Important EHR features for Mental Health Practice

Mental health specialists are often members of small-scale practices. Individuals in these practices are responsible for all critical administrative tasks as well as quality patient care. General responsibilities such as working on prior approvals, insurance verifications, documentation, billing, and much more can become overwhelming. Therefore, it is essential to consider a specialty-specific mental health Electronic Health Record (EHR) to alleviate these workflow burdens on mental health providers. It not only helps streamline day-to-day tasks, but also helps promote quality patient care.

Behavioral and mental health practices require unique EHR solutions. The American Psychiatric Association APA) has released guidelines for selecting an her. The guidelines below provide an overview of these core and advanced EHR requirements and user and system requirements.

• For solo practices, basic functions such as billing, writing progress notes, tracking patient medications, and scheduling appointments are needed.
• For group practices, more advanced features may be required, such as the ability to send claims or prescriptions electronically.
• Practices with outpatient or inpatient mental health services will require a full-featured EHR containing much of the functionality described in this document.
• Practices that accept Medicare or Medicaid should consider the quality measures issued by CMS as part of their value-based reimbursement program.

Five essential EHR features for providing quality care:

1. Care Coordination

It is essential for psychiatrists to be an integrated member of a patient’s care team. A quality mental health EHR enables providers to share patient medical data with other providers and help them ensure the best possible care for the patient and accurate record-keeping.

2. Billing Coordination

Billing can sometimes be a cumbersome and laborious process for providers. An EHR that streamlines electronic claims submissions is important to ensure accurate and timely reimbursement, without burdening providers with tedious billing tasks. Providers can create superbills, customize statements, and process payments with their EHR, which can save time and help them keep track of their revenue and reimbursements within a single system.

3. Clinical Decision Support Tools

Quick, easy access to patient health information is foundational to a mental health practice to closely monitor patient progress. EHRs for mental health practices aid providers with clinical decision support tools. It helps analyze clinical data, set alerts and reminders, provide diagnostic support and clinical guidelines, house health summaries, and supply reference information to providers whenever they need it.

4. Preloaded Templatesand Treatment Plans

It is important to select an EHR that is equipped with pre-loaded, clinically defined point-and-click templates and treatment plans for common psychiatry problems. These can include depression, eating disorders, insomnia, and bipolar disorder. Custom, specialty-specific templates reduce clicks and workflow bottlenecks for providers. iPatientCare’s psychiatry EHR is preloaded with over 100 different associated problems linked with short- and long-term goals, objectives, and intervention strategies.

5. Patient engagement

It’s important for patients to take an active role in their mental health care. An effective EHR facilitates frequent and open communication between patients and providers, leading to greater compliance with treatment plans, particularly with medication adherence. An integrated patient portal can help patients manage their care and improve communication between providers and patients.

At iPatientCare, we understand that choosing an EHR for your mental health practice can be challenging. Contact us today to schedule a demo of our psychiatry EHR solution.