Are You Missing Out on Ways to Streamline Your Behavioral Health Workflow?

Behavioral health workflows can vary quite a bit based on specialty areas. It also comes down to a clinic’s preferences and nuances, from their approach to treatment planning, to assessment tools they use, to their follow-up protocols for monitoring client progress.

The behavioral health EHR system you select should be a reflection of these needs. With this alignment, you’ll create a more intuitive experience for your staff while supporting a more effective approach to patient care.

Asking yourself these questions can help you pinpoint how well your current processes are streamlining your behavioral health workflow and if there’s room for improvement.

Can you create your own forms that include all the information you need?

Pre-stored forms in an EHR don’t always gather all the information a behavioral health facility needs. A generic intake form may not include questions about a client’s substance abuse history, or their triggers that a substance abuse treatment center would want to document. Or, in the case of a family counseling center, a generic family history form may not offer context for relational dynamics and family communication patterns.

When an EHR gives you the ability to create brand new forms as well as customize existing templates, you can efficiently capture whatever patient or program information your behavioral health services requires. This allows for a seamless integration with existing workflows that reduces disruption and the risk of missing critical information. It also streamlines reporting efforts and, as regulatory requirements change, makes it easy for facilities to stay compliant.

Can you collect external documents as part of this process?

Alongside EHR forms, behavioral health facilities may also want to collect PDFs or other external documents. For foster care agencies, this could include legal documentation related to placements and custody arrangements as well as educational assessments.

Bundling these documents into your information collection process helps facilities build a more comprehensive profile for clients. This supports more tailored interventions and seamless communication and collaboration with primary healthcare practices and other healthcare teams. Having easy access to this information also saves clinicians time and allows them to focus on patient care.

Is the signature capture process built for efficiency?

There are cases where behavioral health staff may need to have forms filled out in the field. Some of those forms may require a signature, like informed consent or a case management agreement from a social service agency. An EHR should empower mobile workers by allowing them to complete forms and capture signatures through the convenience of a tablet or smartphone.

At the same time, it’s important to think about cases where documentation needs to be countersigned. Rather than leaving notes in a supervisor’s mailbox, the better option is a signature routing system that notifies them to review and sign off on paperwork — with an acknowledgment notification sent in return. It’s one more simple measure that saves time in behavioral health workflows.

Do you have the ability to create custom reports?

It’s a great starting point when an EHR provider offers an extensive library of reports to maintain accountability across your clinical operations. But sometimes you may want to drill down to the smallest of details specific to your mental health services. Ideally, an EHR will give you a way to create your own reports in a matter of minutes.

As one example, an addiction treatment center could create a relapse analysis report. With insights into patterns and triggers connected to relapse events, treatment centers can establish more efficient follow-up procedures to intervene with higher-risk patients.

Streamline Your Behavioral Health Workflows With ClinicTracker

ClinicTracker’s EHR is built specifically for the behavioral health field — and with that focus, it offers an extraordinary degree of flexibility to suit the appropriate mental health services as well as clinic preferences. You’ll have the ability to:

• Customize existing forms and progress note templates, or make new ones to mirror any paper documents you already use
• Collect external documents and tie them together with forms and progress notes to support a well-ordered workflow and save staff time
• Complete paperwork and capture signatures, wherever services take place
• Leverage a signature routing system that removes the hassle of worrying about whether forms have been countersigned
• Instantly analyze data you’ve collected through custom forms with Report Builder, which allows you to customize and create reports in minutes

Interested in learning more about our EHR solution? Contact us for a free demo. You’ll experience how our behavioral health EHR workflows support efficiency and enhance management across your operations.