Metrocare Partners with Netsmart to Enhance Coordination and Integration
Community
- Behavioral Health
- Metrocare
- North Texas
- Lack of shared data between care setting and multiple providers
- CarePOV™ Medical Note
- CarePOV Medical Note for Primary Care
- Ability to deliver whole-person care through one shared platform
Metrocare partners with Netsmart to enhance coordination and integration
Making integrated care a reality: Success story for behavioral health
About Metrocare
As the largest provider of mental health care services in North Texas, Metrocare provides a unique variety of services to both children and adults in Dallas County. In addition to behavioral health care, Metrocare delivers primary care and clinical care services, along with service opportunities for veterans and their families, in-house pharmacies, housing and supportive social services. By treating both physical and behavioral health under one roof, Metrocare takes a wholeperson care approach to serve its community.
The challenge
An estimated 29% of adults with medical conditions also have mental health conditions. Therefore, a pertinent component to successful whole-person care is integrated data, which allows providers to have visibility into the care path, documentation, medication, treatment plans and more from both primary care and mental health perspectives in one electronic health record (EHR).
Before their partnership with Netsmart, Metrocare was attempting to share the same EHR, but some primary care data had to be kept in hard copy charts. This approach led to inherent challenges in sharing the right data and ensuring communication was not only occurring but streamlined.
“Many of the patients seen by our behavioral health providers often have medical conditions that require the expertise of a primary care provider,” primary care provider Stephanie Okeke APRN, FNP-BC said. “The Netsmart CarePOV Medical Note has improved communication between the clinics, thus fostering a team-oriented approach to patient care. This approach has made checking medication interactions easier and improved treatment adherence in our patients.”
The Netsmart CarePOV Medical Note has improved communication between the clinics, thus fostering a team-oriented approach to patient care.
Stephanie Okeke, APRN, FNP-BC, Primary care provider
Two care lines, one platform
After adopting Netsmart CarePOV Medical Note for Psychiatry and CarePOV Medical Note for Primary Care in 2018, Metrocare providers now successfully deliver whole-person care through one shared platform. Today, both primary care and behavioral health providers share data, including vitals, medications, allergies, problems, labs and more in one face sheet within the single EHR.
Medical Note empowers the provider to make informed care decisions with easy-to-access medical information. Providers can easily print medication lists and view notes from other care providers without having to click to numerous screens. Shared vitals and unreviewed labs available on one page help the organization save money and resources while providing more efficient care, as they can prevent duplicate tests and quickly access previously documented information in the note.
“Having access to more of an individual’s information, both for behavioral health and primary care, allows us to provide better care,” Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Judith Hunter, said. “With Medical Note, we have the opportunity to review labs that each division has completed. This ability prevents redundancy and saves both time and financial resources. It can also save our patients from having to make multiple trips to get lab work done.”
Medical Note is integrated in the Netsmart myAvatar™ EHR within a console view where users can easily view their past notes, treatment plans and what was discussed during the individual’s last visit. This saves doctors and nurse practitioners time and makes viewing past documentation accessible and convenient before, during and after the appointment.
“Going through the old record to look for previous notes was a challenge,” Medical Director, Dr. John Bennett, said. “With the Medical Note widget, I can click on what I want to look through and use a filter to narrow it down even more. I can now look at other notes while I have my current note open. That’s really helped the workflow.”
Netsmart is not just going to tell us what we need. Netsmart is willing to ask what do you like, what don’t you like? And that’s good for everyone.
Dr. John Bennett, Medical Director
Automated CPT Code
In addition to automatic shared information capabilities across both primary care and behavioral health, Medical Note also has a built-in calculated CPT code feature. Before using Medical Note, Metrocare physicians and advanced practice nurses had to choose and count the necessary elements to calculate the code rather than the code being calculated directly from the documentation, which could lead to inadvertent coding errors. With Netsmart, the CPT code is auto-calculated at the end of the session based on the provider’s documentation. Recommending the appropriate CPT code can help prevent both over-coding and under-coding. When the user gets to the finalization screen, Medical Note gives the calculated code with the option to override the code if they choose.
“The Medical Note CPT auto-code is great for consistency,” Bennett said. “The auto-code is accurate, and that’s what matters. It’s a great benefit of Medical Note.”
Physician-prescriber workgroup
Overall, Medical Note for primary care and psychiatry has made integrated care a reality by allowing the provider team to view the clients as a whole person by having all of their health data in a single platform. In order to fully optimize and improve the platform, Netsmart started a physician-prescriber workgroup that was formed for Medical Note end users. Dr. Bennett serves as the co-chair of the group. The goal is to harvest the ideas and experiences of those who are actively using Medical Note every day to continually take advantage of a truly integrated approach to care.
“It’s great to openly talk about improvement,” Bennett said. “Netsmart is not just going to tell us what we need. Netsmart is willing to ask what do you like, what don’t you like? And that’s good for everyone.”
With Medical Note, we have the opportunity to review labs that each division has completed. This ability prevents redundancy and saves both time and financial resources.”
Dr. Judith Hunter, Chief Medical Officer
