Our client recently added medication support services to their mental health service offerings and partnered with Sites Professionals to place a psychiatrist in their program. The addition of psychiatry services necessitated a review of their internal policies in preparation for CARF recertification. CARF accreditation is a service for health and human services providers that reviews and certifies their standards of care against peer-reviewed benchmarks. Sites Professionals assisted our client in developing their medication use policies and standards to meet their CARF recertification process, as well as reviewing their existing medication support practices. The result was that our client was ahead of schedule in preparing for CARF recertification, and was confident in a positive outcome. Sites Professionals is eager to share our experience in medication support to benefit our clients and the patients they serve.
Tag: Telepsychiatry
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Review of CARF Recertification Requirements
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Planning for the future of mental health
There has never been a better time to revisit your plan for providing mental health services into the future. Three major forces – advances in technology, a shortage of available labor, and the ongoing pandemic – will be responsible for permanent changes to our industry. Flexibility, adaptability and a future-focused vision are essential to your organizations’s ability to provide the best mental health services for years to come.
Sites Professionals does more than just provide adaptable psychiatric staffing solutions. We can also help your organization with nearly twenty years of experience in community mental health, with expertise in the areas of medication support process development and technology. Talk to us to find out more about how we have helped other local organizations, and see what we can do for you.
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Matching Psychiatrists with Community Mental Health Agencies
We posted a new video starring Jeff. At Sites Professionals, our driving passion is to help you give your clients the quality of care they deserve. We do this by matching psychiatrists with agencies doing excellent work in the field of mental health. For psychiatrists wanting to have an impact in community mental health, Sites Professionals can find you a placement anywhere from 4 to 40 hours per week and we take care of credentialing, malpractice insurance, tech support and more. For agencies, we can help you build or grow your psychiatry services with in-person, telepsychiatry, and hybrid arrangements. We work with you to find long term placements matched to your team and clients
Call us today to find out more: 818-802-6782
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Mechanics of Being Client-First in Community Mental Health
Being client-first in community mental health means prioritizing the needs and quality of treatment of clients above all else. This much is self-explanatory, but incorporating a client-first mindset in a community mental health setting can be complicated. In practice it goes well beyond the points of contact – scheduling, direct care, follow-up, etc – to program design, staffing, administration, IT and operations.
The intake process alone involves not just screening and identifying appropriate clients but a knowledge of your reimbursement contracts, the caseloads and training of practitioners, the composition and readiness of your support team.
The further you move from direct care, the easier it is to lose sight of what it means to be client-first. Consider some common issues related to IT. Does your team have reliable access to your electronic systems for communication and reporting? Do you have network redundancies in place for mission-critical applications like telepsychiatry and EHR access? Do you utilize E-prescribing for consistency and accuracy? These are just a few of the questions every organization should ask itself. Answering ‘no’ is the first step to discovering new opportunities to improve.
For those that think they can’t improve, scarcity is often identified as the reason. Budgets are thin and resources are scarce. However, many of the actions that appear to be expensive will save you money in the long run by reducing inefficiency and preventing costly mistakes and downtime.
As you look for new ways to better serve your clients, consider that some changes to your supporting processes may be a cost effective move toward being client-first.
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Telepsychiatry Setup – Agency Case Study
There are many benefits to adding telepsychiatry to your community mental health service offerings. We have had the opportunity to help a few agencies build these capabilities recently. It is something we are happy to do, and thought it is worth sharing the basic steps to getting started.
- Getting buy-in from your team is the first essential step. The best way to do this is to discuss the benefits of using telepsychiatry for clients and coverage. When the psychiatrist you want on your team is not available to travel to your location, telepsychiatry makes it possible. It gives agencies more options, especially those in regions where few psychiatrists live. It also provides more options for part-time and flexible coverage. Make it part of your interview process to involve your team in video conferencing with prospective psychiatrists. When you find the right fit, and you can introduce your team to someone with the experience and skills you need, we believe you’ll find it easier to get buy-in.
- The next step is to review (and amend if necessary) your agency certifications, policies and procedures, and contracts to ensure that you can bill for services provided via telepsychiatry. This process takes a little patience but it is something Sites Professionals can assist you with. Having it as an option will open the door to new opportunities and ways to grow your services.
- Prepare your team. This includes having a designated staff as the telepsychiatry champion who will be the key person to help with the implementation of telepsychiatry, making it a smooth process. You will also need to identify team members at the client-site who can be present with clients, take vitals as needed, and call on additional support for issues that arise including behavioral concerns and technical support.
- The setup is the easy part. You will need a room, a computer with a large screen, quality microphone and speakers. There are several easy-to-use HIPPA-compliant video conferencing services available, and we are happy to offer recommendations. Most EHR’s have web or VPN access options. You will also want to have an e-prescribing service (these are great for in-person psychiatrists too!).
Sites Professionals takes care of the rest. We can handle setup and training on the psychiatrist’s side, and assist your agency as well. The best part is that Sites Professionals does not charge for these services. It is part of our mission to help your agency increase your psychiatric capacity to provide the best possible care to your clients.
Call us to learn more about what we can do for you.
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Telepsychiatry in a Nutshell
The benefits of using telepsychiatry are many. Sites Professionals will help you with everything you need to get set up in no time.
- Faster recruitment and retention of psychiatrists
- Emergency consultation
- Increased access to psychiatric care
- Improved treatment outcomes
- Environmentally friendly
- Cost effective
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Flexibility Gets Top Talent
With clients waiting for medication services, are agencies being flexible enough to attract and retain top psychiatrists?
Telepsychiatry is one of the most sought-after perks for practitioners. With it, agencies can deliver medication services regardless of location and with greater adaptability to their scheduling needs. The myth is that clients don’t like it, the truth is that it opens the door to many more practitioners better-matched to your client population and increases access to psychiatric care. Similarly, many agencies would prefer to work with bilingual psychiatrists. I get it, but while waiting for the perfect match, look into implementing translation services. It is often more cost effective and it opens the door to really terrific and skilled practitioners.
Yes, there is a shortage of available psychiatrists but are you sure that’s why you’re having a hard time filling your psychiatric positions?
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Telepsychiatry in Community Mental Health
The people in greatest need and those most able to help are not frequently neighbors. In a sprawling and traffic-plagued region like California, it can be especially difficult to assemble a team of psychiatric practitioners. Long commutes are often a barrier to otherwise qualified and well-matched individuals. There are ways around this. One of those ways is to use telepsychiatry.
With a little creativity and technical know-how, telepsychiatry can be incorporated into just about any community mental health practice. It can be deployed full time or may be used to supplement in-person coverage. For example, with medication follow-up appointments. Locations can get certified, practitioners can be trained. If you are having trouble getting psychiatric care for your clients, why not give telepsychiatry a try?