As behavioral health organizations continue to evolve, Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems have become indispensable tools for improving patient outcomes, enhancing care coordination, and streamlining operations. However, many organizations struggle to optimize their EHR systems, often facing inefficiencies that undermine their potential. This is often due to a lack of operational best practices being leveraged through leveraging the right roles to support it and the right operational processes.
Involve Clinicians, Program, and Division Leaders in EHR Configuration
One of the most significant challenges in EHR optimization for behavioral health is aligning the system with the organization’s specific clinical workflows, and building the right processes and practices in place to ensure that the application layer configurations and workflows evolve alongside the evolving organization in a responsible and optimal manner. There must be a shift where the application layer must no longer be managed by the IT department, and taken out of that silo, and be seen as an operational tool that must continually change. The enterprise EHRs have significant configuration tools that do not require a programmer or technologist’s intervention when it comes to workflow development, but need to be part of governance from a security standpoint, of course. With technology now touching nearly every aspect of a delivery system, we must take technology out of a silo managed by the IT department in order to extract value in order to maximize improvements to margins and mission on an ongoing basis.
Educating a stakeholder committee reflecting program, division, and clinical leaders on their critical role in solution workflow design, and being champions of the solution is a good first step, before conducting a thorough needs assessment across all programs and services. This is essential before selecting or optimizing an EHR system.
Example: A large behavioral health organization faced challenges in aligning their EHR workflows with the diverse needs of their clinical teams. Initially, the IT department solely managed the EHR, but delays and misaligned workflows led to frustration. The organization formed a cross-functional committee, including program managers, clinical leaders, and operations directors, to manage EHR configurations.
After educating the committee on the EHR’s configuration tools, they worked together to customize workflows that aligned with clinical needs. By involving clinicians and program leaders in the process, the organization saw a 30% reduction in administrative delays and a significant improvement in clinician satisfaction, leading to more efficient care delivery.
Optimize for Whole-Person Care and Care Coordination
As behavioral health organizations increasingly adopt whole-person care models, optimizing your EHR to support this approach becomes critical. Start with a needs assessment to identify gaps in your current EHR’s ability to handle integrated care models and follow up with a fit/gap analysis. This analysis will reveal how well your system supports whole-person care, which includes both behavioral and physical health services. When it comes to the significant amount of organizations moving to integrated care models, there are additional challenges when considering optimization. Physical health EHR systems are generally designed for various healthcare settings but often lack the functionality required for complex behavioral health organizations. With unique regulatory requirements, billing needs, and clinical workflows, behavioral health-specific EHRs may still struggle to integrate primary care capabilities effectively.
Depending on the organization’s strategy, some may choose a behavioral health-specific EHR, while others opt for a physical health EHR. In recent years, vendors have expanded to cover both specialties, but careful vetting remains necessary to ensure the system meets your organization’s demands; especially if an organization received Medicaid and Medicare, given all of the regulatory requirements. Customizing fields, templates, and reports to capture comprehensive care ensures that both behavioral and physical health concerns are documented, reflecting a holistic approach to patient care, and this configuration and optimization work is often needed even with the EHRs that provide more robust solutions that include both specialties,
Example:
A mid-sized behavioral health organization sought to expand its integrated care model but found its EHR lacked tools for behavioral health documentation and care coordination. After a fit/gap analysis, the organization switched to an EHR system that better supported both behavioral and physical health data, leading to seamless care coordination across teams and improved patient outcomes.
Automate and Streamline Administrative Workflows
Many behavioral health organizations underutilize their EHR’s capabilities, leading to excessive manual processes that reduce productivity. By automating repetitive administrative tasks—like appointment scheduling, billing, and insurance verifications—organizations can free up staff to focus more on patient care. Many organizations are now using AI solutions to create even greater automation and efficiencies that supersede the capabilities of the EHR but are seamlessly integrated.
For example, automated appointment reminders can significantly reduce no-show rates, while automating billing processes ensures claims are submitted accurately, reducing errors and speeding up payment cycles.
Example:
A behavioral health clinic reduced its no-show rates by 25% after implementing automated appointment reminders through their EHR system, improving both patient engagement and billable hours.
Leverage Data Analytics for Proactive Care Management
Data analytics is an essential tool for behavioral health organizations looking to move from reactive to proactive care. Many EHR systems come with advanced reporting and analytics features that can help identify trends, high-risk patients, and gaps in care. These insights allow providers to intervene early and improve patient outcomes.
Implementing predictive analytics can help anticipate patient needs, such as identifying individuals at high risk of relapse based on past behaviors, enabling clinicians to provide additional support before a crisis occurs.
Example:
A substance use treatment center used predictive analytics to flag patients at risk of relapse, reducing their relapse rate by 15% through proactive outreach and intervention.
Focus on Usability: Simplify the User Interface
An EHR system’s usability can greatly impact clinician satisfaction and productivity. Complex interfaces with too many tabs and templates can overwhelm users, leading to frustration and decreased efficiency. Simplifying and customizing the user interface to prioritize frequently used functions can make the system more intuitive and improve overall workflow.
Using conditional logic to hide unnecessary fields and reducing the number of clicks required for common tasks can significantly enhance the user experience.
Example:
A behavioral health organization revamped its EHR interface to ensure that progress notes and medication management features were more accessible. This change reduced documentation time by 20%, allowing clinicians to focus more on patient care.
Enhance Interoperability for Seamless Data Sharing
In behavioral health, it is crucial to have seamless data sharing across different healthcare providers and systems, as well as HIEs and RHIOs in certain geographical areas. Behavioral health organization EHRs must be interoperable with other health systems, including those used by primary care, hospitals, and pharmacies. Enhancing interoperability ensures that behavioral health providers have access to a comprehensive view of patient health, enabling better care coordination and holistic treatment. ONC Certified solutions have functionality to both send and receive Continuity of Care Documents that allow discrete data elements to be sent and received to and from external organizations. This can be leveraged for referrals and continuity of care purposes to ensure that all relevant healthcare information is reflected in client charts for clinical screenings and documentation review,
Example:
A behavioral health organization implemented an interoperability solution that allowed them to securely share patient data with a primary care provider’s EHR system. This led to improved collaboration between providers and more integrated care, particularly for patients with co-occurring physical and behavioral health conditions.
Make EHR Training a Continuous Process
A common mistake in EHR optimization is viewing training as a one-time event. Continuous EHR training ensures that staff remain proficient and that new features or updates are fully utilized. Offering role-specific training helps users maximize the EHR in ways relevant to their responsibilities. It is important for system administrators and other key stakeholders to receive ongoing training from the vendors and user communities to stay abreast of the latest functionality, best practices and solutions to incorporate into staff rollout and trainings to increase the value of the solutions and promote user adoption,
Example:
A behavioral health organization implemented peer-led training sessions where super-users provided ongoing support to staff. This approach ensured that clinicians stayed updated on system enhancements, increasing overall EHR utilization and efficiency.
Implement EHR Governance and Continuous Optimization Teams
Optimizing an EHR is an ongoing process that requires regular oversight. Establishing an EHR governance structure ensures that the system is continuously updated and aligned with the organization’s evolving needs. This governance team, consisting of clinicians, IT staff, and administrators, can identify inefficiencies and work toward continuous improvement. It is important for this committee to have a project manager and a roadmap of projects that are prioritized by the collective committee after weighing the cost, impact and criticality of the investments.
Example:
A large behavioral health organization historically held a practice of program leaders going to the IT department to add changes to forms, ask for new reports, or create new workflows for new programs. It created inefficiency because projects weren’t prioritized and best practices for data management weren’t leveraged. Turning on functionality or building content for one program could create unanticipated data management issues or negatively impact billing, quality assurance reports, or other programs downstream. The organization created an EHR optimization committee that met monthly to review system performance and address inefficiencies as a collective team with all stakeholders involved to consider the impact of the change downstream and prioritize the project with other projects that could have a greater value associated. This proactive approach led to system updates that improved efficiency and user satisfaction.
Consider AI and Advanced Analytics for Future-Proofing
As healthcare technology advances, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics are becoming key tools for enhancing EHR systems. AI can assist with clinical decision support, predictive modeling, and documentation through natural language processing. Though not all organizations may be ready for full AI integration, planning for future developments ensures that your EHR system will be capable of supporting these innovations when needed.
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