Introduction

A healthcare CRM is the system your team uses to manage the relationship and operational workflows around care: referrals, intake, patient and family communication, follow-ups, tasks, and service requests. It is not an EHR. It sits alongside your EHR and other systems, helping run the non-clinical journey consistently.

TL;DR

• If you are a large provider group or payer with complex data and multiple systems, an enterprise CRM is common (example: Salesforce).

• If you are Epic-first and want CRM capabilities tightly tied to Epic workflows, Epic Systems offers Cheers.

• If your biggest pain is operations around care (referrals, intake, portals, staff workflows) and you need flexibility, building a custom healthcare CRM on Tadabase is often the fastest path to “exactly what we do here,” without buying an entire suite.

What “healthcare CRM” actually means

Most definitions converge on the same idea: a healthcare CRM centralizes relationship and interaction data, then automates the workflows that turn that information into action (outreach, follow-ups, reminders, service, coordination).

A practical definition you can use internally:

A healthcare CRM is the operating system for patient, family, and referral relationships.
It tracks who someone is, how they entered your funnel, what they need next, who owns the next step, and what happens if they do not respond.

Healthcare CRM vs EHR or EMR

• EHR/EMR stores clinical records and documentation.

• Healthcare CRM runs the relationship journey and operational workflow around care (referral sources, campaigns, intake status, communications, service tickets, tasks, and coordination). 

When a healthcare CRM pays off fastest

You feel the need for a CRM when any of the following becomes true:

1. Referrals leak
   Leads or referrals arrive, but follow-up is inconsistent, and you cannot see where things stall.

2. Intake is a handoff mess
   Eligibility checks, documents, benefits, authorizations, forms, scheduling, and reminders live across email and spreadsheets.

3. You need segmentation
   Different populations need different journeys (new patient vs returning, pediatrics vs adults, ABA vs home health, language preferences, payer type).

4. You need consistent communication
   Text/email/calls must be coordinated, logged, and permissioned.

5. Service is overloaded
   Call volume and portal messages are high; you need routing, SLAs, and queues.

Core healthcare CRM features that matter

Most vendor lists include many features. The ones that reliably drive outcomes are:

Patient and referral record model

• Contacts, households, referral sources, facilities, payers

• Relationship mapping (who referred whom, which facility, which physician group)

Journey and pipeline tracking

• Stages like: New referral → contact made → documents pending → benefits verified → scheduled → active → discharged

• Ownership, due dates, and blockers per stage

Communication history and templates

• Central timeline of messages, calls, and notes

• Templates by scenario (missed appointment, missing docs, referral source updates)

Workflow automation

• If/then routing rules (payer type, service line, region)

• Auto tasks, reminders, escalation, follow-ups

Portals and permissions

• Patient or family portal (forms, status, document upload)

• Referral source portal (submit referral, track status)

• Staff role permissions for PHI access

Reporting that matches operations

• Referral conversion rate by source

• Time-to-first-contact, time-to-schedule

• No-show rates, reasons, and trends

These categories show up consistently in healthcare CRM definitions and “what it does” explanations across vendor and industry guides. 

HIPAA realities you should not skip

If your CRM will create, receive, maintain, or transmit PHI, you need the right controls and contractual setup.

• A Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is required with applicable vendors that handle PHI on your behalf. 

• PHI includes individually identifiable health information tied to a person, including common identifiers and healthcare-related information.

Practical implications for your CRM selection:

• You need role-based access control and auditability.

• You need a clear data boundary: what goes in CRM vs what stays in the EHR.

• You need a plan for exports, integrations, backups, and user offboarding.

The most common CRM vendors seen in healthcare

If you want a “what is commonly installed” view, Definitive Healthcare publishes a list of CRMs by total installations across healthcare organizations, including major enterprise CRM vendors like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.

This is useful because it separates “popular on lists” from “actually deployed at scale.”

Best healthcare CRM software options in 2026 by use case

This is a pragmatic shortlist based on what teams typically mean when they say “healthcare CRM,” plus what is visible in common ranking pages and definitions.

1) Enterprise CRM platforms for large systems

Best when you have multiple service lines, multiple systems, and you want a full customer 360 layer.

• Salesforce (Health Cloud) is positioned around consolidating data, streamlining processes, and improving care experiences. 

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 is widely deployed across industries and shows up in healthcare installation lists. 

What to watch:

• Cost and implementation complexity

• Integration scope creep

• Per-user pricing and admin overhead

2) EHR-tied CRM for Epic-first orgs

Best when you want CRM capabilities tightly aligned to Epic workflows.

• Epic Systems Cheers is presented as Epic’s CRM application to understand patients, connect them with care, and personalize future interactions. 

What to watch:

• How much of your workflow still lives outside Epic

• How referrals and non-Epic sources are handled

3) Workflow-centric and low-code CRM approaches

Best when your “CRM” is really a set of custom operational workflows and portals.

• Creatio frames healthcare CRM around improving patient relationship management and automating processes, and it emphasizes workflow and engagement.

What to watch:

• Who will own ongoing iteration

• Governance and permission model design

4) Service and communication-first systems

Best when your primary issue is patient support and service operations.

• Zendesk markets healthcare CRM concepts through the lens of service and ticketing workflows.

• WebMD Ignite describes healthcare CRM as a customer relationship management system designed specifically for healthcare.

What to watch:

• Whether it can model your referral and intake pipeline, not just tickets

The “build it on Tadabase” path

A lot of healthcare teams do not need a monolithic healthcare suite. They need a CRM that mirrors how their org actually works:

• Referral tracking that matches payer rules and service lines

• Intake pipelines with required documents and validation

• Role-based portals for patients, families, referral sources, and internal teams

• Automations for reminders, escalations, and task routing

• Reporting that answers operational questions, not generic sales dashboards

What you can build as a “healthcare CRM” in Tadabase

Common builds

• Referral CRM (facilities, physicians, community partners)

• Intake pipeline with eligibility and document collection

• Patient engagement portal (forms, packets, updates, uploads)

• Service desk for patient and family requests

• Outreach workflows (campaign lists, follow-ups, status tracking)

Typical objects

• Patient

• Referral source

• Referral

• Intake checklist

• Authorization

• Appointment

• Task

• Message log

• Document

Typical roles

• Intake coordinator

• Clinical admin

• Scheduler

• Billing or auth team

• Manager

• External referral partner

• Patient or family user

The biggest advantage

You get a CRM that fits your workflow instead of fitting your workflow into someone else’s. This matters most in healthcare because “one size fits all” usually breaks on payer rules, authorizations, and intake complexity.

Healthcare CRM evaluation checklist you can copy into a doc

Data and integration

• Can we keep clinical data in the EHR and only sync what we need?

• Can we integrate with our intake forms, call center, and scheduling?

• Do we have a clear source of truth per field?

Security and compliance

• Role-based permissions and least-privilege access

• Audit trail for record access and changes

• BAA availability if PHI is involved 

Workflow fit

• Can we model our actual intake stages and exceptions?

• Can we enforce required documents before scheduling?

• Can we route work automatically based on payer, region, and service line?

Reporting

• Time-to-first-contact

• Time-to-schedule

• Conversion rate by referral source

• Drop-off reasons and bottleneck stage

Frequently Asked Questions

What does CRM stand for in healthcare?

Customer Relationship Management. In healthcare, it generally means software used to manage patient, family, and referral relationships and the workflows around engagement and service. 

Is a healthcare CRM the same as an EMR?

No. EMR/EHR focuses on clinical records. A healthcare CRM focuses on the relationship journey and operational workflows around care. 

What counts as PHI for a CRM?

PHI includes individually identifiable health information tied to a person and related to healthcare, payment, or conditions, including common identifiers. 

Do we need a BAA for a CRM?

If the CRM vendor will create, receive, maintain, or transmit PHI on your behalf, a Business Associate Agreement is generally required. 

Conclusion

If you are evaluating healthcare CRMs because your referrals and intake are living in spreadsheets, the fastest path is often to build the exact workflows you need: pipelines, portals, permissions, automations, and reporting.

Build your healthcare CRM in Tadabase and keep it aligned with how your teams actually operate.