Flok Makes Medical Research Possible for the IDPH

Salesforce as the Hub of a Complex Medical Program

Flok Consulting helped the Iowa Department of Public Health automate OMC, its medical cannabidiol program, with an integrated Salesforce-based platform, achieving among other things a 90% reduction in patient registrations and a traceable, transparent supply chain

CLIENT NAME

ODHP - OMC

INDUSTRY

Healthcare & Life Sciences

PROJECT LENGTH

5-7 Months

TEAM SIZE

TECHNOLOGIES

Why Now

The IDHP's OMC program needed to deliver critical services to patients but relied too many disparate systems to create a seamless integration. Staff and patients alike were frustrated.

Project Boundaries

$300,000-$450,000

The Project

The Office of Medical Cannabidiol (OMC) at the Iowa Department of Public Health was faced with significant challenges in managing and tracking compliance across a complex supply chain involving multiple manufacturers, dispensaries, physicians, and patients. Patient applications and compliance tracking were manual and time-consuming, with frequent on-site audits required.

Doug Cretsinger and others at IDHP expressed frustration about the manual patient application process, the diverse systems used by manufacturers and dispensaries, and the lack of a comprehensive system for compliance tracking and oversight.

After a series of conversations between Doug and Flok project leads Drew Benson and David Heller, Flok Consulting recommended the implementation of Salesforce's Sales Cloud, Sites, Ostrij integration, and Cloud4J reporting.

This architecture accomplished several things for IDPH. First, it allowed for a fully automated supply chain system for the OMC program for the first time. Using standard OOB configuration features of Salesforce, the patient registration process, compliance tracking, and program reporting were fully automated and centralized.

Compliance is also important to a sensitive research area such as medical cannibidol. Leaning heavily on the expertise of Flok solutions consultant David Heller, Flow ensured that the data gathered and managed via the Salesforce implementation allowed for full "lot traceability" over the entire manufacturer to patient cycle. This meant that every step of the medical cannabidiol supply chain, from the manufacturer to the patient, was carefully tracked and recorded using Salesforce.

Given the medical context, it was also important that the system be highly available; here Flok relied on Flok COO Megan Benson's expertise with Ostrij. Ostrij is a unique product that can "monitor the heartbeat", so to speak, of a Salesforce implementation - and send text alerts in the case of downtime or significant slowdowns.

When you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, the outcome was a reduction in patient registration overhead from 15-20 minutes per paper application to 2 minutes per application, a 90% reduction in time spent, and an accurate on-hand inventory as well as awareness of product diversion, virtually eliminating the need for on-site audits. The program reporting and analytics are being used to direct the future of the program.

Or as Doug Cretsinger: "We have built a very powerful MFR, DISP and Registration tracking system that is now purring like a kitten."

That's not a minor accomplishment when you consider all the data sources working in sync:

Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce Sites
Ostrij integration tool
Cloud4J reporting tool
Various Manufacturer ERPs (integrated via endpoints)
2 Dispensary POS systems (integrated via endpoints)
USBank Payment System (integrated via endpoints)
Iowa DOT (integrated via endpoints)
Box (integrated via endpoints)
AdobeSign (integrated via endpoints)

We're especially proud of the reporting capacity of Cloud4J, which is equivalent in capability to Tableau but simpler to implement.

We think the core formulation - Salesforce, Ostrij, Cloud4J - can change the way that compliance-sensitive medical supply chains are managed, analyzed, and equipped to provide value to patients.

The Moment of Trust

Flok Consulting established a strong rapport with the Office of Medical Cannabidiol through open communication, active listening, and a shared commitment to achieving their goals. But that's not when the moment of trust happened - that happened when IDHP realized that not only did Flok understand how crucial this system was but they had actually created one of its core components - Ostrij. Ostrij monitors not just Salesforce, but the entire implementation. It checks to make sure that each part of the systems indicated as specified and lets stakeholders know whenever that's not the case. This is critical for patient well-being and compliance. Once IDHP fully appreciated this piece, after just a few early meetings trust was locked in.

The Eureka Moment

Flok doesn't shy away from heavily integrated solution. And it knew it would have to integate multiple cannibinoid manufacturer ERP systems into the final solution. The original assumption was that IDHP's native supply chain management system would handle the lot-tracing duties pulling on that manufacturer data. But while speaking with a colleague and fellow consultancy-owner in his mastermind group, Drew realized that Salesforce had been used as the hub of multiple supply chains, from Virgin Atlantic, to Univar, to GE Aviation. The use case at GE was really the same in terms of compliance - the parts that make up a commercial airliner must be accounted for and traceable. The lightbulb went off and at the moment, Drew knew that Salesforce would be the hub of IDHP's supply chain.

The Ribbon Cutting Moment

We want to highlight the role of our remarkable project manager Julia Cannon in the ribbon cutting moment. Like many PMs, Julie is mult-talented. She not only manage the progress of a half a dozen coordinated efforts but led the training efforts as well. Under her direction, the Flok Consulting team provided comprehensive training and support to the IDHP's OMC team prior to launch. This ensured OMC was fully prepared to use the new system. The launch was successful and the OMC reported a "a smooth, calm and seamless transition"

The ROI Moment

Objectively speaking, the ROI moment happened the instant that we deployed the platform. Sure there were bugs to work out, but we saw OMC staff work-days instantly transformed - also for patients. Rather than wading through 20 minutes of confusion, patients were registering for the program in 2 minutes. Rather than having to constantly arrange field visits to manufacturers, OMC staff had the real-time data they needed to manage supplier compliance from their laptops. Many other laborious workflows are waiting to be cut down, now that the platform is in place. The sense of satisfaction all around, at Flok, at OMC and throughout IDHP, and most of all for patients was immediately transforming and gratifying.

This week we focused on Salesforce automation of registrations and achieved a 50% reduction in labor for every application. Fantastic work with Trevor, Bobby and Kelly collaborating together. They will continue to seek optimization opportunities using the power of Salesforce workflows.”

Doug Cretsinger, IDPH mCBD Project Manager

TEAM