Epic and Salesforce Integration: A Better Way to Think About It
If you’re a Chief Marketing Officer, a few years into an Epic Cheers rollout, and still can’t clearly answer, “Are our campaigns working?” — this isn't a “you” problem. It's an architecture problem- a complication of measurement and using the right tool for the right purpose. And it's the same one I hear from clients across the country.
At the same time, your CIO is trying to make sense of why additional platforms are being introduced when Epic already has outreach capabilities. Your CFO is looking for simplicity, fewer vendors, and a clearer connection to cost.
These are all valid perspectives.
I’ve spent time on both sides of this. I worked at Epic, moved into Salesforce consulting, and now at Doret, I spend most of my time helping healthcare organizations navigate exactly this conversation.
What we’ve learned is this:
This isn’t an Epic versus Salesforce decision. It’s a question of using the right tools for the right parts of the patient journey. When that framing becomes clear, the conversation shifts. Systems stop feeling redundant and start working together in a way that actually supports your teams and your patients.
What is Epic Cheers? A breakdown of Epic’s patient outreach platform
Epic Cheers isn’t a single product. It’s an umbrella term for multiple capabilities inside the Epic EHR ecosystem including:
A call center module
Texting and emailing functionality
Campaign tools
Many other tools, such as Provider finder (for online provider navigation and patient scheduling), MyChart (when thinking about optimizing the patient experience and established transactional channel), and Cosmos (a great engine for population health
insights) play into the tech stack offered by Epic. The cornerstone of the most recent packaged marketing tools for healthcare marketers is Campaigns, which handles the organization and execution of clinical patient outreach.
Cheers Campaigns is still a relatively new product, at least in the SaaS world. The earliest implementations date back to around 2018(ish), but aggressive adoption didn’t start until around 2023. Plus, Epic isn't exactly known for broadcasting its product roadmap (IYKYK). They have the highest level of quality and dev standards, making everything in-house and on the same code base, leading to the fully owned IP. This brings with it an understandable protection. That protection, and resulting opacity, means a lot of healthcare organizations are still figuring out what Cheers campaigns does, what it doesn't do, and where it fits in their broader tech stacks for healthcare IT.
Epic Campaigns: Strengths, Tradeoffs, and What to Know
Epic is designed to manage clinical relationships. And it does that exceptionally well.
These tools support outreach that is rooted in clinical data—appointment reminders, follow-ups, and care gap campaigns. These are essential to delivering high-quality care and improving outcomes. Think, for example, campaigns for patients overdue for a mammogram or lung cancer screening, built entirely on medically tracked, clinically validated data living inside your EMR.
But that work begins after a patient is already in your system. After their relationship has begun within the 4 walls of a doctor’s office.
If a prospective patient visits your website, signs up for a hospital tour on your form vendor tool, or clicks through a digital ad, Epic doesn't know they exist. What Epic doesn’t currently capture is everything that happens before that moment—when someone is searching for care, exploring providers, or deciding where to go.
And that’s where many organizations start to feel the gap. 77% of patients now search online before booking an appointment, and 84% check reviews before choosing a new provider. These are people actively signaling interest in your health system and without a tool that captures that intent, your insight is only half the story.
Where Salesforce Fits in the Patient Journey
Patients don’t start in the EHR. They start with a need.
They search online. They visit your website. They read reviews. They attend events. They call with questions. Those interactions are signals—and they matter.
Salesforce is built to capture and respond to that activity across a myriad of web tools. It helps organizations understand intent, coordinate outreach, and guide patients from initial interest to scheduled care.
Not as a replacement for Epic—but as a complement to it.
The Disconnect Most Teams Are Managing Today
This is rarely a technology problem alone. It’s a coordination problem across teams.
CMOs are being asked to prove ROI without full visibility
CIOs are being asked to support tools that feel duplicative
COOs are managing access challenges without insight into demand
Meanwhile, patients are receiving communication that feels fragmented.
Marketing sends one message. The call center has another conversation. The clinical team operates with limited context.
No one is doing anything wrong. They’re just working from incomplete information and are in disparate systems. And in the meantime, the patient loses trust in the health care system, dropping from roughly 70% to 40% since 2020.
What Changes When Epic and Salesforce Are Connected
When Epic and Salesforce are integrated thoughtfully, each system continues to do what it does best—but with shared context.
Epic remains the source of truth for clinical data. Salesforce becomes the system that manages engagement across the broader patient journey.
That connection allows:
Marketing to understand which efforts lead to actual care
Call centers to engage with full visibility into prior interactions
Clinical teams to trust that outreach aligns with real patient needs
Leadership to connect access, experience, and cost to measurable outcomes
And most importantly, it creates a more consistent patient experience.
Why This Matters Now: Access, Experience, and Cost
Every health system today is being asked to improve three things at once: access, experience, and cost.
But those don’t improve in isolation.
Access breaks down when demand isn’t connected to scheduling
Experience suffers when communication is disjointed
Cost increases when performance can’t be measured or optimized
No single system solves all of this.
But a connected ecosystem gives you the visibility and coordination to start addressing it in a meaningful way.
A Better Way to Frame the Decision
Instead of asking “Do we need Epic or Salesforce?”, a more productive question is:
What part of the patient journey are we trying to improve—and which system supports that best?
Clinical outreach → Epic
Patient acquisition and engagement → Salesforce
End-to-end visibility and coordination → both, working together
This shift in framing often changes internal conversations quickly—especially across marketing, IT, and operations.
Where to Start (Without Overcomplicating It)
You don’t need a full transformation on day one. Start by identifying where the experience is breaking down today.
Look at:
Where patients enter your system
Where they get stuck
Where communication becomes disconnected
Then choose one place to improve.
A common starting point: A prospective patient engages through digital channels → becomes a patient in Epic → and receives aligned, consistent communication moving forward.
One clear, well-executed use case creates alignment, builds trust internally, and makes the next step easier.
The Bigger Opportunity
This isn’t really about integration. It’s about making sure the people across your organization—marketing, call centers, clinical teams, and leadership—are working from the same understanding of the patient.
When systems are disconnected, that burden falls on individuals to fill in the gaps. When systems are connected, the organization can operate as one.
And that’s where real progress happens.
Final Thought
The health systems today are being asked to choose between platforms when really, they’d prefer to focus on how to better support patients. That should be the driver and systems should fall in line. That’s where Doret comes in. At Doret, we’ll meet you where you are today and help map what progress can look like moving forward. Reach out to set up a call today and see how we can help.