Salesforce Health Cloud | Ultimate Guide

Alice M.

Hawk-eye editor with a passion for trailblazing Salesforce experiences

Updated: Jan 9th, 2025

Health Cloud was released in 2016 and it is one of Salesforce’s Industry Clouds – a solution tailored to a specific vertical. Health Cloud leverages the best of Salesforce CRM and AI to provide industry-tailored features that can benefit providers, government agencies, pharmaceuticals, research institutions, medical device manufacturers, and other organizations in the world of healthcare. The intent of Health Cloud is to provide a 360-degree view of every patient for personalized treatment and more efficient, transparent medical processes. In this article, we walk through Salesforce Health Cloud implementations, features, and pricing to give you the ultimate guide to this modern healthcare solution.

What is Salesforce Health Cloud?

As mentioned in the introduction, Health Cloud is one of Salesforce’s Industry Clouds designed to put patients’ needs first while minimizing manual effort on the part of healthcare providers and institutions. In the realm of healthcare, every moment counts and time saved can mean the difference between performing life-saving work or not. Similarly, securing PHI (Protected Health Information) is paramount. While automation in healthcare can improve patient experience, it cannot be at the cost of compromising the security of personal data. This is where Salesforce’s Health Cloud really does have the winning combination of CRM + Data + AI + Trust, being fully compliant with all leading healthcare frameworks (including HIPAA) while still being able to automate routine tasks at scale, and of course, retaining the personal touch for quality patient care. By leveraging Health Cloud, providers can implement tailored and trustworthy end-to-end patient management. Health Cloud extends Service Cloud (established in 1999) features into the healthcare industry and works with open APIs for ease of integration with EHRs (Electronic Health Records) and devices.

Salesforce Health Cloud Pricing

Here are the basics of Health Cloud Pricing:

Enterprise: $325 per user per month

Unlimited: $500 per user per month

Health Cloud Einstein 1 for Service: $700 per user per month

Health Cloud Einstein 1 for Sales: $700 per user per month

The edition you choose will depend on the specific needs of your healthcare organization. For example, if you want integration with Data Cloud for Health, then you will need to purchase Einstein 1 for Service or purchase this as an add-on. In addition, if you want access to all Enterprise edition features but also want unlimited online training, support, and more than 100 admin services, then purchasing the unlimited edition is right for you. In general, if you are looking for Einstein 1 AI features for your Health Cloud, then you will need to choose Einstein 1 for Service or Sales.

While Health Cloud is a transformative product, it doesn’t come cheap. It can add up depending on the number of users you require and also on the training hours required to upskill on implementation. We suggest you factor in both the time and budget required before investing in this solution.

Salesforce Health Cloud Features

Health Cloud has a range of robust features to streamline processes for patients and providers. Let’s look at some of the top ones below.

Patient Profile Management

With Salesforce Health Cloud, you can create patient profiles. This enables you to link advanced therapy management, EHR data, assessments, medication history, and other relevant data to a unified patient profile. With Health Cloud, organizations now have access to Patient 360 for a complete view of every single patient.

Care Coordination

Patient Care Coordination, a core feature of Patient 360, is managed via Slack. It empowers healthcare organizations and care teams to work together to address patient issues and cases. Via Slack, care workers, and institutions can access relevant apps and pool resources to efficiently map out the best possible care plans for patients. In Slack, these workflows and messages are fully secure.

Engagement Console

The Health Cloud console is available in Enterprise and Unlimited versions of Salesforce Health Cloud. It enables healthcare organizations to better customize the process of managing patients. For example, you have the ability to customize the view of healthcare timelines and events, create tailored life events for specific patients, translate Health Cloud labels, and make icons so that your users can better interpret patient data. The customization abilities in Health Cloud console drive engagement in healthcare workers so that they may more efficiently and accurately carry out care plans for patients. Given this is a managed package, it does have some limits in terms of customization, but it can go a long way to making patient care more intuitive to users.

Healthcare Analytics

Healthcare analytics are readily available in Health Cloud. Einstein Analytics for healthcare work with the power of AI to provide accurate predictions, improve patient experience, and streamline the financial performance of healthcare institutions. Similarly, Health Cloud leverages Tableau (data visualization software) accelerators to create pre-built, easy-to-understand dashboards. With Tableau accelerators, organizations can view complicated information such as referral data in a single glance.

Connected Devices and IoT Integration

Using Health Cloud you can connect patient devices to the Cloud, and use data from the so-called “Internet of things” in your Salesforce. By connecting devices to Health Cloud, providers can track patient biometrics and overall health. Devices can be connected relatively simply in Salesforce and you have the ability to ship devices to patients. Depending on the device, in some instances, you might require custom development to connect to your cloud.

Referral Management

With Salesforce Health Cloud, your organization can work with personalized referral management for top-tier patient care. To use referral management, you will need to have an Enterprise or Unlimited Edition of Health Cloud. This feature is aligned with the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) R4 clinical model. FHIR standards enable healthcare information to be easily and securely shared between different computers and storage systems. With referral management for Health Cloud, your organization can set up custom referral flows and a referral management app where you can view full referral analytics. In addition, you can set up appointments and care plans while supplying secure referral forms to guest users. The result is that patients experience the most efficient, secure, and caring referral process.

Telehealth Integration and Virtual Care

With custom development, you can connect Health Cloud to telehealth for telephonic service. However, in our era of Zoom, Teams, and TikTok, the Virtual Care feature of Health Cloud is arguably the most effective. This is available with Enterprise and Unlimited Editions of Health Cloud with a Video Calls Add-On license. With Virtual Care, providers can speak to patients regardless of geographical location and provide quality care from anywhere in the world. Virtual Care is relatively straightforward to set up and you can enhance the experience for patients by creating a self-service website where users can schedule their own virtual appointments. For this, you will likely need a combination of Experience Cloud and custom development.

Personalized Care Plans

With Salesforce Health Cloud, you have the ability to create personalized care plans based on the unique needs of every patient. This includes setting patient goals and monitoring progress. Health Cloud also offers Integrated Care Management for fully personalized care plans. This Integrated Care Management feature enables healthcare workers and institutions to manage several care plans and patient profiles with all the most accurate and up-to-date information on every patient. If you are able to connect your Health Cloud to Data Cloud for Health, you will be able to unify trapped patient data for a completely harmonized view of their entire profile – this includes nonclinical data to better understand the patient and develop custom care plans.

HIPAA Compliance and Security

Health Cloud (like all Salesforce products) adheres to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which is a US federal law setting the standard on how personal health information (PHI) and medical records can be best handled.

Mobile Accessibility

Health Cloud is accessible via your mobile device and is compatible with social media platforms.

Salesforce Health Cloud Documentation

For official Health Cloud documentation, visit the Salesforce website. This list of FAQS is especially useful. It is important to remember that Salesforce Health Cloud (alongside other Salesforce products) is continually undergoing improvements and enhancements so be sure to watch Salesforce release notes for major updates and changes. Salesforce release notes come out four times a year.

Salesforce Health Cloud Data Model

The Health Cloud Data model is a flexible architecture designed to bring standard objects and custom objects (tailored to the realm of healthcare) together in one central location. Within this Data Model, key information such as patient demographics, records of care plans, ad other personal health information is stored. This data model also encompasses EHR (Electronic Health Records).

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Disclaimer: The comparisons listed in this article are based on information provided by the companies online and online reviews from users. If you found a mistake, please contact us.