The Problem: Data That Couldn’t Move
Baptist Health operates five hospitals and more than 200 points of care. Across this extensive healthcare network, patient information—including insurance data and electronic medical records—existed in volume but lived in disconnected systems.
However, the challenge was not simply the amount of information available. It was the difficulty of accessing and connecting that information when it was needed.
As a result, marketing teams relied on cumbersome extract, transform and load (ETL) cycles to prepare data for campaigns. These processes made timely, targeted communication difficult, particularly when patient outreach needed to happen quickly.
When information is spread across disconnected platforms, teams can spend valuable time preparing data instead of acting on it. For Baptist Health, this created friction in the process of identifying patient groups, building personalised journeys and coordinating communications around care.
Why It Mattered
According to the case study, fragmented data delayed time-sensitive workflows and limited organisational agility. Information stored in silos also increased governance complexity and risk.
These challenges matter in healthcare, where the timing and relevance of patient communication can influence access to services and follow-up care. Teams need a dependable way to connect relevant information without creating additional complexity around how it is accessed and managed.
The issue extended beyond campaign execution. Without a connected view of patient information, delivering timely, targeted outreach became more difficult to manage consistently.
No financial cost has been published, so none is estimated here.
What the Organisation Did
Coastal implemented MuleSoft to unify data from diverse systems and standardise access. Patient data was consolidated in Snowflake, where it could be harmonised and managed at scale.
The next step connected this data foundation to Salesforce Data Cloud.
A Zero Copy integration allowed Salesforce Data Cloud to query live data in Snowflake without duplicating it. This created what the case study calls a real-time “Patient 360” while keeping Snowflake as the single source of truth.
The architecture brought together several technologies, each supporting a different part of the process:
- MuleSoft: Connected data across different systems and standardised access.
- Snowflake: Provided a central environment for consolidating, harmonising and managing patient data.
- Salesforce Data Cloud: Enabled access to live data through Zero Copy integration, supporting a unified patient view.
- Health Cloud and Marketing Cloud: Supported patient engagement, personalised communication and follow-up journeys.
- CRM Analytics: Helped teams explore patient segments and assess campaign performance.
Rather than relying on repeated data movement, the approach focused on making existing information accessible to the platforms that needed it.
The implementation timeline and any obstacles encountered were not published.
What Changed: Company-Reported Results
The case study reports improvements across three areas of patient outreach and care access.
1. Lung Cancer Prevention
- 10x faster marketing execution of personalised patient journeys.
- 120+ high-risk patients engaged in the first 30 days.
These results illustrate how faster access to patient information can support the execution of targeted screening-related campaigns. Instead of spending as much time preparing disconnected datasets, marketing teams could focus more directly on delivering relevant communications.
2. Primary Care
- 200% increase in follow-up conversion rates.
For primary care, follow-up conversion is an important measure of whether outreach translates into the next step. The reported increase suggests a stronger connection between patient engagement and follow-up activity, although the case study does not disclose the baseline conversion rate or measurement methodology.
3. Bariatric Surgery
- 25% decrease in wait times.
The reported reduction indicates an improvement in access to bariatric surgery. However, the published case study does not establish how much of this change was directly attributable to the data integration implementation.
Marketing leader Melanie Husk described the improvement in campaign execution as “days, not weeks and months.”
The statement captures the operational objective behind the transformation: reducing delays between having relevant information and using it to support patient outreach.
Important caveat: Baseline values, measurement periods and methods were not disclosed. Other factors may have contributed to the reported outcomes. These figures should therefore be treated as company-reported results, not independently verified causal findings.
Lessons for Other Organisations
The Bottleneck Was Access, Not Analytics
The central lesson is that collecting more data does not automatically improve decision-making. Information must also be accessible, connected and usable when teams need it.
Baptist Health’s approach focused on connecting existing systems rather than treating each platform as an isolated source of information.
Connect Data Where It Lives
The Zero Copy approach allowed Salesforce Data Cloud to query live information in Snowflake without duplicating it. This addressed data accessibility while supporting a central source of truth.
Organisations managing complex data environments should decide whether they must copy information repeatedly or access it through a well-governed integration.
Tie Technology to a Business Outcome
They asked Marketing to demonstrate the value of Data Cloud. The reported improvements in campaign execution, patient engagement and wait times provide examples of the business outcomes the implementation sought to support.
Technology adoption becomes more meaningful when teams can connect it to measurable operational objectives rather than treating implementation itself as success.
Challenges remain. Integrating legacy clinical and insurance systems requires careful planning, and sensitive health data demands strong governance. These results relate to outreach and care access; they may not transfer directly to other business functions.
One Practical Action
Time one recurring, urgent data request from the initial question to the resulting action.
Record how long the process takes, including data retrieval, preparation, validation and approval. Use that figure as your baseline before changing anything.
Once the delay is visible, teams can identify where disconnected systems, repeated data preparation or access restrictions create the greatest bottleneck. This provides a practical starting point for evaluating whether better integration could improve the workflow.
Conclusion
Baptist Health’s story shows what happens when the team targets the actual constraint: data that users cannot access in time.
By connecting systems, consolidating patient data and enabling live access through Zero Copy integration, the organisation established a foundation for more timely and personalised patient outreach.
The lesson isn’t the toolset. It’s measuring the delay first.
- Coastal’s original Baptist Health case study
- Salesforce: Baptist Health’s approach to centralising patient data
- Collibra: Baptist Health’s cloud-based data analytics and governance
Attribution: Source: Coastal client story on Baptist Health. Results are as reported by Coastal; independent confirmation was not located.
Editorial note: The links above provide additional context on patient data integration, healthcare data platforms and governance. The links describe related material and do not provide independent verification of the results reported in this case study.
