Continuity of Care Becomes a Reality!

See Netsmart article, Connected Care in a
Connected World, in theNational Council Magazine

It’s a fact: Mental health, substance abuse and public health organizations will never have sufficient funding to provide the level of care they believe to be required for their consumers. Budgets are ever-changing, so a transformation in the way care is delivered is needed to help circumvent this always-challenging issue.

Connected Care is the breakthrough required for this transformation. What is Connected Care? Connected Care is the sharing of clinical information inside your organization, with other care providers and with consumers themselves, which ultimately improves the quality of care.

The initial step toward a connected care environment is to link and automate internal clinical processes with scheduling, billing/finance and other internal processes and systems. Automating key clinical functions and sharing the data with other departments can provide exponential process improvements to a provider organization. For example, many agencies realize immediate revenue gains by capturing and billing for services that had previously gone unrecorded.

In connected care environment, clinical information also needs to be shared with all agencies involved in the care process, including inpatient and outpatient facilities, public health departments, primary care facilities and with other entities like regional health information networks (RHIOs). For example, if a consumer needs to be referred to an inpatient facility, how long does it take to create the referral? Are you able to send medication information and other important clinical data to that facility quickly and efficiently? And, when the consumer is discharged and referred back to an outpatient program, do they arrive before the discharge summary?

To enable providers to reap the advantages of Connected Care in every aspect of the care process, Netsmart offers its Connect suite of software solutions:

Netsmart MobileConnect™
A solution that enables a clinician or case manager to work disconnected in the field, then synchronize upon returning to the office, eliminating the need for error-prone and time-wasting re-keying of data.

Netsmart ConsumerConnect™
A Web portal that enables Netsmart customer agencies to proactively involve consumers in their care. Using the portal, consumers can schedule appointments, review and comment on their treatment plans, view current medications and track usage, and communicate with their care providers

Netsmart CareConnect™
A service that ensures continuity of care by enabling clinical data to be shared between providers and other entities such as RHIOs.