have to manually fill out the forms with patient information, print them, obtain signatures, scan them, and store them securely. This process can be prone to errors, delays, and inefficiencies, which can negatively affect the quality of care and the revenue cycle of the hospital. 

This spring I had the chance to visit one of our customers, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and got to see how they are using our software to simplify and streamline this process: automating discharge acknowledgement forms. By providing their nurses iPads loaded with our software, they have eliminated a series of menial tasks for that valuable staff. In addition to saving staff time and eliminating the costs associated with paper, the solution provides additional benefits: 

  • Enhancing accuracy and compliance: Automating discharge acknowledgement forms can eliminate human errors and inconsistencies that may occur when filling out or processing the forms. This can ensure that the forms are accurate, complete, and compliant with the relevant laws and regulations. It can also make it easier to track and audit the forms in case of any disputes or inquiries. 
  • Improving patient experience and engagement: Automating discharge acknowledgement forms can provide patients with a more convenient and user-friendly way of signing the forms. They can use tablets provided by the hospital to sign the forms electronically without having to deal with paper copies, clipboards and pens. They can also receive copies of the forms via email or text message for their records. This can improve patient satisfaction and loyalty, as well as encourage them to follow their discharge instructions and care plans. 

Nicklaus Children’s is not alone, as many of our over 1,100 hospital locations have deployed or are in the process of automating discharge acknowledgement forms. This workflow is just one of the many ways Interlace Health is helping our healthcare customers put #peopleoverpaperwork. 

 

About the Author:

Art Nicholas, Chief Commercial Officer at Interlace Health, has over 20 years of experience in launching and expanding technologies in the healthcare field. He was a pioneer in getting speech recognition used by both doctors and nurses in inpatient and outpatient settings. In every role, his teams have successfully implemented automated workflows which benefit patients, providers and the healthcare ecosystem. A strong believer in the healthcare IT community, he has been an active member of CHIME, HIMSS, and MUSE, sitting on a number of their committees. He is committed to improving the quality of patient care and lowering the cost of care delivery through well-designed and well-supported technology workflow solutions.

 

Learn how Nicklaus Children’s redeployed 4,914 hours of nurse time!

Read Success Story

 

 

CUSTOMER GROWTH: Magnolia Regional Health Center

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The Magnolia Regional Health Center will leverage Informed Consent and Check Printing

Magnolia Regional Health Center is a 200-bed acute care community hospital that is jointly owned by the City of Corinth and Alcorn County, Mississippi that is fully accredited by The Joint Commission. MRHC has been in existence since 1965 and has grown into the largest employer in Alcorn County. They even state “At Magnolia Regional Health Center, our focus and top priority is providing you with the highest quality care and patient experience.  Our team of medical professionals and staff members are dedicated to you and your health, and we strive daily to reach excellence in the care we provide.”

They are a current customer of Interlace Health. Magnolia Regional has been using eSignature at registration, Go for mobile signatures and Forms on Demand. The Magnolia Regional Health Center will leverage Informed Consent and Check Printing to enhance care processes in their Radiology, Ambulatory Surgery Center and LDRP departments that will complement their MEDITECH Expanse environment.

 

 

CUSTOMER GROWTH: Duncan Regional Hospital

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Long-time FormFast Customer Adds FormFast’s Mobile App to Enhance Informed Consent Processes

Duncan Regional Hospital has a state-wide reputation as one of the premiere Oklahoma hospitals for medical excellence, advanced technology and nationally recognized high levels of patient satisfaction. The hospital is located in southwest Oklahoma in the city of Duncan. Duncan Regional Hospital is a 138-bed nationally accredited hospital.

As part of their efforts to eliminate paper and the inefficient processes it brings, Duncan Regional Hospital implemented FormFast in 1999. Since that time, the technology has grown with the organization to touch all departments from nursing and registration, to human resources and beyond. The result has been a standardized eForm and workflow solution that the entire organization relies on.

As Duncan continues to grow in their relationship with FormFast, they will implement FormFast Capture & FormFast Go to complement their MEDITECH environment. In addition to automating their registration and bedside consents in the acute setting, FormFast will also be deploying informed consents in their same day surgery.

With FormFast Go clinical forms can be electronically displayed, completed, and e-signed via a mobile tablet at the point-of-care. Leveraging patient wristband scanning technology, the mobile app generates the right documents for the right patient in seconds. Upon completion, forms are instantly added to the EHR, eliminating the need to manually archive the documents.

View Duncan Regional Hospital’s Customer Success Story.

CUSTOMER GROWTH: Munson Healthcare – Manistee Hospital

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Munson Health Adds eSignature, Web FormImprint, and FormFast Go to their Main Facility and clinics as an integrated solution to their MEDITECH C/S Environment

Current FormFast customer, Munson Healthcare – Northern Michigan’s Leading Health Care System – is extending their use of FormFast technologies at their MEDITECH hospital.

Munson Healthcare is northern Michigan’s largest and leading health care system. Based in Traverse City, Mich., their team of medical experts, nine award-winning community hospitals, and related organizations serve people in 30 counties.

Munson Health will implement eSignature, Web FormImprint, and FormFast Go to their Main Facility and 6 of their clinics as an integrated solution to their MEDITECH C/S Environment.

 

 

 

CUSTOMER GROWTH: Alhambra Hospital Medical Center

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Alhambra Hospital Signs on for the Expansion of FormFast Products at the Hospital with the Addition of eSignature

Alhambra Hospital Medical Center strives to become one of the leading hospitals in the San Gabriel Valley by providing safe, integrated, affordable patient care and services, which will promote the health and well-being of our patients and our community.

Alhambra is expanding their use of FormFast technologies with the addition of FormFast eSignature. eSignature is FormFast’s solution for electronically signing electronic forms (or eForms).

Patients physically sign a digital signature device or a mobile tablet supporting electronic signature capabilities.  Their eSignature is applied to the eForms in real-time.  This provides a convenient, paperless alternative to paper-based consents. The e-signed documents are routed directly to the electronic medical record, accelerating the archival process.

 

CUSTOMER GROWTH: Conway Regional Health System

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Conway Regional Health System Adds FormFast Mobile App to Further Enhance Informed Consent Processes

Conway Regional Health System is proud to serve the people of central Arkansas by providing top quality medical care in a supportive environment. With more than 200 physicians on the medical staff, more than 1,200 employees and about 100 volunteers, Conway Regional is committed to making better health care a reality.

Conway is extending their relationship with FormFast to include FormFast Capture & FormFast Go to complement their MEDITECH environment, and enhance core proc

ess, such as informed consent.

With FormFast Go, clinical forms can be electronically displayed, completed, and e-signed via a mobile tablet at the point-of-care. Leveraging patient wristband scanning technology, the mobile app generates the right documents for the right patient in seconds. Upon completion, forms are instantly added to the EHR, eliminating the need to manually archive the documents.

 

NEW CUSTOMER: Cayman Islands Health Services Authority (HSA)

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Cayman Islands Health Services Authority Turns to FormFast to Streamline Registration and Bedside Consent Processes

The Mission of the Health Services Authority is to provide the highest quality healthcare and improve the well-being of people in the Cayman Islands through accessible, sustainable patient-focused services by highly-skilled, empowered and caring staff in collaboration with our partners. The Cayman Islands Health Services Authority provides care through th

e 124-bed Cayman Islands Hospital (104 inpatient and 20 observation beds) and the 18-bed Faith Hospital.

Cayman Islands Health Services Authority is implementing FormFast Go to enable clinical forms to be electronically displayed, completed, and e-signed via a mobile tablet at the point-of-care. This solution helps the hospital accelerate documentation, achieve more accurate form selection, and improve clinical workflow.

The Cerner hospital, will leverage FormFast eSignature and FormFast go to accelerate processes at registration and at the bedside with mobile eForm technology.

CUSTOMER GROWTH: Columbia Memorial Hospital

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Columbia Memorial Hospital Deploys FastPrint and eSignature

Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson is one of the most innovative and technically advanced facilities in the Hudson Valley. Over the last 10 years, the hospital has invested more than $51 million in new facilities and equipment improvements, including surgical instrumentation, patient information systems and medical imaging technologies. Highlights of their updated facilities include the state-of-the-art emergency and surgical departments, nine-bed Intensive Care Unit, and 71,300 square-foot office building and parking garage annex to make care easily accessible.

Columbia Memorial Hospital will be deploying FormFast’s FastPrint/eSignature bundle. Other solutions used by the hospital include FormCentral, Checks-AP/AR, and FormImprint. These solutions free up time and resources for the hospital, allowing it to better provide their communities with safe, high-quality, comprehensive health care services in a dignified and compassionate environment.

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