How Technology Is the New Frontier for Care Coordination

History has shown that when epidemics strike, society responds with perseverance and innovation. The current pandemic is unprecedented, not only in seriousness and scope but also in how the behavioral health industry delivers care. Out from the chaos has emerged the expediency of change to care for clients in need. Care coordination, in particular, rose in importance during the pandemic when many practices had to dive head-first into digital and data-driven transformation to continue services.

Even as the crisis stabilized thanks to vaccine programs and risk reduction, this new practice-based technological integration that surfaced in the storm is here to stay. Interoperability is now expected of providers in IDD, substance abuse and other areas across behavioral health.

Care coordination overview

A client-centered approach is ideal in behavioral health. To best facilitate this, care coordination became the natural progression. If the client is at the center of treatment — modalities, systems and all decisions leading to care — communication is the nexus that best facilitates and enables a team of professionals to ensure that they consistently provide care to that client.

The five key elements that comprise care coordination in 2021 are:

1. There’s a team involved, and they each represent an essential piece of successful client treatment.
2. This team must coordinate with one another because they are dependent on each other to deliver the disparate activities in the client’s care.
3. The only way this team can effectively carry out their roles and activities is in a coordinated way because each team member requires knowledge about everyone’s roles.
4. The team must manage all client care so they must effectively and efficiently have a reliable exchange of information.
5. The integration of client care is reliant upon appropriate facilitation of client care service delivery.

How technology empowers care coordination

Interoperability (exchanging and making use of information) is essential for care coordination in 2021 and beyond. In that, there must be a foundation of standardized, industry-specific, proven technology. For this to best facilitate care coordination, the technology must be built on a centralized system. This serves as the hub of communication to ensure the team can coordinate and collaborate in real-time on treatment pathways driven by evidence-based practices across the cycle of care.

The technology powering care coordination has solved the problems of the past including:

• Care systems have been fragmented with disjointed processes between provider sites.
• A system that is not client-centered means the clients are often confused about who they are being referred to from primary care providers and why, as well as how to make appointments and what follow-up is about.
• Different members of the client care team did not always have the information they needed at their fingertips, including reasons for referrals, tests, histories and a centralized health record.
• Care was inefficient as clients went from one provider to the next, given the varying systems and even lost data.

Today, technology empowers care coordination by unifying fragmented processes between all providers. In other words, clients see continuity as different providers contribute with coordinated information and data. Staff is able to be more efficient. Communication has been standardized to enhance productivity through integrated software.

Behavioral health EHR/EMR for care coordination

Core Solutions, Inc.'s single, integrated EHR technology platform, Cx360, provides features and benefits that create a centralized system for care coordination:

• Front office management. This, among other benefits, affords criteria-based appointment scheduling and integrated referral management that both support effective care coordination.
• Clinical and medical management. This provides centralized clinical and medical workflows and integrated decision support on mobile apps that have proven provider adoption and satisfaction. The reduction of administrative burdens maximizes office productivity and overall improvements in care continuity.
• Engagement and accessible communication. This is enabled between providers and clients.

Core's EHR solutions eliminate barriers to and build bridges for client care teams. Core helps behavioral health providers modernize.

Contact Core today to discuss how the Cx360 platform can change everything for your centralized care coordination.