Tools & Checklists · Free checklist
Hospital CRM readiness checklist
Check data, enquiry capture, consent, HIS integration and ownership before you buy or build a hospital CRM.
Free download
Get the checklist
Enter your email and confirm it. The download link arrives in your inbox straight after.
- Confirm your email from the message I send.
- Your welcome email carries the download link, plus links to every other tool here.
You’re joining an occasional newsletter on hospital growth, digital and AI. Unsubscribe from any email in one click. See the privacy policy.
Why it exists
The problem it solves
Most hospital CRM projects do not fail at the software. They fail because nobody agreed what an enquiry is, patient records live in five places under three spellings, consent was never recorded, and the system that knows whether a patient actually arrived was never connected. The CRM goes live, the dashboards look empty, and the contact centre goes back to spreadsheets.
This checklist is for the months before you choose anything. It tests whether your data, enquiry capture, consent, integration with the hospital information system, ownership and reporting are ready for a CRM to be useful. If too many answers are no, the right next step is the groundwork, not the purchase.
Inside
What you get
- Seven sections covering purpose, data sources, enquiry capture, identity and deduplication, consent, integration, and ownership and reporting
- Questions to settle before talking to any vendor
- DPDP-aligned consent checks for marketing and follow-up communication
- Integration points with the hospital information system and appointment system
- An ownership and reporting checklist so the CRM has a business owner, not just an IT one
- A simple readiness verdict to take to leadership
Audience
Who it’s for
For marketing, digital, contact-centre and IT leaders deciding whether a hospital or group is ready to implement a CRM.
Method
How to use it
- Answer each item yes, partly or no, with evidence rather than opinion.
- Involve marketing, the contact centre, IT, the front office and legal or compliance in the review.
- Treat any no in the consent or identity sections as a blocker to fix before implementation.
- Use the gaps to write the requirements and project plan, not to shortlist products.
Related reading
Read alongside it
Calculator · Excel
Hospital marketing budget calculator
Split an annual budget by service line and channel, phase it monthly and test it against OPD capacity.
Get the calculator →Calculator · Excel
Enquiry-to-appointment funnel calculator
Track each channel from enquiry to arrival, see where patients leak and what fixing one step is worth.
Get the calculator →Checklist · PDF
OPD growth checklist
The digital, brand, referral, CRM and contact-centre levers that grow outpatient demand, in order.
Get the checklist →Checklist · PDF
Hospital launch checklist
A demand-generation checklist from twelve months before opening to the first ninety days after.
Get the checklist →FAQ
Questions about this checklist
Enter your email in the form on this page and confirm it from the email I send you. Your welcome email then includes the download link for this checklist and for every other tool on the Tools & Checklists page. It is free.
It is for making sure every enquiry is captured, followed up and connected to what happened next — booked, honoured, or lost and why. It also supports consented follow-up and repeat care communication. It is not a replacement for the hospital information system or clinical records, and it should not be bought as a marketing dashboard alone.
You are ready when you can list every enquiry source, agree a definition of an enquiry, match patients across systems reliably, record consent, connect to the appointment and billing systems to see outcomes, and name a business owner. If several of those are missing, fix them first; a CRM will expose the gaps rather than close them.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act requires a lawful basis, usually consent, for processing personal data, with clear notice of purpose and an easy way to withdraw. Health data calls for particular care. Your CRM must record what each patient agreed to, when and through which channel, honour withdrawals everywhere, and limit who can see what. Take legal advice on your specific setup.
Yes, at least for appointments, arrivals and billing events. Without that link, the CRM knows about enquiries but not outcomes, so you cannot measure honoured appointments or cost per patient. Integration does not mean copying clinical records into the CRM; share only the fields needed for follow-up and measurement, with access controls.