CenterPointe, a leading nonprofit behavioral healthcare organization, supports thousands of individuals annually across Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Guided by the powerful mission to help people “get better, sooner, for longer,” CenterPointe offers integrated care—including mental health, substance use, primary care, housing, and crisis response—through over 40 distinct programs that operate across seven service delivery sites and four housing locations.

In 2016, CenterPointe adopted Qualifacts Credible electronic health record software (EHR software). Although CenterPointe laid the foundation for its data, the organization recognized a critical need to move beyond simple record-keeping to a centralized, actionable data system. This spurred a multi-year journey to transform CenterPointe’s clinical complexity into clarity. Shortly after onboarding with Credible, CenterPointe brought on Isaac French, Chief Operations Officer who worked Dr. Ryan Paul Carruthers, Chief Clinical Officer, and the rest of the executive team to champion data-driven decision-making to align organizational accountability, quality improvement, and sustained success.

The Opportunity: Taming Complexity to Drive Outcomes

In 2017, CenterPointe defined three key opportunities for growth:

1. Build Data Confidence: Overcoming staff resistance to data was a challenge. Still showing data’s potential as a powerful tool to enhance clinical care and individual outcomes could turn skepticism into support for their mission.
2. Unify Leadership: CenterPointe needed to move past anecdotal narratives and executive leadership misalignment. Establishing foundational data fluency at all levels would ensure strategic and operational decisions were grounded in objective, unified data.
3. Organize Complexity: With 4,000 fragmented data points across 40 programs, CenterPointe needed to reorganize, eliminate unnecessary complexities, and establish dynamic dashboards to manage clear, actionable insights for consistent quality improvement.

The Solution: Qualifacts Credible as the Engine for Transformation

CenterPointe uses Credible as an engine to power a data infrastructure that now fuels growth and accountability.

1. Build a Data Ecosystem: CenterPointe recognized that Credible was more than a record-keeping tool—it was the driving force behind their cultural and clinical transformation. Partnering with their Qualifacts customer success manager, they strategically implemented the Business Intelligence (BI) add-on. This investment unlocked powerful analytics and enabled them to build a strong data infrastructure to support informed decision-making.

Qualifacts BI provided CenterPointe with a fully configurable reporting tool to create custom reports, healthcare dashboards, and powerful graphical reporting functionality. This was essential, enabling CenterPointe to view the data that mattered most to their agency. Key features included:

• Customization: The ability to build the more than 2,780 reports required to manage their organizational complexity.
• Dashboard Library: Access to a set of premade dashboards for immediate insight into critical data points, like billing management and key performance indicators (KPIs).

2. Cultivate a Data-Driven Culture: To ensure the new Qualifacts BI tool was adopted effectively, CenterPointe focused on cultural transformation:

• The Data Champion: Isaac French built out data reports specified to the needs of the Board of Directors, Executive-level staff, Program Directors, and direct care staff.
• The Clinical Champion: Dr. Carruthers legitimized the data to frontline staff, assuring them that metrics were a tool for better individual outcomes.
• “Narrative-Busting” Training: This internal program equipped all leaders to move past anecdotes by introducing objective data, fostering a culture of continuous Quality Improvement (QI).

The Success: Real-Time, Actionable Data at Every Touchpoint

CenterPointe uses four key tiers to ensure every user receives relevant information:

Zero Suicide: Data-Driven Safety Protocols

As a dedicated Zero Suicide organization, CenterPointe built the Zero Suicide’s framework of implementation metrics directly into its dashboards, calling it their Life Worth Living Pathway. This proactive approach ensures staff can identify and respond to risk instantly:

• Rapid Risk Identification: Within their 10-Foot View reports, direct care staff can quickly see if an individual is at risk for suicide based on recent screenings (like the ASQ or Columbia).
• Protocol Compliance: The report clearly shows where the organization stands in terms of protocol compliance for that individual, ensuring every required safety metric is met.
• Real-Time Intervention: Immediate visibility allows clinicians to address gaps in safety planning, follow-ups, and/or assessments directly during the session, making data an essential tool for saving lives.

The Qualifacts BI tool helps ensure quick follow-up on critical administrative tasks, turning potential liability issues into actionable items such as incident report reviews and proactive compliance measures.

Looking Ahead: Data as the Currency of Impact

For CenterPointe, the successful implementation of its data-informed culture is not the end of the story—it’s the foundation for navigating a challenging and evolving funding landscape.

In an environment where behavioral health providers face stagnant or reducing reimbursement rates alongside increasing costs, CenterPointe views its data maturity as the essential bridge to secure future funding.

While government payers may only require tracking certain outcomes for standard fee-for-service, CenterPointe is strategically positioned to attract private funders, who demand a higher level of accountability and proof of impact.

“When we go to a private funder, they ask us to show them the data,” Dr. Carruthers said. “Private funders want to see that their money is having an impact.”

By utilizing the powerful capabilities of the Qualifacts Credible EHR and integrated BI, CenterPointe can now confidently demonstrate its operational efficiency, commitment to individual safety (Zero Suicide), and success in improving individual outcomes (DLA-20).