Integrated telehealth streamlines virtual care delivery
Community
- Substance use treatment and behavioral health services
- New Bedord, Mass.
- Dual-scheduling telehealth sessions in both the EHR and Zoom was time-consuming and a burden to administrative staff
- Zoom required staff to manually handle pre-visit communications with clients, resulting in non-billable time for clinicians
- Clinical leadership did not have access to key data metrics needed to make informed decisions
- Netsmart TelehealthTM
High Point Treatment Center integrates Netsmart Telehealth
High Point Treatment Center (HPTC) is a nonprofit organization that provides services to prevent and treat substance use and mental health disorders. Like many providers, HPTC turned to telehealth to address serious disruptions in service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
HPTC began using Zoom, but found scheduling inefficient and clinicians had to manually communicate with consumers. Supporting a separate platform also strained administrative sources. Recognizing that telehealth was not going away, HPTC began searching for a solution that integrated with their electronic health record (EHR). The search led them to choose Netsmart Telehealth.
Administrative benefits
- Fully integrated telehealth simplifies scheduling and automates appointment notifications, freeing administrators from manually sending session links and reminders
- Frees up clinician’s time to focus on initiatives, such as consumer engagement, that can lead to improved outcomes
- Eliminates the need to maintain two platforms, reducing the administrative burdens at clinic sites
Clinical benefits
- Automated appointment reminders help reduce the back-and-forth communication prior to visits, making the most of clinicians’ time
- Reporting functionality allows clinical leadership to monitor productivity effectively
Consumer benefits
- Supports automated text alerts with direct links to their appointments
- No app to download -- consumers click the link, and they’re connected to their provider
- HIPAA-compliant and keeps consumers’ protected health information (PHI) private
HPTC ensured staff had all the tools for a smooth implementation, giving them the ability to walk clients through the new process and even troubleshoot issues to identify any changes that would need to be made.
Staff buy-in is so important. Once they started to see the benefits [of NTST Telehealth], they embraced utilizing it.”
Sara Bennett, LMHC, CAI-II, Chief Operating Officer of CBHC and Community Services High Point Treatment Center
From a technical perspective, implementation was a very simple process. It took more time to make the decisions on how we wanted to use it than it did to actually implement it.”
Mark Pulsinelli, Director of Health Information Systems, High Point Treatment Center
