Sean Blair, chief growth officer for NcgCare, one of the largest behavioral health organizations on the East Coast, spoke with Becker’s about what he would do differently if he could go back to March 2020.
Editor’s note: This response was lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: If you could take a “mulligan” back to March 2020, what would you do differently?
Sean Blair: We probably would have placed a greater emphasis on that as a service delivery option pre-pandemic. Clients and staff have really embraced the access and flexibility that virtual mental health sessions provide (and that preference has continued post-pandemic). So, even though we were doing some telehealth when requested before the pandemic, we probably would have tried to offer more of that as a standard option for clients.
I think we would have put more emphasis on telehealth as a service delivery option for our clients much sooner. While we were certainly delivering some outpatient mental health services virtually before the pandemic, we were not providing nearly the volume that we have since the pandemic blew that door wide open. So, we probably would have tried to offer more of that as a standard option for clients.
What we didn’t quite anticipate (and maybe clients didn’t, either) was how much people would enjoy receiving services virtually and how much staff would relish it too.
Because the convenience of telehealth is unparalleled, we have seen significant increases in access to services. When clients and staff are participating in telehealth and not driving to physical office locations, calendars and availability open dramatically. When we can match new clients to therapists throughout the 5 states we serve (and not based on what office is nearest to the client), we can get individuals, families, and couples into treatment even quicker.
Without drive-time or traffic to consider, clients can more easily be seen during the early morning, late evening, work lunch breaks, etc. Also, our therapists can better manage their schedules because cancellations have decreased dramatically with telehealth, and last-minute time changes can be better accommodated and more easily filled with another new or existing client. So, staff can see more clients, and we can get people into treatment quicker due to the increased efficiency and flexibility that telehealth provides.
