Within the changing behavioral health landscape, it is clear that patient engagement is a key ingredient to successful treatment and necessitates good outcomes. Behavioral Health EHR systems are playing a major role in accomplishing this via the means of communication tools between healthcare providers and patients. The transformation of mental health and behavioral health treatment models is never-ending, which means the expectations surrounding patients are changing too —whereby patient engagement becomes a mandate rather than being an priority.
Patient Engagement in Behavioral Health — Why It Matters
Patient engagement is the active involvement of consumers and patients as partners in decision-making about healthcare issues and care, adoption of treatment plans through self-management behaviors to effect health outcomes. Patient engagement, especially in behavioral health — as medications and treatments depend on sustainable behavior modifications over time. Involved patients are also more likely to go for appointments, adhere to medication regimes and take up therapy recommendations which have beneficial health outcomes with cost reduction in healthcare.
Designed to foster this deeper level of engagement, Behavioral Health EHR systems provide a platform for patients and providers alike in their ongoing quest together. Their systems offer features that provide patients with the tools to become involved in their care, developing a personalized and more successful treatment.
Characteristics of Behavioral Health EHR Software that Drive Patient Engagement
Patient Portals
The Patient Portals gain respondents access to their health information, appointment schedules, medication lists and treatment plans. When patients are able to receive their records immediately, they can take charge of monitoring their own progress and be more actively involved in managing the care process. Moreover, patient portals provide communication features that enable patients to securely message PMPs to ask questions about their care and get prompt responses; this in turn increases engagement with the process of medical treatment.
Telehealth Integration
Patient Engagement in Behavioral Health is Revolutionized by the Integration of Telehealth Services into EHR Systems Since patients are able to attend appointments from the luxury of their own home, Telehealth is an opportunity for many and helps relieve barriers such as transportation issues or geographical limitations. This has improved appointment adherence and allows patients to maintain better communication with their providers. Additionally, EHR-integrated telehealth platforms provide records of all encounters — both for the patient (as part of their record) and provider, aiding in care continuity.
Mobile Health Applications
Smart phone and web-enabled health applications help keep the patient engaged while on-the-go when linking to EHRs — mobile apps further support symptom monitoring, maintenance of treatment plans across physicians. There are apps that will remind you to take your medication, notify you of upcoming appointments, or even simply check in with a wellness app for the day. This engagement outside of the traditional clinical setting can be important in a patient’s overall treatment and improvement, as their medications may only partially manage symptoms on their own.
Individualized care plans and patient education
Providers can build treatment plans around the unique needs of each patient with Behavioral Health EHR systems. By incorporating these plans into an EHR system, they can be shared with patients helping them to better understand what their treatment will involve. And many EHR systems have educational modules that patients can use to get information on their conditions and treatments. The more you know, the more likely it is that patients are engaged in their care — they understand better what helps re their health or improve patient with this information.
Automatic reminders and follow-ups
These include automated appointment reminder systems, refill reminders and scheduling prompts built into electronic medical record (EMR) workflows that notify clinics of upcoming follow-up visits due. These notifications could be in form of appointment reminders for appointments and adherence messages to remind patients to either consume their medications as scheduled or refill on time. Auto follow-ups also help in getting more patients engaged with his/her healthcare provider even after their visits, this is the only solution by which one can give a push to patient so that they complete any pending health-related task.
Personalized Care Driven by Data
With Behavioral Health EHR systems, providers can track patient data and identify which treatment methods are working or not so they need help with their patients accordingly. This data, in turn, can be leveraged by providers to provide care that is more personalized on an ongoing basis — making changes to treatment plans as necessary and doing so far quicker than they otherwise might have. The resulting personalization can help make patients feel like more than just another cancer patient and provide a boost to treatment engagement.
Behavior Health EHR Systems and Trust & Transparency
Patient engagement starts with trust and transparency, which are perhaps even more important in behavioral health than other areas of healthcare because the needs that you're trying to address for patients can be sensitive or personal. Therefore, Behavioral Health EHR systems promote transparency by providing patients with access to their treatment plans and the progress of those treatments. By ensuring that patients are aware of their care, it makes them feel more confident in the process and broadens their trust levels towards providers.
EHR software also builds trust by providing a secure place to store patient information — and ensuring that only authorized people can see it. In the behavioral health field, which relies heavily on confidentiality measures for many cases. Patients, whose privacy and dignity are preserved as much as possible while ensuring their safety, will be more likely to interact with healthcare providers openly & honestly.
Challenges and Considerations
Behavioral Health EHR systems have several advantages when it comes to patient engagement, but there are also some drawbacks. One of the biggest challenges, which we touched upon in a previous post on physician burnout is that an EHR system can only be as good as the technology patients have access to. And not all patients are equipped with sophisticated smart devices or internet in their homes so they cannot fully use this digital tool available at most healthcare provider offices today. And providers need to remember these gaps and have other ways to engage those patients who do not have digital tool access.
The first being the risk of information overload. However, as patients having their health information is good it can also be a bad situation since too much data could lead to more harm and confusion or anxiety. It makes it extra important for providers to ensure that anything shared via EHR systems is clear, concise and helpful in contributing toward the care of a patient.
Patient Engagement in Behavioral Health: Where Do We Go from Here?
The capabilities for patient engagement in the best EHR systems for behavioral health will continue to grow as technology evolves. In the future, it is expected that new AI tools will continue in development to identify patient requirements and deploy different engagement strategies appropriately. Virtual reality (VR) could also be used as a means of patient engagement — providing more immersive therapeutic experiences to supplement traditional treatments.
In addition, when health systems operate more in sync with one another, patients can have a smoother experience across their care continuum. By incorporating further patient conditions into a treatment plan, it would extend the reach of patient engagement and add to their ability in aiding all aspects of healthcare necessary for better overall maintenance than what other treatments could offer.
Conclusion
Better outcomes in behavioral health can be reached if patient engagement is improved, and Behavioral Health EHR systems are working diligently to achieve this goal. These systems are enabling patients with tools to help them drive their care, communicate better and make it personal. Going forward, the ongoing evolution of EHR technology will further intertwine charting around core clinical functionality and patient engagement — resulting in improved health outcomes and a more effective standard of care within behavioral health.
