Even before the pandemic hit, demand for behavioral health services was steadily increasing. Roughly 52 million U.S. adults, or 21% of the population, reported behavioral health challenges during 2019 – a number that has grown significantly over the past few years. The number of adults seeking care for conditions such as anxiety or depression increased from 11% in 2019 to 41% in 2021.
As your team works to manage increasing workloads, you need a way to unburden staff of tasks that take far too much of their time to perform. Like other health organizations, you create and consume large amounts of data. Becoming more efficient in how you manage this data helps to free up staff and resources. But, how do you do that?
A content services platform acts like a glue, binding together different systems, processes and data to speed workflows and create a single source of truth. If you aren’t sure if your organization needs this technology, here are five signs to consider as you decide the next best steps to support your staff.
1. Back-office tasks drain time and resources
How much time does your team spend on back-office tasks? One study found that behavioral health providers spend roughly 35% of their time on patient care. That means the remaining 65% of time is spent on “other tasks,” which likely include back-office/administrative work.
Consider doing some quick research if you aren’t sure how much time your team spends on these tasks. Track your team’s time for a couple of weeks. With this data, you can figure out exactly how much time you could save streamlining back-office tasks.
2. Expenses are rising
High inflation and labor shortages are contributing to increased costs and overhead. Expectations around wages are also changing, with psychiatrists having one of the most significant compensation bumps compared to other types of providers – a 7% increase in the first quarter of 2022 alone.
Every hour your staff spends on time-intensive tasks is an hour they aren’t available to perform higher-value work. With so many of your costs rising, you need to be as efficient and as effective as possible. Technology that speeds up workflows and eliminates manual tasks helps to offset the impacts of increased expenses.
3. Information is fragmented
If you don’t have a single source of truth, productivity can take a hit. When disparate health systems don’t talk to one another, finding the information your staff members need to get their work done takes longer. In addition, your employees might need to use cumbersome, manual processes or need to toggle between systems to find different pieces of data or to share data, adding to their frustration.
A content services platform creates a streamlined way to securely store, access and share information, so you empower staff to make more informed decisions, faster while eliminating duplicate work and reducing human error.
4. Unenforced document retention processes
Rules and regulations are constantly changing, and you invest time and resources to stay compliant. If your document retention processes aren’t as efficient as they could be, your team might be risking fines for non-compliance.
A content services platform helps you collaborate and share content while enhancing security and ensuring you meet organizational, state and federal regulations.
5. Dealing with many health plans
As a behavioral health organization, you manage many different health plans, fee schedules and more. It’s a large undertaking. If the process of finding information about each of them is time consuming and disconnected, that’s a sign there may be a better way. A content services platform helps make managing multiple health plans easier, so decisions aren’t delayed by slow processes and disconnected data.
Any of the above sound familiar?
If you related to at least one of the above challenges, a content services platform can help. Not sure where to start? Download our ebook to learn everything you need to know about how a content services platform works for behavioral health organizations.
