Psychiatric Medical Care found a way to turn documentation from a headache to a "fan-favorite."
J.R. Greene, CEO of the Brentwood, Tenn.-based behavioral care management company, told Becker's clinicians could be dealing with eight different EMR systems at eight different locations. The company is partnered with 350 hospitals in 38 states and employs over 500 physicians.
Mr. Greene told Becker's the system created its own internal application, Insight, to manage clinical documentation to simplify the process.
"Very quickly this is becoming a fan favorite because it's giving our clinical team increased insight, improved transparency across our system and the hospitals we partner with," Mr. Greene said.
It's also making the documentation process easier for physicians, Mr. Greene said.
"One of the biggest elements we run into when managing very high-level clinicians is you want to spend more time on the patient and less time on checkboxes and documentation," Mr. Greene said.
Here are two other ways Psychiatric Medical Care is confronting workforce challenges:
Cultivating kindness
Maggie Music, chief human resources officer at Psychiatric Medical Care, told Becker's recruiting behavioral health providers has become more challenging as more physicians retire or leave the workforce and fewer graduate medical school.
Staying adaptive and current with recruitment has been key, Ms. Music said.
"The things that have worked for us are definitely focusing on employees' well-being, ensuring that they are in an environment that by nature is a good place to be, they feel safe, they feel valued, they feel heard," she said.
Increase flexibility
Mr. Greene said growth of telehealth and telepsychiatry options has helped reduce provider shortages.
"That has really helped us tremendously in eliminating a lot of shortages when it comes to at least the psychiatrist and the nurse practitioner level of care," Mr. Greene said.
For nurses, techs and other staffers who have to be in-person on inpatient units, managing scheduling options and promoting work-life balance is key, he said.
Employees continue to crave flexible arrangements, Ms. Music said, and opportunities to work with different populations.
"Increasing what we have to offer in terms of flexibility in time, days of the week, and care models for pediatric, to young adult to geriatric. Being able to offer a wide variety of populations has been really helpful," she said.