check in transparency
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Even better? The therapist can view that status without disrupting their current session in progress.
Status indicator goes beyond a binary by tracking the patient's journey from confirmation to check out.
How I got from problems to solutions...
Electronic Health Records System (EHR) improves patient care
Patients needed records requests filled quickly.
Therapists needed a consolidated way to submit notes.
Clinic staff needed a way to communicate patient's location status to therapists without disrupting sessions.
The clinic needed more office space and less storage space.
... I gave them what they needed.
Clinician Pain Points
Through diary studies and interviews with clinicians at both the licensed and intern levels, we discovered that:
- Clinicians needed a way to automatically file notes in the proper client file.
- Clinicians and front office needed to communicate current client check in status, but not just "here" or "not here"
If we could meet these needs, clinicians would save 2.5 hours per week of admin time, and reduce distraction between sessions.
"It takes about 30 minutes to file notes every day."
"It takes about 30 minutes to file notes every day."
"Sometimes I run out of paper in the middle of session, but I don't want my computer out."
"If files get out of order, sometimes it's hard to find the most recent one."
"I wish there was a way for me to see if my client is actually checked in or not."
Impact on Clinic
Digitizing records and using a check in dashboard meant that the office could reduce costs of paper storage by more than $3,600.00 per year!
Front office operations could increase efficiency by 23% and reduce record request response time by an average of 4 days.
User Testimonials
"Finally, I knew whether a patient was running late. It meant I could spend more time with the patient in front of me instead of worrying about someone waiting."
Therapist A
"Putting my records in the system meant that I didn't have to worry about transporting physical records or spending time filing papers in the morning and evening. It prevented me from making mistakes or misplacing my notes in the storage room."
Therapist B
"I knew that when a records request came in, I could respond to it immediately. With our paper records, fulfilling records requests took at least a week, especially if a therapist hadn't filed their records correctly!"
Office Admin
"My favorite feature was the front office check-in. When I came into the office for my shift, I could glance at it and know right where everyone was, and whether they needed to be billed. No more guessing or hunting through billing accounts!"
Intern
Final Thoughts
What I learned, what happened to the project, and what I would have changed.
Existing records systems were designed for medicine, not for private-pay mental health.
Existing EHR systems at the time were designed for medical coding and insurance billing, and they were cost prohibitive.
Because we did not need client portal or internet access capabilities, and could keep the whole thing on our internal, secured server, we were able to implement it safely, securely, and quickly.