The development of EHRs (Electronic Health Records) is one of the best tech changes that modernized the healthcare industry. So, what is EHR exactly and what does it do? Here, we are going to discuss EHR systems and how they can benefit your practice, particularly for behavioral health providers.

AccuMed Behavioral Health EHR – Relevant, Reliable, Consistent

Behavioral Health Home Page

Click to View Screenshot

When facing increased regulations and growing caseloads, you need solutions that make it easier for you to manage day-to-day operations. AccuMed Behavioral Health Software and Mental Health EHR is created for mental health providers in the behavioral health community, private and non-profit, Substance Abuse Centers, FQHC, Mental Health Clinics, Community Health Centers, Residential Rehab, and Developmental Disabilities Centers who work at maximum capacity and want to make an impact on productivity while minimizing costs. AccuMed Behavioral Health EHR / EMR (Electronic Medical Records) solution addresses the complexities you encounter in your financial and clinical practice management. With enterpriseclass performance in these key areas, you can focus on your mission of improving quality treatment for your consumers with the help of our integrated Behavioral Health EHR and Practice Management Software.

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH EHR SOFTWARE FEATURES

  • Comprehensive clinical and administrative practice management for mental health practitioners
  • Prior approval and on-line eligibility verification
  • Compliance with state and federal regulations (including HIPPA compliance)
  • Clinical documentation verification

  • Attendance based billing

  • Produce state reporting requirements

  • Group scheduling

  • Detailed intake data collection

  • Rollup and unit based billing

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH EMR SOFTWARE BENEFITS

  • Dramatically shorten reimbursement time, increase collections for mental health practices
  • Tracks current and historical clinical program status; waiting list, admission, individual and group therapy sessions, and discharge of mental health patients
  • Track Treatment Plan and Utilization Review dates

  • Consumer assignment to clinician based on credentialing

  • Eliminate services rendered to non-covered patients

  • Click here to download our brochure and learn more about our solutions for behavioral health practices.

What Is the Function of EHR?

An EHR refers to a digital record of health data. It is composed of information that you would usually find in a paper chart, which is a hard copy of health records. EHRs also include: 

  • Assessments/Outcomes 
  • Medical and Mental Health History
  • Treatment Planning  
  • Progress notes  
  • Immunizations 
  • Diagnoses 
  • Medication management/treatment plans
  • Laboratory data 
  • Allergies 
  • ePrescribing options
  • eMar (electronic Medication Administration Record) 
  • Imaging reports 
  • Vital signs 

An EHR should also include patient-related data like demographic information, insurance information, patient portal for client access, and more.

Apart from containing all relevant patient information, another advantage of electronic health records is their convenience. Health data becomes more accessible for certified health providers from all sorts of practices and health agencies. This, in turn, makes coordination run smoothly. Healthcare providers and agencies concerned with positive patient outcomes can leverage their EHR technology to share treatment information with partnering agencies like

  • Laboratories 
  • Therapists and specialists 
  • Pharmacies 
  • Emergency services 
  • Imaging facilities 
  • Schools 
  • Health Information Exchanges (HIEs)
  • And office clinics 

In psychiatry and the mental health community, EHR systems are beneficial. There are lots of vendors who intend to provide services to that medical specialty. Accumedic, for example, produces a Behavioral Health EHR system that is designed to help mental health clinicians and behavioral health agencies manage their patients’ health records in a seamless, highly methodical, and feasible manner so coordinating with other healthcare providers, services, and medical professionals is made easier and expedient.

The Key Benefits of EHR Systems

Here are several key benefits of using an effective EHR system: 

  • Improved Patient Care 

Especially when time is of the essence, sharing a patient’s electronic health record means better diagnosis and treatment decisions can be made since all relevant information is contained therein. The patient encounter is focused without wasting time compiling all the past information, every touchpoint is documented from when a patient receives a new medication from prescribing clinicians or moves from a psychiatrist to a mental health institution. There is an EHR for the mental and behavioral health system that can address those specialty-specific, necessary details.

  • Greater Efficiency 

EHR makes health information more accessible. By consolidating medical/mental and behavioral health information in one location there can be better efficiency within the clinical team. Not having to re-enter redundant information, with treatment history readily available, there is an improved coordination of care, thereby saving both time and money for everyone involved.

  • Better Organization and Standardization 

The problem with paper documents is that they are vulnerable to many factors. They can get lost or damaged due to carelessness, fires, natural disasters, mold, and pests. Electronic health records, meanwhile, are always accessible and they are kept in a safe place for the long term. 

Mental Health EHR software systems are advantageous to the mental and behavioral health community particularly since they deliver better standardization. They provide a consistent and logical means of documenting information made more accessible to psychiatrists, nurses, nurse practitioners, counselors, social workers, and client advocates.

  • Enhanced Patient Access 

EHRs can also be utilized as a tool that lets the patients themselves file their personal medical history. There are even EHR systems that permit patients access to a secure online patient portal to check test results and other relevant data from their health/medical records. When information about their health is readily available, patient engagement increases because they can be more capable of making proactive, smart decisions about their health.

  • Modernizes the Health Community 

We live in a very mobile society today. Information can be easily gathered through our computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. When a patient moves to a new location or gets sick away from their home, his or her health history can be accessed quickly, and with ease by doctors, medical practitioners, and other healthcare services through an effective EHR system.

Accumedic has a 4.2 out of 5 star rating with 11 reviews. Read more on Capterra.

FAQs About Behavioral Health EHR Software 

Behavioral health EHR brings together psychotherapy, clinical notes, and behavioral health practice management software to create a single environment in which mental health professionals and staff can seamlessly collaborate using modern behavioral health workflows and mental health software.

EHR stands for electronic health records and EMR stands for electronic medical records. The EMR is a digital record of the patient’s health, while the EHR, including mental health EHR software, is designed to provide for the sharing of these records in a secure manner.

Hospitals and larger health enterprises typically use EHRs to provide a comprehensive view of patient care, they may also opt for EMRs, including mental health electronic medical record systems, to track specific patient data over time to help create patient-specific health plans.

An EMR provides the clinical information about a patient, while the MPI (Master Patient Index), which is crucial for mental health providers, is the index for that data. An MPI typically lists data points about a patient, such as a patient’s last name, first name, date of birth, gender, address, phone number, and dates and types of visits to the healthcare organization.

EHRs are built to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – including mental health practitioners and organizations, so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s mental health care.

  1. Physician hosted system
  2. Remotely hosted system
  3. Remote system

High upfront acquisition, ongoing maintenance, and workflow disruptions contribute to temporary productivity losses resulting from learning a new system. However, mental health providers can overcome these challenges with the right mental health EHR software solutions.

  1. Eliminates unnecessary paperwork and minimizes administrative tasks.
  2. Coordinate care among multiple healthcare providers, including mental health professionals.
  3. No need to duplicate recent tests.
  4. Patient portals, including secure patient portals and mental health patient portals, allow access to health records whenever you want.

EHRs improve aggregation, analysis, and communication of patient information, including behavioral health services and progress notes. Making it easier to consider all aspects of a patient’s condition, including behavioral factors. Supporting diagnostic and therapeutic decision making in mental health practice.

EHRs directly or indirectly improve patient safety by minimizing medication errors, improving the documentation of data, enhancing the completeness of data, and improving the sustainability of data. With accessibility, patient engagement increases, and they are more involved in their mental health treatment plans as well.

An EHR is an electronic system used and maintained by healthcare systems to collect and store patients’ medical information, including mental health providers and behavioral health practices. EHRs are used across clinical care and healthcare administration to capture a variety of medical information from individual patients over time, as well as to manage clinical workflows and practice management.

With EHRs, patient records, including patient notes and behavioral health progress notes, are available simultaneously to all appropriate staff members, like mental health practitioners, meaning your staff can more efficiently locate everything they need.

The two greatest risks of an EHR system are: (1) privacy of data—access control and (2) inaccurate patient information due to periodic and not real-time updates. 

EHR technologies can help prevent medical errors by flagging potential drug interactions and/or adverse reactions.

EHRs help to share electronic information with patients and other doctors. EHRs support providers to diagnose cases, decreasing medical errors, and giving safer care more efficiently. EHRs promote patient and provider communication, as well as health care utility.

With EHRs, you can give patients detailed and accurate information about their health and health care. After an appointment or hospital stay, your organization can provide clinical summaries, reminders for follow-up care, or links to educational resources.

The EHR enables clinicians treating people in a variety of settings to exchange and continuously update a patient’s clinical data and then present that information in logical clinical groupings that other clinicians can access easily.

EHR systems are a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. 

A mental health EHR means to capture notes concerning your patients and their issues, document actions taken, and treatment plans for the future.

Behavioral Health encompasses Mental Health & Substance Abuse concerns and addictions.

EHR systems are a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.

The practice management provides fiscal services, medical billing, posting, and reporting. The EHR provides digital medical records to be saved and shared.

EHR software is used to capture current data (dictation or typed) and is available to bring forward this information (or parts of the information) into appropriate current documentation (known as the Golden Thread). EHRs can also share this information (with proper consent) with other agencies and HIEs (Electronic health information exchanges). This will lead to better treatment and outcomes.

AccuMed Behavioral Health EHR – Your Answer to Efficient Electronic Mental Health Record-Keeping 

Keeping up with all necessary patient information and care can be daunting for all mental and behavioral health professionals. That is why all of us at AccuMedic praise the wonders of technology. EHR has revolutionized the healthcare industry by allowing healthcare professionals to seamlessly tackle the everyday management of complete patient data.

Our effective mental health EHR software is designed for behavioral health professionals working in the mental health community and aims to supplement your capability to improve your practice and treatment for your patients.

The AccuMed Behavioral Health EHR benefits mental health providers by increasing practice management efficiency and improving organization. By implementing the software, users can keep track of current and historical clinical program status, comply with dates for treatment plans and utilization reviews, shorten reimbursement periods to improve medical billing collections, generate state reporting requirements, prepare group scheduling, and so on.

To manage every patient’s EHR, it is recommended that healthcare providers, clinicians, emergency facilities, and all health-related agencies make the transition to EHR systems. These systems make the daily organization of electronic health records a breeze for all professionals involved in patient care. An applicable mental health EHR software system will prove a valuable addition to behavioral health practices because it not only makes record-keeping a simple task, but it also helps you make the best clinical decisions for your patients.

Tap into current health information technology by considering beneficial mental health EHR software for your behavioral health practice. Allow yourself and your patients to take advantage of the best that modern technology has made available.