Each health specialty requires different things from its electronic health record (EHR) software. The particular needs of behavioral and mental health, including addiction treatment, require a unique approach to EHR.
What should behavioral health and addiction treatment professionals look for in their EHR?
- Designed for Behavioral Health
The first thing that behavioral health providers should look for in an EHR system is a solution that has been designed for their industry. Although there are many excellent products on the market, professionals can save time, money, and headaches by seeking out solutions that were designed with their particular needs in mind.
Besides being designed for behavioral health in general, professionals should look for EHR that can be customized to their particular practice, and can be adapted to future plans and changes.
- Treatment Plan Support
Behavioral health and substance-abuse treatments require more than just a round of antibiotics or a vaccine. Depression, schizophrenia, opioid addiction, and other behavioral health conditions usually require long-term and often lifelong treatment plans. Not only that, but each patient requires a unique approach. Providers often must try a combination of treatment options before finding one best suited for an individual patient.
Because of this, the EHR should also be designed to support these different treatment plans. Behavioral-health EHR should support both the short- and long-term goals of a treatment plan, including interventions and relapse prevention.
- Coordinated Billing
Coordinated care is important for behavioral health professionals since their patients often present with comorbidities and multiple diagnoses. For the same reasons, coordinated billing is just as important.
An EHR solution should attempt to reduce these challenges as much as possible. An EHR that allows you to track billing and partner with outside billing contractors can help reduce errors and costs and streamline administration.
- Medication Management
Behavioral health and addiction treatment providers usually prescribe multiple medications to each of their patients. Because of this, an EHR for behavioral health providers must include a medication management feature.
Prescribers should be able to use the EHR to create electronic prescriptions. This should include medication-assisted treatment for addiction, as well as other controlled substances. The EHR should also help users monitor their patients’ medications and warn them of any possible interactions.
- Thorough Training for Use
The chosen product and vendor should provide ample opportunities to make the learning process go as smoothly as possible and ensure that all users are comfortable with the solution. The right EHR should come with training, tutorials, demos, as well as easily accessible support and troubleshooting. Providers who choose a free demo option should make note of how the vendor responds to their questions, as this gives a good insight into their customer service.
Created With Behavioral Health and Addiction Recovery in Mind
BestNotes is an all-in-one solution that is uniquely designed for behavioral health and substance abuse professionals. Use it to manage admissions, intake, assessments, treatment plans, medications, billing, lab results, and more.
BestNotes also provides straight forward pricing, month-to-month contracts, and user support. Contact us today for a free demo