Definition
A Care Program in Salesforce (primarily in Health Cloud) is a standard object that represents a structured health or wellness program designed to manage a group of patients or members with similar health needs. Care Programs define enrollment criteria, milestones, and associated care plans, enabling healthcare organizations to manage population health initiatives like chronic disease management or preventive care programs.
Real-World Example
Consider a scenario where a service operations lead at ShieldGuard Security is working with Care Program to deliver consistent, high-quality support across all customer channels. Care Program ensures that every inquiry follows the same process, agents have access to relevant customer history, and managers can track performance metrics in real time.
Why Care Program Matters
Care Program is a Health Cloud object that represents a structured health or wellness program designed to manage a population of patients with similar needs. Unlike Care Plans, which are individualized, Care Programs are cohort-level: they define enrollment criteria, milestones, associated protocols, and the structure that applies to every patient in the program. Common examples include chronic disease management programs, preventive care initiatives, post-discharge follow-up programs, and wellness coaching.
Patients enroll in Care Programs through Care Program Enrollment records, which link a specific patient to the program and track their progress through the defined milestones. Each enrollee typically also gets an individualized Care Plan that operationalizes the program's protocol for their specific situation. The combination of Care Program (the standard playbook) and Care Plan (the individual application) supports both population health management and personalized care delivery within the same framework.
How Organizations Use Care Program
- •Coastal Health — Runs a Diabetes Management Care Program for their at-risk patient population. Enrollees progress through defined milestones like 'Initial Assessment', 'Medication Stabilization', and 'Lifestyle Change Habits Established', and the program tracks enrollment, drop-off, and outcomes at the cohort level.
- •Wellness Partners — Built a Post-Discharge Follow-up Care Program that automatically enrolls patients at hospital discharge and guides them through 30 days of monitoring and support. The program reduced readmission rates measurably.
- •Nimbus Health — Uses Care Programs as the primary way to measure their population health impact. Each program has defined outcomes, and the organization reports on them quarterly to their payer partners as part of value-based care contracts.