AltaPointe takes clinician efficiency, patient care to a new level with myAvatar

AltaPointe Behavioral Health System is not only Alabama’s largest regional community behavioral health provider; it’s also one of its most progressive. AltaPointe pioneered the use of electronic health records in the state even before they were used in primary care, and the company has continued to look for ways to innovate. It’s that spirit of innovation that drove AltaPointe to implement myAvatar, the most intuitive and adaptable EHR, built based on clinical workflow.

Sensible solution

AltaPointe’s primary goal in adopting myAvatar was to create a pitch-perfect user experience for its clinicians so they could improve consumer care and outcomes and also meet Meaningful Use requirements. As a large organization with multiple locations, AltaPointe was looking for an EHR solution that could be easily deployed and adopted by its diverse and sizable team. myAvatar fit the bill. The solution is a comprehensive, 100% ARRA-certified EHR that has:

An intuitive, easy-to-use interface. With a single-click, users can view most records and can open, view and edit records quickly and easily. Because myAvatar is so easy to navigate, users spend less time navigating the system and performing administrative tasks and more time delivering services to consumers. myAvatar only requires minimal training and is easily adopted by staff.

More than 50 customizable widgets. One of the important user-focused foundations of myAvatar is widgets. A widget is a small application that can display data completely tailored to the user’s need. Users can customize their screen views and manage data in a seamless, integrated way and develop their own custom widgets to meet organizational and role-based requirements. Widgets allow users to increase quality of care, facilitate clinical and financial decision making, encourage complete user adoption, provide outcomes and quality data, ensure compliance, and facilitate consumer-centric care. These widgets and other user-friendly features make myAvatar easy to adopt and use across all functional areas in a behavioral healthcare organization.

The benefits have been off the charts. We’re using the efficiencies we’ve created to serve people we wouldn’t normally be able to serve.

Tuerk Schlesinger, CEO, AltaPointe Behavioral Health System

A role-based EHR. myAvatar works the way users work with views for Clinicians, Executives, Front Desk Staff, IT Professionals, and Billing Administrators.

• Clinicians want to spend less time on the computer and more time on direct care. That means having quick access to upcoming appointments, detailed patient charts, and other client information.
• Executives want to track key performance indicators to measure organizational and revenue goals and meet compliance requirements – limiting risk and facilitating informed.
• Front Desk Staff want access to all needed information in a single screen with multiple views of staff schedules, consumer authorization and eligibility for easier scheduling and faster check-ins.
• IT Professionals want to be able to monitor and optimize the system using built-in modeling tools, making it easy to adapt to changing organizational requirements and ensuring happier end users.
• Billing Administrators want a dashboard to easily track claims and payments received. They also want to see snapshots of billing status, accounts receivable and claim value on a per-payor basis for faster access to patient information and more accurate, timely billing.

AltaPointe was also able to reduce incomplete documents by 99% within two weeks of go-live. On-time document compliance improved by 89%, and, myAvatar’s reporting efficiencies resulted in the elimination of 42 clinical, compliance and end-of-month reports almost immediately.

Dr. Luke Engeriser, Adult Services Psychiatrist, AltaPointe

“Meaningful Use brought us to the table,” said AltaPointe CIO Steve Dolan, “but the solution is what sold us. myAvatar models workflows, gives us better information on care delivery, helps our clinicians make more informed decisions, and allows us to measure data and translate it into better care.”

“Netsmart clearly paid attention to what clinicians need, because myAvatar gets us to the most important, most necessary information quickest,” said Stephanie Gatlin, coordinator, Children’s Outpatient Program. “It’s a very sensible solution. It gives me efficient access to information I need to do my job better. We’re able to spend more time providing care and less time finding information.“

“They really considered the user, and it’s evident in the ease of use,” said Ingrid Hartman, assistant director, Access to Care. “It works a lot like a Google search – very intuitive.”

Seamless implementation

The implementation process is intuitive, too. While there was a great deal of preparation for the hardware changes, the simple, common-sense user interface made training remarkably easy. Because of the size of the AltaPointe organization, team members were divided into functional groups for training. Many were working independently in as little as 20 minutes. And the go-live was accomplished over a single weekend.

“There was a positive response across the organization with the training and implementation,” said Gatlin. “It was seamless – a great experience.”

Pervasive results

By implementing myAvatar, AltaPointe is immediately seeing real results. The biggest impact came at the bottom line, where the organization was able to cut its inpatient overtime costs by providing widgets that interfaced hospital census and chronicity of patient with its’ staff management system. AltaPointe was also able to reduce incomplete documents by 99% within two weeks of go-live. On-time document compliance improved by 89%, and, myAvatar’s reporting efficiencies resulted in the elimination of 42 clinical, compliance and end-of-month reports almost immediately. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

“myAvatar has really improved productivity in the clinic,” said Adult Services Psychiatrist Dr. Luke Engeriser. “It provides much easier access to patient information and gives us all the medical documentation available across case types, which is very important with integrated care.”

“You can see everything in one or two clicks, so it saves a lot of time,” said Hartman. “Hospital calls that used to take 20 minutes now take five.”

myAvatar has also helped AltaPointe become more collaborative, consumer-driven and outcomes-focused.

“myAvatar is allowing us to evaluate outcomes data and create new programs to help consumers recover,” said Director of Performance Improvement Sherill Alexander. “We’re now better able to track changes in behavior and offer interventions versus treatment.“

“The benefits have been off the charts,” said AltaPointe CEO Tuerk Schlesinger. “We’re using the efficiencies we’ve created to serve people we wouldn’t normally be able to serve. We’ve gone into areas we would not have been able to go. It’s allowed us to go into telemedicine in a much more efficient way than we would have before. We now have the data to do acute care consultations immediately. And it’s helped us make a name for ourselves in the community.”

“Netsmart stands taller than the rest,” Schlesinger added. “There’s no comparison in our view. They’re a true partner.”