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Selecting the ideal behavioral health EHR is crucial for practices aiming to deliver high-quality care while optimizing operations. After all, behavioral health presents unique challenges, from managing complex treatment plans to ensuring compliance with specialized and stringent regulations.
Understanding what to look for in an EHR system can make a significant difference in your organization’s success and can help your teams become more efficient and organized.
Here are 6 things to determine the right modern Electronic Health Record system for your facility:
1. Tailored Features for Behavioral Health
Behavioral health providers need systems designed with their unique workflows and processes and should look for solutions that simplify complex documentation, support collaborative care, and provide tools for tracking patient outcomes and progress.
Treatment plans for behavioral health facilities are usually complex and can blend various therapies with medication which can sometimes be spread out between other clinics and facilities, adding a layer of complexity to each patient plan and interaction.
These tailored features can include specialized treatment plans with milestones, goals, and methodologies, built-in assessments and screening tools, automated scoring criteria, crisis plans and risk assessments, and compliance and reporting tools to name a few.
An ideal EHR offers integrated care management features that help clinicians develop personalized treatment plans and monitor progress thoroughly, and allows for a more granular approach to patient care.
2. Emphasis on Accessibility and Scalability
The flexibility of a cloud-based EHR is essential in today’s innovative healthcare landscape. Such systems enable secure access to patient records from anywhere, which is invaluable for telehealth and hybrid care models.
An appropriate EHR for a behavioral health practice should also be compatible with any shifts that your practice may see as it evolves like an increasing patient list allowing you to scale easily without interruptions to patient care which can change the sentiment of your clinic, and lead to frustrations for both staff and patients who rely on it.
A rigid, unflexible EHR can lead to issues scaling and more time and resources spent on managing workarounds or even worse, having to transition to another Electronic Health Record system leading to greater sunk costs of time, money, and effort.
3. Incorporation of Advanced Technology
Modern EHRs integrate AI-driven tools to enhance care delivery and operational efficiency. Artificial intelligence can assist in predicting patient risks, automating routine tasks, and analyzing treatment outcomes. Consider an EHR that will invest in these AI-driven tools allowing them to create more complete and accurate models with larger amounts of data. This is indispensable to not only patient care, but also addresses the prior point in scalability, saving time, energy, and resources as a result.
A cloud-based EHR also allows for easy updates and maintenance of your EHR platform, can be more cost-effective, and allows for compatibility with many modern devices.
These capabilities not only save time but also provide clinicians with deeper insights into patient care so that they can tailor treatments around additional data points.
Behavioral health can be a sensitive topic and patient confidentiality and data protection is paramount. Cybersecurity and protection features and support should be a core pillar of an appropriate behavioral health EHR and should be well supported as these features evolve.
4. Focus on the Clinician’s Experience
Ease of use should be a top priority when evaluating EHR options as it will make everything from the onboarding process to day-to-day use faster. Systems that are intuitive and designed with the user experience of medical staff, employees, and the end user in mind reduce administrative waste and allow doctors and medical professionals to focus more on patient care, delivering better patient outcomes, more often.
A user-friendly interface and streamlined workflows can make or break an EHR software, so look for a platform that has taken the time to address proper UX and has an easily understandable interface.
5. Interoperability with Other Systems
An effective EHR system should integrate seamlessly with external platforms like lab, pharmacy, and billing systems.
For example, if a clinician provides a prescription, an EHR should be able to communicate with the patient’s chosen pharmacy while allowing a pharmacist to see real-time data, helping a patient get their medication as soon as possible.
Look for features like bidirectional communication, third-party integrations, API availability, data exchange testing, and standardized compliance protocols when assessing the interoperability of an EHR.
Interoperability allows for everyone involved to have access to the most accurate, up-to-date information while reducing errors, a more comprehensive view of a patient’s health and healthcare needs, and allowing facilities to maintain compliance with standards like HIPPA.
6. Customization and Support for Long-Term Growth
Every behavioral health organization has unique operational needs as does each patient that it treats. The ability to customize workflows, reporting tools, and care plans ensures that the EHR aligns with your specific requirements and helps build a plan that is appropriate for behavioral health challenges.
Support from your EHR provider should be available, especially during transitionary moments where additional aid may be needed.
How Sigmund Software Stands Out
Sigmund Software’s AURA platform embodies all these qualities, offering a comprehensive digital health solution for behavioral health practices. Tailored specifically for addiction treatment, mental health, IDD, and eating disorder recovery facilities, AURA simplifies care delivery.
By incorporating advanced AI tools and leveraging a secure cloud-based infrastructure, AURA ensures seamless data access and enhanced clinical decision-making. Its clinician-centered approach reduces administrative burdens, allowing providers to dedicate more time to patient care.
If you’re ready to elevate your practice, click here or watch our 3-minute demo here.
