In a recent article for MedCity News, Deanne Clark, Juno Health’s senior informatics consultant, discussed the unique challenges of data sharing in behavioral healthcare and how technology and policy can rise to meet them. She highlights the value of team-based care, calling out interoperability as the missing link.
Explore the article’s key themes with Juno Health. We’re offering our interpretation of how a behavioral health electronic health record (EHR) platform could solve interoperability and care delivery challenges.
3 Reasons Traditional EHRs Don’t Work for Behavioral Health
EHRs have historically been built for one-on-one appointments and short-term care, but behavioral health has long-term, collaborative needs. MedCity News draws the distinction between legacy EHRs and those designed for behavioral health.
1. Behavioral health is team-based.
As Deanne notes, “Even the most widely used EHRs fail to deliver in behavioral health settings because they were designed for single-author documentation rather than team-centered care.”
But behavioral health, from individual sessions to group activities, is collaborative. It’s whole-person care, requiring an EHR that makes it easy for therapists, psychiatrists, and case managers to contribute to one patient record. Real-time, shared data eases documentation across the spectrum of patient needs and ensures the entire care team has complete information.
Juno EHR’s Treatment Plans allow everyone involved in a patient’s care to access and modify their records, from assessments to medications.
2. Lack of interoperability complicates transitions of care.
Whether a patient is moving from emergency services to inpatient care or transferring to an outpatient clinic, incompatible EHRs can harm the next phase of care. This might even jeopardize secure patient record transfers, leaving you to rely on hard copies that could violate confidentiality.
Juno EHR supports the Golden Thread by automating the flow of information from admission to discharge, reducing manual processes and errors in healthcare delivery.
3. PHI needs extra protection.
Standard EHRs are made for basic care and data entry. But because the behavioral health data playbook hasn’t been fully “written” yet, organizations prefer a more cautious approach to sharing information. These records contain protected health information (PHI) that requires heightened protection from an EHR that balances PHI privacy with easy data sharing across the continuum of care.
Juno Health is a CMMI Level 3-certified organization. The Juno EHR platform is also fully certified by SOC2, HIPAA, and HITECH to ensure PHI safety and security.
Establishing Guardrails for Interoperability
Deanne suggests implementing “a combined bottom-up facility-level approach to integrated data and a top-down national-level effort for connected networks” to improve data sharing.
We’re already making progress toward greater interoperability on a nationwide scale. The federal government is developing a "network of networks" to connect healthcare systems, leveraging EHR interoperability regulatory requirements for data standards to enable certified EHR systems to share data.
But behavioral health isn’t one-dimensional. It requires not only that the government continue to develop policies for PHI sharing but also that facilities implement advanced EHR technology. Organizations that adopt EHR systems designed for internal collaboration and external interoperability stand to better support team-based patient care and secure data sharing.
Juno EHR for Behavioral Health Closes the Gap
Incompatible healthcare technologies get in the way of sharing data to treat behavioral health patients. Clinicians juggling multiple platforms quickly burn out, and workarounds from out-of-the-box EHRs can only go so far. Implement specially designed software to create, share, and modify patient records across the continuum of care.
Juno EHR for Behavioral Health is tailored to mental health care settings, with tools to support information capture, interoperability, and effective care delivery.
Use Chart Review to track and treat medical conditions and any of 400+ pre-built behavioral health templates to support your workflows. Automatically populate diagnoses and medications into mental health treatment plans to improve patient care and support collaboration.
Collaborate Freely with Juno EHR
Behavioral healthcare, from individualized therapies to group sessions, is complex. Don’t put it at risk by using technologies that impede data sharing. Juno EHR is specially designed to connect clinicians across the continuum of care, from emergency services to long-term inpatient care.
See how we combine personalization and interoperability to connect your organization and its care partners. Explore Juno Health and support patients with a purpose-built EHR.
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