There’s no shortage of options when it comes to behavioral health EHRs. But not all EHRs are built the same. And it’s not uncommon for many behavioral health professionals to experience buyer’s remorse after discovering an EHR they’ve purchased falls short of expectations.
So how do you save yourself this headache and choose the best behavioral health EHR right off the bat? The key is to find a comprehensive EHR that checks all the right boxes now and is ready to pivot with you in the future.
Look For a Behavioral Health EHR That…
✓ Offers Flexible Deployment Options
One of the most important decisions around your behavioral health EHR is where it’s deployed. Whereas some behavioral health practices may prefer the ease and low cost of cloud deployments, others may prefer the control that comes with local deployments.
No matter which method is preferable to your clinic, it’s beneficial to choose a behavioral health EHR provider that can accommodate both options. Let’s say you’re a clinic that opted to install the EHR locally on your network for security reasons. When you open the door to cloud migration down the road, you’ll have built-in support at your disposal.
✓ Allows You to Customize Workflows
Behavioral health clinics rely on unique workflows, and EHRs aren’t always prepared to accommodate them. In fact, as one research study described, “EHRs were found to disrupt information in the mental health context, especially when they did not include appropriate templates or care plans.”
The best behavioral health EHRs are flexible enough to reflect the complex, specific workflows that underscore mental and behavioral health operations. You should be able to create your own forms and modify existing forms that clinicians and patients complete, and embed those forms into a well-ordered workflow that reflects how you want your clinic to work.
✓ Has Built-In Integration Capabilities
With the goal to help behavioral health clinics work smarter not harder, it makes sense to choose an EHR that prioritizes integration. For instance, when billing operations are folded into a behavioral health EHR, you can capture appointments in real-time and, in doing so, enable faster, easier billing.
This same rule of thumb applies to external integrations as well. When an EHR plays nicely with respected industry partners in telehealth communications, signature capture technology, appointment reminders, clearinghouses, assessments, and other valued software solutions, you can get all the features you need without having to toggle between multiple platforms or worrying about dual data entry.
✓ Provides an Intuitive User Experience
The thought is that introducing EHRs into a behavioral health practice will help staff be more productive. But, as one research study highlights, the complexity of a system is one of the key barriers that prevents healthcare staff from using an EHR to its potential. Not only that, but it can make staff less accepting and even distrustful of the software.
Alongside being easy to implement, the best behavioral health EHRs should be easy to use. Staff should be able to quickly find the clinical data and documents they need so they can complete clinical tasks, from patient intake to medical claims, in less time. When a provider supplements an easy-to-use mental health software system with training videos and manuals to get started, all the better.
✓ Is Backed by Top-Quality Support
A behavioral health EHR software can be powerful, but if it lacks support, staff are left with unanswered questions that create delays and frustrations in your clinic operations. The behavioral health EHR provider you choose should have a proven track record of responding quickly to customer support requests. A high customer satisfaction rating (ideally 100%, if not close to it) and positive customer testimonials are two sources to verify this record.
Support also comes in the form of how a vendor leverages user feedback. What happens when mental health practitioners request new features? The best behavioral health EHR providers will take this feedback to heart and respond with timely upgrades.
ClinicTracker Checks All the Right EHR Boxes
With flexible deployment options, customizable workflows, built-in integration capabilities, a user-friendly interface, and world-class support, ClinicTracker is the behavioral health EHR you’ve been looking for. Combined with 23+ years of experience in the behavioral health field, we’re a partner you can depend on to help you best serve your patients.
Get a glimpse of what our behavioral health EHR software can do for your operations. Request a free demo today.
