Two in 6 diagnoses at Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare's primary care practices are behavioral health conditions.
A partnership with NeuroFlow is designed to help primary care providers identify and address growing behavioral health needs more effectively, Tammer Attallah, executive clinical director of Intermountain's Behavioral Health Clinical Program told Becker's.
"Our partnership with NeuroFlow really applies their technology and capability in a standardized way to identify a behavioral health need, but more specifically, help those primary care providers identify what to do when a need comes up," Mr. Attallah said.
Philadelphia-based Neuroflow provides behavioral health management for healthcare providers.
The technology will help providers steer patients in need of behavioral health support to integrative or collaborative care in the primary care setting, Mr. Attallah said. If a patient is identified as suicidal or in crisis, they will be directed to emergency care.
"One of the things that Intermountain Health prides itself on, that's built into being a model health system, is offering and providing evidence-based strategies," he said. "So in order to be able to do that, we've got to understand what the needs are of those that we serve."
NeuroFlow is one part of Intermountain's integrated behavioral care efforts.
Several studies have found integrating behavioral health into primary care improves patient outcomes and can reduce costs and improve patient experience.
Integrated primary and behavioral care has been "highly effective" at Intermountain, Mr. Attallah said.
"By effective, I don't just mean getting people access to care," he said. "People are getting measurably better."
Because the volume of behavioral health diagnoses in primary care is so high, connecting people to the right service for their needs is critical, Mr. Attallah said, and part of solving the access challenges that plague behavioral health.
While integrated care is great for many patients, some may have complicating factors that mean primary care is not the right space for their needs.
"For example, in some cases, specific eating disorders need particularly effective care that may be better suited outside primary care. Those are the kind of things where referring them to that specialist, as a way to address that, actually increases the capacity for primary care — not just to deliver more care, but to deliver more effective care."