Psychiatry EMR Software Guide

Your Ultimate Guide to Psychiatry EMR Software 2023

Psychiatric EMR Software aid practitioners in handling all the logistical operations, including; integrated e-prescribing (e-Rx), online scheduling, clinical documentation, prescription, lab writing, clinical reporting, and other administrative tools in psychiatry practices. When all the technical barriers are erased, it will help your business to become more patient-centered. 

Features of Psychiatry EMR Software

Choosing a Psychiatry EMR for your solutions will significantly impact your work-life; hence, having a sound understanding of how the EMR software for alternative medicine works is essential. Before purchasing, keep an eye out for the following prospective characteristics. 

• Workflow Management: If you are working in a Psychiatry practice, you should make sure your EMR software facilitates care and support rather than interfering in direct patient interaction. And working in a mental and behavioral health practice comes with storing and dealing with large chunks of data. EMR software will give you the comfort of electronic patient charting, managing, maintaining, and documenting all your workflow problems. It eases the process of data entry by allowing users to input information into patient records electronically. Some EMRs also offer speech-to-text functionality (voice command). 

• Patient Note Management: Psychiatrists often need access to their old notes quickly to remind them of their previous sessions. Psychiatry is mainly observation and note-taking, EMR software provides clinical note options (for writing detailed progress and treatment plan) and rapid note retrieval as well. 

• Customized Prescription List: Because alternative medicine does not entail prescription drugs, the prescription list that a quality Electronic Medicine Software offers would contain vitamins and compounds. On the other hand, there is also an e-prescription feature, enabling practitioners to send patient’s prescriptions directly to the pharmacy, allowing you access to many pharmacies across the USA. Patients can also show their prescription at the pharmacy and collect their medicines from the counter. It also helps pharmacies ensure the availability of a medication prior to the patient’s visit. A comprehensive drug database will supply the facility of verification of drug-to-drug, drug-to-food, drug-to-allergy interactions before any medication prescribed through the interaction system. Patients can also request refills online.

• • Integration: For seamless EMR solutions, the software should have automated patient data integration for immediate access and storage, providing patient tracking facilities in business operations and practice management. 
  • HIPAA Compliance: Picking an EMR software that is HIPPA compliant is crucial. It sets the standard for sensitive patient health data protection. Having security means you are adhering to the policies and procedures.

• SOAP Notes: Another commendatory time-saving characteristic is customized SOAP notes (subjective, objective, assessment, and plan). These notes document in a structured and organized way, making charting efficient by matching diagnosis with the built-in prescription. These lists also alert the practitioner with any drug allergies or wrong data entry. Top Psychiatry EHR Software must include templates for anxiety, addiction, bipolar OCD, schizophrenia, suicide depression, delirium, mania, psychosis, eating disorders, etc.

• Customized Treatment Plans: Psychiatry EMR systems can help you create treatment plans (long term / short term); if your EMR comes preloaded with strategies to add to a treatment plan, it will speed up the process, enabling you to get more done each day. Because mental health professionals have unique codes designed for their niche for diagnosis and billing, the software must contain DSM-IV codes.

• Built-In Psychiatry Templates: Alternative Medicine software offers pre-defined clinical templates to practitioners for charting and note-taking, leaving them utterly hands-free through their consultation. EMR software should be able to ensure that you can rate the social, occupational, and psychological functioning of a patient through the Global Assessment of Functioning. GAF helps monitor patient’s severity of mental health and behavioral factors through graphical depiction. A good one will have customizable templates for the manual edit option to suit each practitioner’s specific workflow and requirements. It helps save a lot of time, which then practitioners can utilize to improve their clients’ health. Some EMR software solutions also have voice recognition and dictation in the templates. 

• Billing & Coding: Catering to a specific specialty does not require additional clutter of codes irrespective of their specialty. Codes specifically designed for behavioral health, making billing accurate and fast. Psychiatrists have their own methodology for both internal and external billing. A top psychiatry EMR software solution should have built-in CPT and ICD-10 codes to assure a seamless, efficient billing process. Each practice has its specific code. Better evaluation and management standards ensure that healthcare payers have all the clients’ information to payout.  It should also have a real-time dashboard to check patients’ charts, profiles, billing processes, scheduling, etc. 

Also read using telepsychiatry to meet mental health challenges during COVID-19, here.

Benefits of a Psychiatry EMR software

• Human-Computer Interaction: Since doctors are not tech-savvy, it would not be right to expect them to be experts in using EMR software. Effortless and straightforward software should be a top priority as it will also be easy for the customers to switch to electronic service. Good software also has in-built recording systems for specialty practices. Some vendors offer free training too. 

• Specialty-Specific Prescription: Mental health practitioners have specifically designed medications and prescriptions that they need to utilize regularly. They do not use medicines that pertain to other specialties like Cardiology, Urology. With a built-in list of specialty-specific EMR software prescriptions, the task becomes much simpler and convenient for behavioral health providers.   

• Patient Portal: Electronic medical record has a patient-user workflow and patient engagement (recent doctor visits, lab results, educational materials, discharge summaries, etc.) A comprehensive EHR platform should have an appointment-setting feature that allows team members to quickly register patients, schedule them, and choose a purpose for their visit. It must send out automatic appointment reminders via text or email to decrease no-shows and confirm better collections. However, you need to ensure that you are comfortable with the platform’s scheduling features.
• E&M Coding: It presents better evaluation and management standards, ensuring that healthcare payers have all the clients’ information to payout. 
• User-Friendly Interface: Customization and Easy-to-Use Navigation.
• Medical Billing Dashboards: A good psychiatry EMR software makes billing as fast, integrated, and painless as possible. You can easily send bills and transfer the data from charts to statements using these systems. During bill creation, the tool might auto-fill an account with services from charts, or it might let you view the bill and chart side-by-side. It is rendering improved financial profitability with incentives.
• Health Information Exchange: EMRs with HIE connectivity allow doctors and hospitals to stay connected across the country. 

Psychiatry EMR Software

Can’t decide how to choose a vendor?

When selecting a psychiatry EMR, providers should consider features that are deemed necessary to improve efficiency and care at your clinic or solo practice. For example, some EMRs will allow you to create and store custom, reusable notes in a database for quick retrieval during a patient encounter. In addition, many clinics benefit from administrative features, such as a calendar application or patient scheduling for clinical appointments. Although behavioral and mental health practices face many challenges when it comes to selecting software, keep an eye out for vendors who will also give you a free EMR demo. 

Here are some key aspects to consider when choosing your EMR software:

• Size: Depending on the size of your practice, whether it is a solo or small practice having a limited number of staff, choose a vendor that either employs free EMR software or works on a low monthly fee structure. Software is always designed keeping in mind the number of users, budget constraints, scalability, and support. For small scale size, opt for cloud hosting storage; it will offer ample storage and backup with improved efficiency, security, and safety. Cloud-based systems also offer greater ease of use for less technical users and minimize the need for in-house IT staff.

The requirements for a medium-sized practice are stringent. Still, the EMR software also necessitates unique features such as interoperability (for smooth workflow and quality care), dedicated customer support, multi-device support, and extensive reporting functionality to keep an eye on the practice’s overall performance.

Large practices consist of 15-20 medical providers; therefore, a scalable EMR solution is needed to accommodate users and doctors from multiple locations. 

Hospitals and Enterprise Organizations need a list of requirements to be fulfilled by EMR software. Features such as inventory management modules, interface with local labs (LIS), EMAR (electronic medication administration records), machines, and diagnostic equipment, along with drug dispensing, are of utmost importance. It should also integrate easily with other software and medical devices. 

• Design: Site computer server or cloud-based software, it should be available anywhere through the internet. Selecting a design depends solely on your comfort level and choice. Some medical practitioners prefer a computer server as it covers the HIPAA requirements, while others want database access.

• Certification: This goes without saying but whatever software you decide to opt for in the end should have a certification. For internal medicine, look out for the ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB). They will make sure that your vendor meets useful objectives and, most importantly, is HIPAA compliant. Security of patient data and medical records is a principal concern for not only clinicians and medical providers but your patients as well. Top EMR Software Vendors from today (AdvancedMD, PrognoCIS, Modernizing Medicine, Chirotouch, Kareo, etc.) use data encryption technologies and other advanced tools in every section of the EMR Software to make sure that they safeguard patient records.

• 24/7 Access: Verifying that your EMR is accessible on both PC and Mac is important. You never know from what computer you will be accessing the software or which device your patient will be using.

Pro Tip: APA’s Committee on Mental Health Information Technology (CMHIT) has developed a tutorial to help medical practitioners in selecting an EMR vendor to build an optimal EMR product for psychiatry. The tutorial has specific system requirements that are meant to serve as a comprehensive checklist for APA members in evaluating EMRs.