COULD YOU DO MORE
WITH YOUR EHR?
A guide for behavioral health and human services organizations
Sound travels at .2 miles per second. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Healthcare is
moving at the speed of thought. As such, EHR (electronic health records) companies are charged
with keeping pace, to ensure providers are equipped to meet increasing state and federal demands.
Every healthcare organization—regardless of size or financial capacity—must meet these new
requirements of improving client care while lowering costs, of increased interoperability while
maintaining client privacy. Those organizations that fall behind can quickly become unsustainable.
Many legacy EHRs were primarily designed to process payments and manage billing. While still
important, this limited functionality is incapable of supporting providers in their drive toward
coordinated and outcomes-driven care.
©2015 Netsmart
Not all EHRs are created the same.
Consider the following:
1
BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS HAVE UNIQUE NEEDS.
In the past, some behavioral health provider organizations were hesitant to purchase and implement a
clinically-relevant EHR, feeling the complexity of their care setting might preclude technology use. Today, you
can choose an EHR that includes:
• In-depth behavioral health content, such as the ability to capture information from client appointments, group therapy sessions and offsite field work.
• Interoperability to exchange and interpret shared data.*
• Care coordination capabilities to save time and money, and to improve outcomes.
*Additional software solution may be required.
2 COST PRESENTS A ROADBLOCK.
EHRs can be expensive, though studies show the return on investment far outweighs the initial expense.
Nonetheless, behavioral health organizations with fewer than 50 users will likely be constrained by human and
financial resources. Those agencies should explore quicker-to-implement, less costly solutions that still package
and deliver the best practices of some of the most respected health and human services organizations.
3 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) SUPPORT IS LITTLE OR NON-EXISTENT.
Organizations with limited IT staff should consider purchasing a cloud-hosted EHR. Not only will this provide
greater access to client data from anywhere with an Internet connection, but will likewise alleviate:
• High setup costs
• Expensive purchases of hardware and software
• The need for a full IT department to manage backups and upgrades.
No matter your organization’s size, don’t view the selection of your next EHR as the purchase of a product.
Instead, look for an EHR provider that is an expert in the behavioral health care community and that you can
trust to support your mission-critical functions … now and into the future.
Netsmart’s Behavioral Health Essentials, powered by the myEvolv CareRecord™ and
part of our developing line of myEvolv Essentials EHRs, provides the functionality of
our more customizable solutions to organizations with fewer than 50 users.
Learn more: www.ntst.com/bh_essentials