Importancia de los Customer Relationship Management (CRM) sanitarios en las pandemias y alertas sanitarias

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to demonstrate the importance of the role a health CRM can play in a pandemic or health alert. During the influenza-A pandemic, Salud Responde played a very important role. Its main objective was to establish protocols and citizens advice lines that would avoid patients with mild influenza-A symptoms going to health centre. DESIGN: A triage system was developed around the Siebel CRM (software tool) to achieve this objective. This allowed the Salud Responde staff to establish the severity of the patient depending on the symptoms and the risk factors of the patient, as well as being able to inform, give health advice or refer the patient to medical centres if necessary. SETTING: All patients (a total of 56,497) who were attended by Salud Responde within its influenza-A service portfolio have been included. PARTICIPANTS: Patients who were attended by Salud Responde. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: The data have been extracted from the Salud Responde data base. RESULTS: Salud Responde attended to 56,497 patients during the influenza-A pandemic, of whom 48,287 patients did not require health care. CONCLUSIONS: Salud Responde attended to 56,497 patients, of whom 48,287 patients did not require health care. Apart from any financial savings that this could entail, it contributed to minimising the pandemic, avoiding the patient having to go to a health centre to receive medical care or information, and prevented, to a great extent, the flooding of casualty departments.