Challenge
Becoming a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) funded by an expansion grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the best kind of challenge a provider agency can face, but for the Plains Area Mental Health Center (PAMC), it came with the knowledge that a new EHR platform would be needed to support new programs, services compliance requirements, and outcomes tracking and reporting. While that was a known challenge, embarking on both those goals just as the initial COVID-19 lockdown period changed everyone’s world was an unplanned consideration for PAMHC
“We had already made the choice to take on a lot by applying for the CCBHC grant, which we were awarded, and then, like everyone else, we were suddenly taking on more,” said Kim Keleher, PAMC President and CEO.
Solution
PAMHC chose the Credible Behavioral Health EHR platform to support its CCBHC journey. “We needed an EHR platform and a vendor partnership that could support CCBHCs, with expert customer service, reliability we could count on, and the flexibility and technical capabilities to not only let us document services and bill for them, but to make our own updates as we grow,” Keleher said. “And then we went fully virtual.”
Implementing the Credible EHR during the initially overwhelming concerns and uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic turned out to exceed PAMHC’s partnership expectations. “The move to Credible has been phenomenal,” Keleher said. “Our counterparts on the Implementation Team supported us as subject matter experts and as partners, and their CCBHC knowledge and experience was invaluable.”
Three years later, PAMHC continues to expand its programs and services and is currently undertaking an Enhanced Support Services engagement with Credible, to complement its self-service adaptations and accommodate its growth. “Having additional expert resources available to us for a period of time is exactly the right investment for us right now,” Keleher said. “It takes time to change. This will move us forward faster.”
Remote EHR Implementation Success | A New Way of Working
“Credible was our partner in standing up a new EHR and new CCBHC services during the pandemic, while we were all learning to work fully remotely,” Keleher said. “We had a new platform, a new program, and a new way of working.”
CCBHC Implementation Success While Working Virtually
PAMHC chose Credible as its CCBHC partner as much for its EHR capabilities as for its CCBHC peer engagement, it subject matter experts, and its national leadership.
“With Credible, we can support the complexities of CCBHC documentation, CCBHC outcomes tracking and reporting, and CCBHC billing, while working in virtual, hybrid, and face to face modes,” Keleher said. “We are now able to instantly calculate CCBHC measures.”
Clinical Success
“Adding clinical dashboards so that each clinician can see their own data and be accountable for the status of their notes, while understanding their no-show rates and their productivity has enabled a new level of self management,” Keleher said. “Credible’s proven implementation methodology got us to where we are.”
Business Intelligence and Data and Analytics Success
“We researched the market quite thoroughly, and we chose Credible for capabilities, its proven implementation methodology, its data accessibility, and its ease of use for reporting for compliance and for organizational success,” Keleher said. “We can manage our own forms and fields for data entry for reporting and analytics, and we can easily set metrics and run analytics.”
Enhanced Support Services Engagement Success
“This engagement will accelerate our understanding and our execution of what Credible can do for us,” Keleher said. “Now that we’ve had time to learn the system and see what it can do, we want to move beyond where we are, and we want to do it quickly. This will take us to the next level of data dashboards, of workflow efficiency, and of optimizing our platform.”
About Plains Area Mental Health Center
Mission: To provide affordable quality mental health services to the people of the communities we serve, respecting each individual’s dignity, worth, and potential for growth. Ensuring an environment of confidentiality and dedication – we put our people first.
- 50-year anniversary in 2022
- 15 locations in Northwest Iowa
About Qualifacts
Qualifacts is one of the largest behavioral health and human services EHR vendors in the country. Its mission is to partner with customers to support and extend their ability to deliver quality care and improve the lives of the clients they serve. With more than 20 years of experience its products and services help customers achieve interoperability goals, optimize efficiency, improve productivity, and maximize reimbursement. The company offers several EHRs – CareLogic, Credible and InSync – while collaborating to build an even brighter future for partner agencies and their clients.
