Tag: Best Practices

This month, Iris Telehealth hosted a webinar with community health leaders to discuss how they’re optimizing provider scheduling and driving operational improvements.

Julie Rayne, Behavioral Health Manager at Worcester County Health Department, and Cynthia McAfee, Director of Operations at Golden Valley Health Centers, lent their expertise and insights into how they’re creating sustainable workflows, assessing the benefits of virtual care to support this work, and driving operational improvements.

Patient no-shows and provider scheduling complexities are key challenges in healthcare operations

No-show rates are a consistent challenge in healthcare, with 37% of medical groups reporting increased rates in 2023.

While the reasons behind these rates vary, a 2017 report from the American Hospital Association found that 3.6 million people did not have a ride to their clinician’s office, citing transportation as the third leading cause of missed medical appointments.

Echoing these statistics, McAfee shared that patients at Golden Valley often miss appointments due to transportation, homelessness, or family situations.

In addition to mitigating no-shows, Golden Valley and Worcester Health must also manage provider schedules and workflows, ensuring full schedules, consistent support, and specialized treatment that enables momentum in care.  

Fortunately, by leveraging evidence-based care models and data insights, Golden Valley and Worcester Health have made meaningful strides and improvements for behavioral health patients in their communities.

Leveraging evidence-based care models increased Worcester Health’s no-show rates by 12%

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 70% of patients who seek mental health care drop out after their first or second visit, underscoring the importance of engagement from the very beginning of treatment.

To improve engagement and no-show rates, Worcester Health leveraged multiple grants to increase their evidence-based practice models and ensure their providers had the right specializations and concentrations to best support their patients.

As a result of this focus on evidence-based clinical optimizations, Worcester Health’s show rates have increased by 12%.

Reflecting on this increase, Rayne shared that clients were more invested in Worcester’s services because of the increased access to the most in-demand specializations. 

 “Our show rates increased tremendously because clients were more engaged in the services and felt more invested. We focused on our community and the needs assessment and determined what was lacking in our evidence-based models. Then, we sent our therapists to get certified in those models.”

Julie Rayne, Behavioral Health Manager, Worcester County Health Department

 

Rayne shared that Worcester has also optimized caseloads, ensuring patients were getting seen at the frequency they needed to maintain momentum in their treatment. They were also mindful of creating a balance between caseload optimization and size, ensuring caseloads weren’t getting too big while also ensuring schedules were full.

Worcester analyzes this data monthly, looks at schedules daily, and works within their EHR to ensure confirmations and appointment reminders for patients.

Additionally, to help ensure consistent visits, Worcester asks patients to sign a treatment contract. If they miss three appointments in a row, they are discharged from services and must be readmitted.

Worcester also has a grant-funded program that enables them to send a social worker or case manager into patient homes to meet with them and explore their barriers to care.

This wrap-around care enables Worcester to learn if there are additional services patients might need without affecting their provider schedules or no-show rates.

Balancing patient convenience with operational efficiency is a core strategy for future success  

Improving scheduling accuracy and being mindful of not overbooking providers is a critical component of an organization’s operations.

For Worcester, Rayne shared they run weekly no-show reports to identify patient patterns. They also look at the dynamics of a patient’s life and how that might impact their provider’s schedules.

For instance, if a young patient stays with their grandparents for the summer, they plan for that change in the provider’s scheduling, as it provides an opening for other patients to be seen during that time.

Golden Valley uses “MyChart” to allow patients to send messages to their provider rather than requiring the back and forth of a telephone call.

In the new year, Golden Valley is also investing in iPads to leverage in their waiting room to help improve delays and get patients seen more quickly, noting that check-in time matters to the psychiatrist experience.

Then, to help with check-ins and workflows, Golden Valley implemented, “reverse scheduling,” where a Medical Assistant meets with the patient out front, checks them in, and communicates with them at the end of their visit as well.

Start small, build on success, and center patients in your strategy

Patients are the heart of every organization and working with partners who put people first is a key part of any strategy.  

Reflecting on their largest operational improvements, McAfee shared that working with Iris Telehealth has allowed Golden Valley to make improvements at the clinical level.

 “Iris has been excellent in working through and putting together a dashboard that we couldn’t put together fast enough through EPIC reporting. We have great relationships with providers, center managers, and the clinical supervisor of the medical assistants.”

Cynthia McAfee, Director of Operations at Golden Valley Health Centers

 

For Rayne and her team at Worcester, a big operational improvement that has impacted show rates has been their target case management program. This approach helps Worcester learn and solve why a patient might be missing appointments.

Rayne also shared that the therapists Worcester has leveraged through Iris has been instrumental to their teams.

“I can’t say enough about our Iris therapists and the way they micromanage their own schedules and balance it. If they have a client they want to see, they reach out to them. If someone no-shows, they get the client in to ensure they’re getting the services they need.”

Julie Rayne, Behavioral Health Manager, Worcester County Health Department

 

Prioritizing communication and a deep knowledge of your patient population delivers results

McAfee shared that her top piece of advice for organizations tackling this work is to remember that it’s their obligation to do research to increase access, noting that research needs to include understanding of referral sources and identifying clinical locations based on that geography and access.

For Golden Valley, they looked at referral sources, geography, and where the patients were coming from. Then, they tried to make sure they had a 12-month run rate because of the calendar year and the summers.

“We brought in one provider at a time, and it allowed us to learn our processes, workflows, and what wasn’t going well. Then, we could adapt them before the second provider joined. Those are probably the biggest common denominators – keeping lines of communication open – with your care teams and vendor, Iris Telehealth.

 If you don’t have those open lines of communication, the ability to take a criticism and turn it into an opportunity, there’s no way you can help patients.”

Cynthia McAfee, Director of Operations at Golden Valley Health Centers

At Worcester, they’ve found great partnership opportunities within their community. Whether that’s local social services, parole and probation, juvenile services, schools, or doctor’s offices, they ask for evaluations and recommendations from them twice a year.

Worcester consistently analyzes how things are going with their supervisors and clerical staff and reviews agency-wide client feedback annually.

Learn more about how virtual care can optimize scheduling

We are grateful for the time these leaders shared with us! Thank you for your partnership and for all the incredible work you are all doing to care for your community and support your clinicians!

Weren’t able to make it to the webinar? You can watch the full conversation here. If you’d like to learn more and figure out the next steps to integrating virtual care into your organization, you can contact us here.

Over the past decade and a half, the field of behavioral health has undergone significant changes. However, one transformation stands out among the rest: the integration of virtual behavioral health services into primary care settings. This groundbreaking shift is not only changing the way we provide care, but it is also fundamentally altering patient outcomes and reshaping the structure of our entire healthcare system.

 

Virtual care breaks down traditional barriers to behavioral health access

The traditional model of separate physical and behavioral healthcare has long created unnecessary obstacles for patients. Consider this: when a primary care physician identifies signs of depression during a routine visit, the traditional referral process often results in only 50% of patients actually following through with behavioral health appointments. The reasons are numerous: stigma, transportation issues, wait times, and the challenge of navigating multiple healthcare systems.

Virtual behavioral health integration dissolves these barriers. By embedding behavioral health services within primary care settings and leveraging technology for delivery, we’re seeing remarkable improvements in both access and outcomes.

 

Virtual care enables timely intervention and improved outcomes

Virtual behavioral health integration brings several key advantages:

Immediate Access

The integration of virtual care into primary care services allows for immediate access to behavioral health specialists during a virtual visit when mental health concerns are identified. This timely intervention not only prevents conditions from worsening but also reduces the risk of patients falling through the cracks. 

Additionally, for organizations without local access to behavioral health specialists, the use of virtual care can address these gaps and provide long-term strategic benefits for both providers and patients. By utilizing virtual care, primary care providers have a seamless connection to behavioral health specialists for patient referrals, enabling them to collaborate on medication dosages and facilitate referrals to higher levels of care.

Increased Engagement

Virtual care removes geographical constraints and time barriers. Patients can connect with specialists from their homes, workplaces, or any private space. This convenience has led to a marked decrease in no-show rates—clinics have experienced a 29% reduction in missed appointments after implementing virtual integrated services. 

Enhanced Collaboration

Virtual platforms enable seamless communication between primary care providers and behavioral health specialists. Doc-to-doc consults and referrals lead to more coordinated care plans and better management of complex conditions, creating a more holistic patient experience and increasing patient satisfaction.

 

Behavioral health integration creates significant cost savings for health systems

The benefits of virtual behavioral health integration extend beyond individual patient care to affect entire health systems:

Cost Reduction

By addressing behavioral health issues early and in conjunction with physical health, health systems see significant cost savings. Studies show that patients with untreated behavioral health conditions typically incur 2-3 times higher medical costs than those receiving appropriate care.

Resource Optimization

Virtual integration allows health systems to maximize their behavioral health resources. Specialists can serve multiple primary care locations without travel time, increasing their availability and effectiveness. 

Improved Population Health Management 

The data collected through virtual platforms enables better tracking of population health trends and outcomes. This information helps health systems allocate resources more effectively and develop targeted interventions for high-risk populations. 

 

Effective behavioral health integration drives real-world outcomes like decreased LOS and wait times

 At Iris, our own experience driving virtual behavioral health integration with our partners has shown: 

• 96% reduction in patient wait times  
• 38% improvement in depression symptoms over eight weeks of care 
• 80% decrease in emergency department length of stay  

Additionally, emergency department visits for behavioral health crises decrease by up to 14.2% when virtual integrated care is available. 

Perhaps most significantly, virtual behavioral health integration is catalyzing a cultural shift in how we think about healthcare delivery. The artificial separation between physical and mental health is dissolving, replaced by a more holistic, patient-centered approach.

As we continue to evolve our healthcare delivery models, virtual behavioral health integration will play an increasingly central role. The future likely holds even greater integration of digital tools, artificial intelligence for risk prediction, and expanded capabilities for remote monitoring and intervention.

The integration of virtual behavioral health services into primary care isn’t just a temporary solution or a pandemic-driven necessity—it’s a fundamental reimagining of how we deliver comprehensive healthcare. By breaking down traditional barriers, improving access, and enabling true collaboration between providers, we’re moving toward a more effective, efficient, and equitable healthcare system.

For health systems considering implementation of virtual behavioral health integration services, the evidence is clear: this approach not only improves patient outcomes but also strengthens the entire healthcare ecosystem. The initial investment in technology and workflow redesign is far outweighed by the long-term benefits in terms of both patient health and system efficiency.

Our challenge now is not whether to implement these changes, but how to accelerate their adoption and ensure they reach all populations who could benefit from them. 

If you’d like to learn more about Virtual Clinic and how you can integrate behavioral health into your organization’s primary care service line, please reach out today.

High demand for psychiatric care can create challenges across a health system and hinder their ability to meet key goals and KPIs.

Additionally, behavioral health visits can occupy 42% more time than non-psychiatric visits and result in 24% more inpatient admissions.

Fortunately, leveraging data tracking and optimization to make meaningful change across your organization can help you meet key goals, improve patient care, and gain clarity on what actions your care team needs to take to reach their desired outcomes.

Iris Insights adds intelligence to patient outreach and improves engagement

Typically, in behavioral health outreach, there’s no real concept of acuity beyond what a provider specifies as urgent.

That’s what makes risk stratification an important component of an organization’s approach to behavioral health care. Iris Insights reviews a wide variety of data elements and identifies patients who have a likelihood of escalation. Then, we can provide outreach and engage those patients at highest risk of admission first, before they escalate.

Early identification helps avoid escalation, reduces costs, and improves the success of a hospital’s behavioral health program.

To help improve the effectiveness of this approach, Iris Insights visualizes the data in an easy-to-use platform. This platform enables organizations to view all their metrics, KPIs, and reports – everything they need to make sure their program is performing at the level they need for the best results.

Achieving clarity into your program’s performance is essential for success

Iris Insights is a HIPAA-compliant, secure platform that serves as a singular place for organizations to gain visibility into their behavioral health programs. For example, through the platform they can see referral status or where a patient is in their behavioral health journey.

Here are a few things a health system might need to look at when assessing their programs success:

• What are the margins across health payers?
• How do our metrics compare to national and regional benchmarks?
• How optimized are our resources to maximize margins while maintaining SLAs?

Having this visibility into current performance and how an organization is stacking up compared to other health systems like theirs can help optimize the success of their behavioral health strategy.

Success also takes shape in change management. When combining the Iris management model and our high-quality providers, we can help drive continuous clinical improvement. In fact, healthcare organizations that have leveraged our partnership have seen a 38% depression symptom improvement and an 80% ED throughput improvement.

Having visibility into how your behavioral health services are performing can help you optimize where needed and make sure your patients are getting what they need from their care.

Data can be a valuable tool that enriches the patient experience

According to the National Committee for Quality Assurance, quality measures are urgently needed to help guide value-based payment models to support high-quality, equitable, and coordinated care.

Typically, when a patient has a behavioral health visit, they’re given take-home instructions to help assist in their treatment. However, there’s no real insight or engagement to see how the patient is doing until their next visit.

This lack of insight can hinder the team’s ability to adjust or be more proactive or reactive in the patient’s treatment.

Dr. Michael Lambert, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University shared to the American Psychological Association (APA) that 85% of therapists believed their patients improved, but research showed that only 40-60% improved. Dr. Lambert also shared therapists believed 3% of their patients deteriorated when in actuality, 5-10% of adults worsened while in therapy.

That’s where measurement-based care can help organizations visualize their clinical and operational data to help identify gaps like these. When healthcare organizations leverage effective behavioral health assessments, utilize technologies, and provide efficient and regular outreach, patients stay more engaged in their treatment. At Iris, we work closely with our clinical leadership to ensure we’re implementing workflows that deliver a more holistic approach to care.

Data tells a story, and providers can view trends over time — well before a patient comes in for their 90-day evaluation.

Putting patient data at the provider’s fingertips helps complete the picture of where a patient is in their behavioral health journey and improves the quality of care.

Iris Insights provides supports for a traditionally underserved part of the continuum of care

Building out a quality program can be costly and consume a lot of resources. However, leveraging a quality partnership can bolster your program with clinical expertise, covering infrastructure costs, and providing scalable behavioral health services.

With a platform like Iris Insights, your data is actionable and can help your organization make the most of your behavioral health program.

Additionally, as a behavioral health focused company, we take a conservative approach to technologies like AI and leverage them to decrease the risk of escalation and ensure patients aren’t falling through care gaps.

If you’d like to learn more about Iris Insights and how it can help your organization stay on track to meet your key goals and metrics, please don’t hesitate to reach out today! You can contact us here for more information.

Integrating behavioral health into existing patient journeys, whether a patient just received a cancer diagnosis, is an expecting mother, or is experiencing escalating anxiety at a primary care appointment, is the right thing to do – for the patient and for the organization.   

At Iris Telehealth, we work with healthcare organizations to tailor programs that seamlessly integrate into their existing service lines to address population-specific needs and acuity levels.  

This approach to augmenting and building a tailored behavioral health program is what we call creating a “Virtual Clinic,” as it represents a seamless, comprehensive care solution that can be deployed wherever it’s needed – and we believe it’s the future of integrated behavioral health care. 

No two healthcare organizations have the same capabilities or needs 

The needs across organizations vary greatly depending on location, patient population, and access to behavioral health providers.  

That’s why, at Iris, our strategy is to meet organizations where they are and augment whatever components they have in place. Whether that’s a provider team, technology, or processes, we tweak and enhance what’s needed, but never throw out what’s working.  

In our experience, here are just a few examples of patient journeys an organization might look to address when customizing their behavioral health programs: 

• Oncology care 

• Women’s health  

• Employee access programs  

• Primary care integration  

Integrating behavioral health across all patient journeys can transform your organization and how it delivers care to its community.  

While in some instances we start from square one, other times we build on what an organization already has in place. Everyone’s path to meeting their patient’s behavioral health needs will look different.  

Questions to consider around care models, data analytics, and technology  

When customizing your behavioral health program for your patient’s needs, there are three components every organization should consider – the care model, data analytics, and technology to drive optimal patient engagement.  

Within each of these categories, you can tweak the ingredients to help ensure they fit what your organization needs.  

Here are a few questions and considerations you might start thinking through:  

The  right care model to use:  

• What are the unique needs of this patient population?  Do they need 24/7 coverage?  What are the common acuity levels and diagnoses?   

• What are the integration points with this behavioral health program and the broader organization?  How do we drive optimal transitions of care and collaboration?   

• What provider licensures, types and specializations would best suit our needs?  

The right data to measure:  

• What KPIs are critical to measure that will drive program operational, clinical and financial success?  

• How do we capture and measure the critical variables and bring them together to ensure the data is visible and actionable?  

• Would risk stratification of the patient population bring value to the program?    

The right technology to leverage:  

• How do we leverage and optimize the existing EMR and technology to drive program success?  

• Are there ways we should optimize and configure our EMR?  

• Are there additional tools or solutions we should integrate into our ecosystem that would drive value? 

• How are we engaging our patients and driving measurement-based care?  

Tailoring your behavioral health program starts by defining what success will look like for your organization. That’s why it’s important to consider what problems you’re solving for and looking at what solutions you already have in place.  

A Virtual Clinic model solves for all these considerations while delivering seamless behavioral health support  

The demand for behavioral health care is continuing to grow at a rate that outpaces the resources available to help. In fact, 40% of U.S. adults and adolescents with mental health conditions never get the care they need.  

A solution like Virtual Clinic ensures behavioral health care is always available throughout every patient journey – whether that’s in primary care or women’s health, patients will get the support they need in a timely manner.  

The Virtual Clinic also ensures that the healthcare organization caring for these patients also gets the support they need, too. By optimizing access and billing, ensuring top-of-license care, and driving behavioral health and physical care integration, organizations can reduce the total cost of care.  

Weaving behavioral care into physical health journeys creates seamless access and better outcomes.  

Tailored behavioral health program design in action with Geisinger Health  

Geisinger Health sought the help of Iris Telehealth to help increase access at scale to help their behavioral health patients across the care continuum.  

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Geisinger saw their behavioral health referrals increase at a fast rate, sometimes exceeding 300 referrals per day.  

Emphasizing the need for providers practicing at the top of their licenses and seeing an opportunity for several new provider roles, Iris developed a best-in-class behavioral health program.   

To support their needs, we created a care navigation assessment led by LCSWs to triage patients in Geisinger’s referral queue and deployed a dedicated team of psychiatrists, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners and licensed therapists ensure patients got to the right level of care in a timely manner.  

To read the full case study and see the results of work together, click this link.  

Define your needs and get your behavioral health program started with Iris  

Over the last ten years, we’ve been creating the behavioral health building blocks to snap into an organization’s existing program or help create what’s needed from scratch. With our best-in-class capabilities we help fill in the unique gaps of your organization and get your patients the care they need.  

If you’d like to learn more about how we can help your organization tailor your behavioral health program, you can contact us here! 

A robust quality management program considers a patient’s care across the patient journey, encompassing multiple facets. By viewing elements of a patient’s care and measuring standards of care across this continuum, effective quality management enables organizations to improve patient outcomes.

When deployed correctly, a quality management program can improve outcomes related to:  

• Patient volumes 

• Provider efficiency 

• Patient access 

• Provider processes 

• Patient experiences 

• Financial success  

A quality management program can also enable organizations to assess transitions of care throughout the health system and into the community – for example, ensuring patients receive behavioral health follow-up after a related ER visit.

While making data actionable is a key goal for most health systems, it can be an intensive undertaking. Fortunately, leveraging tools like telehealth and partnering with organizations that specialize in quality management can be a big help.

In this blog, I’ll share my insights as Executive Director of Quality at Iris Telehealth and offer advice on how leveraging a strategic partnership can support a health system’s commitment to quality.

Looking at data through the lens of behavioral health helps identify correlations between condition 

Integrating behavioral health can often come with concerns around sustainability, but data shows that it can improve the patient’s overall health outcomes.

For example, the American Psychological Association (APA) highlights that behavioral conditions like depression and anxiety can worsen medical outcomes. They go on to say that integrating behavioral health care can help treat conditions like diabetes and improve medical adherence and delay the disease’s onset.

From a data standpoint, an organization can track a patient’s A1C data and see if it’s improving – they can even observe how it’s connected to something like their cardiovascular health or any number of other health conditions.

Pulling all that information together gives an organization the ability to identify where there might be correlations between conditions. Delving into this level of detail requires resources, and unfortunately, many health systems don’t have enough.

However, partnering with a quality-focused organization with behavioral health expertise can help your health system make the most of your data and set up effective reporting workflows to give a bigger picture of your behavioral health service line.

Figuring out the right reports for your goals will help your team effectively visualize your data   

Approaching your data through a quality management lens can help health systems understand how changes improve metrics or identify if a new solution is needed.  

At Iris, we help illustrate this data through customized reports. Here’s the approach we take when working with health systems: 

1. Determine priorities: We review the health system’s determined priorities, see how they intersect with our focus, and assess what we can work on together.  

2. Data compilation: Once we know what priorities and goals the health system wants to achieve, we provide them with visualizations of the data.  

3. Assessment and collaboration: After providing the health system with data visualization, we analyze it together to identify opportunities for improvement and then work together to address those opportunities and make meaningful changes.  

4. Tracking begins: We track how the data evolves to determine what actions have been effective or not and continue working to improve until the objective is met. 

5. Sustaining change: We continue to monitor data even after we’ve met a target so we can make sure that success is sustained over time.  

One example of how we might leverage data to support a health system is through volume assessment. Let’s say an organization is evaluating whether to decrease therapy appointment times from 60 minutes to 45. Using a tandem measurement, such as performing depression screening consistently, can help assess whether and how the decrease in time affects the care processes as well as whether there is any effect on patient outcomes. Additionally, measuring patient satisfaction before and after the change in appointment timing can help organizations determine how it affects a patient’s perception of their care and the organization.  

Looking at these three factors together would enable us to see a full picture of the effect one change has on the entire patient care experience. Importantly, it also provides data that can help inform the organization’s analysis of return on investment.  

There are many factors that contribute to an affected metric – whether that be communication or even a complicated technology platform. Whatever the challenge may be, dedicated support can help assess the issue and come to a solution.  

Tracking quality data helps put patients first and helps determine if your solutions are financially sustainable 

Quality management is here to help people. However, an important thing to note is that we can’t really know if we’re taking care of them well unless we track the data. There must be some kind of measure — just like runners who look at their times or distance. How do they know that they can do a marathon if they’re not actually keeping track of their miles? 

On the financial side, when you look at a metric like no-shows, addressing challenges in this area can help improve sustainability. 

As another example, tracking depression screening scores using a validated tool, such as the PHQ-9, can provide objective data regarding a patient’s progress and can help inform their treatment plan. For example, if their depression screening results indicate improvement, it provides an opportunity to assess (with the patient) whether they can transition to less frequent visits or possibly even move on from therapy.  This tracking not only demonstrates to the provider and patient the progress a patient has made, it can also improve access for new patients by opening up slots in the provider’s schedule. 

Where Iris Telehealth fits in 

The benefit of having a quality management solution in place at your health system is the ability to look at a patient’s health outcomes across all specialties and see where there may be intersections between how specialties are working together and where opportunities to collaborate may lie. 

If you’d like to learn more about how quality management could benefit your health system, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. You can reach out to someone here!

When health systems work to implement a new platform, not only do they need to ensure new platforms integrate into their current technologies, but they also must get team buy-in and ensure it makes their workflows and systems easier — not more complicated.

For their behavioral health services in particular, many health systems rely on telehealth to help them reach patients. However, not all platforms are created equal and there’s much to consider when choosing which partner or platform to integrate across your organization.

In this blog, we will walk through how hospitals are addressing behavioral health platform integration, important considerations, and the difference a technology-neutral partner can make to daily operations.

For many health systems, customized interfaces are expensive and labor-intensive

In 2017, the American Hospital Association released data on the importance of interoperability in healthcare and how connected, shared health information can help achieve the best possible outcomes.

When looking at barriers to exchange and interoperability in healthcare, they found:

• 63% of receiving providers lack compatible technology
• 57% report exchange challenges across different vendor platforms
• 37% found it difficult to match or identify the correct patient between systems
• 35% reported exchange with outside systems to be costly
• 28% said that customized interfaces are expensive and labor intensive

Excellent platform integration means prioritizing patient and provider usability

Hospitals want the patient and provider experience to be seamless, and part of that is ensuring all platforms work together, don’t create extra steps, and maintain security protocols. That’s why it’s important to think through what interoperability looks like and the components related to patient and provider experience.

Let’s take a closer look at a few of these points:

• Patient experience: Integrating platforms that seamlessly work with an organization’s existing systems creates a better experience for patients. Instead of having to log in to multiple platforms for things like therapy and appointment setting, having everything in one place can help create a more seamless, accessible experience.
• Provider experience: On the provider side, onboarding behavioral health technology that requires staff training can create a barrier to entry and utilize more of the hospital’s already strained resources and time. For example, if a provider is using Epic for one part of their job and a separate system for note-taking, they will need to learn a new operating system and create new logins.

On-premise systems and cloud-based platforms come with inherent differences and considerations

Another important consideration when looking at implementing new behavioral health technology is the whether the systems require on-premises set-up or operate as a cloud-based platform.

Here are a few key differences and considerations:

• On-premises system: For on-premises, a company will need to bring in and set up their own servers and the hospital will need to determine if the servers will need to be set-up on their local network. Additionally, there will need to be upkeep and management of on-site equipment.
• Cloud-based platform: For cloud-based platforms, there are other considerations when it comes to security. For example, will the new system be able to access patient records and their billing system? Additionally, what is the usability like?

With all these considerations in mind, it’s clear there’s a lot hospitals must account for when assessing what platform will best support their telehealth for behavioral health needs.

Technology-neutral partnership means no additional set-up or maintenance

Working with a technology-neutral partner means health systems don’t need to worry about on-site installation or integrating a brand new cloud based solution. Instead, the partner seamlessly integrates into a hospital’s existing technology. Technology-neutral partners can connect health systems with providers, integrate into existing workflows and systems, without additional set-up and maintenance.

Being technology-neutral also means that the telehealth partner is well-versed in a variety of equipment and Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and can more easily troubleshoot challenges.

“We are committed to being technology neutral because we believe that’s how we are able to deliver the best care to our partners’ patients. We have worked with all different types of technology – from the most complex, intuitive, lifelike, robotic cameras to clunky, old monitors. And we can tell you with certainty: no matter what tech you decide to use, it will work.”

Ted Bryant, Regional Director of Clinical Operations, Iris Telehealth

A technology-neutral telehealth partner removes the requirement to integrate a new EMR system, provide additional technical support, and manage more equipment.

These benefits equate to an easier transition to a long-term telehealth program, cost savings, and increased patient and provider satisfaction.

A supportive partnership that’s technology-neutral removes the pain points of implementation

Implementing a platform requires ongoing technical support and maintenance – which can become a pain point for health systems.

That makes partnership with a supportive telehealth organization an essential piece of the puzzle.
At Iris Telehealth, the support we provide is on-going, helping our own behavioral health providers navigate partner systems, and being there 24/7 for IT support. That way, our providers aren’t utilizing a hospital’s IT team, and the clinicians can have someone to turn to regardless of the time of day.

“When we provide support, we all try to have that same positive attitude, knowing that what we’re doing is bigger than ourselves – it’s the whole realm of psychiatry and patient care. That’s why we always try to provide the best service and never try to complain about anything. Anytime someone comes and gives us any specific problems or tickets, we’re happy to help.”

Adam Monsen, Director of IT Services at Iris Telehealth

We also provide support through our Clinical Operations Managers (COMs), who are dedicated and work directly with providers. The COMs serve as the first line of support – whether they’re answering charting or EMR questions – our internal team is a lifeline for our clinicians.

“Our COMs ensure providers have a lifeline and someone who can answer their questions, so they’re not overtaxing the hospital’s IT or support teams with questions. Every question our COMs receive is one that the hospital doesn’t have to address via their IT or support teams. Any staff you add creates more work for the hospital, with Iris, we provide capacity without increasing demand.”

Sean Tominey, Vice President of Enterprise Sales

 

Next steps with a technology-neutral partner

If you’d like to learn more about Iris and how your organization can get started with a technology-neutral partner, contact us today to learn more.

In June 2024, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy called for warning labels on social media platforms, highlighting their potential mental health effects on children and adolescents.

In his essay written for The New York Times, Dr. Murthy wrote, “Children who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms.” He also noted that, in the summer of 2023, the average daily use was 4.8 hours.

Dr. Murthy shared research from Boston Children’s Digital Wellness Lab revealing nearly half of all adolescents find social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.

As Medical Director of Outpatient Services at Iris Telehealth and a child psychiatrist, I’m passionate about helping children and families get the behavioral health support they need and find a healthy balance when it comes to their social media use.

In this piece, I’ll share the pros and cons of social media for teens, my treatment insights, and how telehealth can help support this population.

50% of adolescents check their phones at least every 15 minutes

The 2022 Pulse Survey by Boston Children’s Digital Wellness Lab highlights that 79.4% of adolescents report social media makes them feel socially connected and emotionally supported (69%) by their peers.

While social media provides a space for connection and creativity, it also poses risks for the mental health of children and adolescents.

This same survey found that:   

• Nearly 50% of adolescents surveyed check their phones at least every 15 minutes
• 57.1% of adolescents feel fatigued and 47% report headaches following their daily social media use
• 52% of young adults said screen time interfered with family time a little or a lot

Adolescents may encounter content they’re not ready for online, experience bullying, or struggle with transitioning from the continuous stimuli of social media to tasks like homework. Additionally, social media can keep them from activities they could be exploring – whether that be sports or an outside interest.

If you’re working with an adolescent who is finding difficulty striking the right balance or relationship with social media, there are strategies you can leverage to help support a healthly and sustainable relationship with these platforms.

Online interactions should be treated with the same value as in-person conversations

It’s important to educate both parents and children on social media. Often, parents have many questions because it is a new territory for everyone.

If you’re a provider or organization working with families, here are a few strategies and considerations we recommend sharing with families:

• Discuss social media etiquette: Ask parents to discuss social media etiquette and explain that online interactions should be treated with the same value as in-person conversations.
• Set proactive boundaries: Recommend they learn what platforms their child is using and how often they’re using them. Setting time limits and monitoring usage can help set boundaries. For example, it might be beneficial to unplug over night or during dinner time.
• Keep the conversation going: Encourage them to keep an open dialogue with their child about social media activities. They might ask them what role social media is playing in their lives. They can also ask what their kids are doing offline to ensure a healthy balance.

For parents, there’s a lot to be aware of and education is essential. There are a lot of things online that kids need to be protected from and it’s important to encourage parents to stay-in-the-know about their children’s social media use.

Screening for social media exposures can provide helpful insights into the patient’s wellbeing

When screening children and adolescents, I always include questions about social media exposure. For example, do they have their phone in their room at night? Social media can disrupt sleep and some children may get notifications while trying to rest.

 

 

When I screen for trauma, I also include questions about exposures while on social media. These exposures may include being bullied or using bullying behavior, or exposures to violent or mature content that a child is not developmentally equipped to process.

Additionally, I screen for amount of time on social media and the role it plays in social development. I have worked with children and teens who have had great behavioral difficulty with parental attempts to limit excessive social media use.

I have encountered cases where the threat of losing social media access and accompanying social outlets has led to suicidal ideation and inpatient admissions.

Social media is impactful to a child or young adult, and they may feel losing it as a great loss. I frequently revisit the topic of social media with parents as what’s available online to our children evolves daily. I encourage parents to be proactive and set limits on social media behaviors early.

Telehealth offers support and helps establish rapport in a safe environment

At Iris Telehealth, our providers focus on building rapport with patients and meeting in a virtual environment is familiar and can be beneficial to young patients.

“I usually try to see the patient alone, but if the parent is around, they might say, ‘Okay, I’m going to write this in the chat because I don’t want anybody to hear it.’ And they’ll write something like, ‘I have a girlfriend.’

It’s more private and chat doesn’t make it personal. I’m still getting all the information in whatever way they like to give it to me. Being virtual gives you a lot more options than being in person.”

Dr. Maria Lopez-Rosario, Iris Telehealth Provider

 

Telehealth can model a positive example of online interactions and highlight the importance of being consistent with how we behave on and off social media.

It can also create a safe space for patients.

As lives grow busier, telehealth can more easily fit into a young person’s schedule and make getting care more convenient.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Social media’s impact on mental health is an important topic for families and organizations all over the country. Whether families are seeking resources for pediatric behavioral health or information on social media and teens, finding the right resources for comprehensive support can make all the difference.

If you’d like to learn more about the work we do with this population, please contact us today!    

To stay in the loop with all things happening in the behavioral health industry, be sure to sign-up for our newsletter Iris Messenger here.

Social workers are an invaluable part of any organization, delivering high-quality, value-based care to patients and providing indispensable support to the care team. When it comes to a holistic, long-term approach to care, having access to quality therapy or counseling services is essential.  

Therapy services are also required for any healthcare organization seeking to become a CCBHC.   

If your healthcare organization is considering incorporating counseling services into your behavioral health program — or expanding your existing programs — licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs) can be a good place to start. 

This piece will break down the benefits an LCSW can bring to your organization, the different treatments and modalities they can provide, and why teletherapy might be the best way forward for your team. 

LCSWs specialize in micro and macro social work

LCSWs are highly trained providers who can provide a wide variety of services, depending on their specialization. The two biggest categories for these specializations are micro and macro social work.  

In general, macro social is looking at the larger population and making a difference there, whereas micro social work is working with individuals or family units. In most cases, your organization will likely be looking at LCSWs who specialize work with individuals or families. 

Because LCSWs deliver counseling and therapy services rather than psychiatric or medical services, they cannot prescribe medications. However, they can diagnose patients and should be familiar with the DSM-5. 

Common treatment modalities that LCSWs specialize in include: 

1. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): Commonly referred to as “talk therapy,” CBT hones in on how thoughts and feelings influence behaviors — and how those behaviors can lead to psychological problems. LCSWs can utilize CBT methods to help patients identify and work through these thoughts and behaviors. 

2. Crisis intervention model: The crisis intervention model is commonly used for individuals experiencing crisis and trauma and consists of seven stages: Conducting a psychosocial assessment, rapidly establishing a rapport, identifying the crisis cause, enabling the patient to express their emotions, establishing safe alternatives for coping, creating an action plan, and following up with the patient. 

3. Solution-focused therapy: This treatment modality involves an LCSW working closely with a patient to identify a problem and create a solution plan based on that patient’s individual strengths. This short-term practice model helps individuals cope effectively with the challenges they’re facing. 

4. Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): DBT is a modified approach to CBT. The primary goals of DBT are to enable people to develop healthy ways to cope with stress, regulate their emotions, and improve their social relationships. While DBT was initially created to treat patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), it has proved effective for those experiencing eating disorders or substance use disorders. 

Additional treatment modalities that LCSWs can utilize to benefit your healthcare organization’s behavioral health program include motivational interviewing, mind body bridging, brainspotting, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and acceptance and commitment therapy. 

LCSWs are a cost-effective solution for less acute diagnoses 

An LCSWs ability to effectively diagnose patients makes them an excellent first line of treatment or screening for health systems, outpatient clinics, and community health centers.  

Having LCSWs available for initial patient interactions is often more efficient for most healthcare organizations. Additionally, it’s more cost-effective to have an LCSW on hand to manage less acute diagnoses that don’t need medication management. Then, for more acute diagnoses, an LCSW would be able to refer the patient to a psychiatrist or PMHNP on your care team. 

In most outpatient settings, LCSWs can function as part of a larger integrated care system where they need to provide access to counseling services and psychotherapy along with medication management and psychiatric care.  

Having LCSWs be the first line of defense in your treatment plan can be beneficial to pointing patients in the right direction and identifying the best path forward for their care plan. 

From a behavioral health standpoint, it’s hard to overstate the value an LCSW or counseling provider will bring to your organization. But it’s important to find the right provider for your organization, your patient populations, and your goals. Opening yourself up to teletherapy providers can help you through that process. 

LCSWs serve as a communication link between patients and their support systems 

In the emergency department (ED) setting, LCSWs are critical to patient satisfaction and a hospital or health system’s reputation in the community. Whether they’re helping someone access food vouchers, connecting a patient to ancillary services, or talking with a patient’s family members, LCSWs are thinking about the patient’s holistic needs.  

LCSWs often serve as a communication link between nurses, physicians, and other support staff. They often help prepare patients for transitions, imaging, labs, and admission.  

LCSWs can also help with patient and family communication through their hands-on approach to care – including helping families understand a patient’s illness and engaging with the family to help them feel supported after they leave the ED.

“Telehealth has expanded my ability to provide care to people I usually wouldn’t have been able to reach as an in-person provider. I’m a huge advocate for telehealth because I feel like the relationships can be just as deep and meaningful. In a therapeutic setting, the relationship is huge. It’s a huge part of the change cycle and folks’ ability to grow and build health in their life.”

Elaina Najera, LCSW, Iris Telehealth Provider

 

In the ED, LCSWs take ownership of the psychosocial dimensions of a person, and in psychiatry, that’s critical.  

These psychosocial dimensions include relationships, living situations, access to housing, finances, and food. These components are essential to the wellness and decision-making that goes into treatment formulation for the patient in the ED. 

LCSWs can help expand pre-existing counseling services  

As part of an effective integrated care model, a combination of medication management and psychotherapy is necessary. That means your organization will likely need to build up a program that includes therapists or counselors on staff — or potentially expand the counseling services you already have. 

There are studies showing that utilizing CBT or other therapy modalities can effectively treat less acute diagnoses without medication. And, if you have a good LCSW, you can utilize their services in addition to medication to assist the overall success of your treatment plans for a given patient. 

Why teletherapy services may be the best fit for your healthcare organization 

There’s no denying that, for an LCSW, the rapport they can create with a patient is key to a patient’s success. But it’s a common misconception that it’s more difficult to build that connection over video.  

A well-trained LCSW can build just as strong a therapeutic relationship virtually as in person. Almost every in-person modality an LCSW can specialize in can be translated effectively in a virtual setting – including brainspotting and EMDR. 

That means if your organization is cutting yourself off from engaging in teletherapy, you’re limiting the quality of your program — and your ability to expand it. 

 

“I try to find different ways to connect with my patients. For many kids, it’s just being there, listening. But, for the younger ones or those who don’t want to be in therapy, I try to find games for us to play, or I ask them what they like to do and what they like about it.”

Nicole Bradbury, LCSW, Iris Telehealth Provider 

Additionally, embracing teletherapy in your organization means patients can take the session wherever they’re most comfortable. With that freedom, some patients can be more willing to open up.  

The flexibility to choose their locations can also decrease no-show rates or open up access for people experiencing conditions that may make it difficult for them to feel motivated to leave their homes.

However, you may still have patients who prefer seeing their provider in person. So, when possible, we would recommend offering both in-person therapy or counseling services and teletherapy services. 

How your organization can set your LCSWs (and your treatment team as a whole) up for success

When bringing LCSWs in or expanding your teletherapy services, it’s important to ensure those providers feel valued. There can be a tendency to undervalue LCSW when compared to psychiatrists. It’s important to make sure they feel like they’re part of the team. 

Then, for your own organization, you should work to identify the particular specializations or modalities you need when staffing LCSWs. And remember, if you are open to teletherapy services, partnering with a vendor like Iris Telehealth can help you identify carefully vetted, high-quality providers for your organization.  

If you’re interested in learning more about Iris Telehealth’s LCSWs, contact us today, and we’ll get the conversation started! 

Behavioral health is an essential part of care, and helping ensure your health system is equipped with the clinicians you need, high-quality services, and a support team to help provide guidance and help track and improve metrics are all key components of a successful behavioral health approach.

In this blog, we outline the five ways health systems can optimize the behavioral health services at their organization.

1. Create a holistic strategy across all patient journeys and sites of care and define what success is for your health system

There are a few scenarios that underscore the importance of having a holistic strategy across the patient journey.

First, your patients need timely access to care. If they can’t access outpatient behavioral healthcare, they may escalate to the emergency department.

Next, if a patient is discharged from your inpatient units without proper discharge-follow-up, they may need to be readmitted.

Patient journeys span sites of care and ensuring a holistic strategy to the service line is critical.

In addition, behavioral and physical health don’t exist in silos – they go hand-in-hand. For example, if a patient is experiencing a chronic condition that requires medication, there could be a behavioral health component that prevents them from staying adherent to their treatment plan.

Behavioral health conditions like anxiety and depression can worsen chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes, and cancer. Read brief.

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“These factors require a holistic and planful strategy. Not all patient journeys need to be solved simultaneously, but having an idea of the ideal end-state will ensure every step you take gets you closer to your desired goal.”

Dan Ferris, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Iris Telehealth

 

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2. Integrate virtual providers into your inpatient psychiatric units to ensure patients can access behavioral health care and providers aren’t getting burned out

Inpatient psychiatric units across the country are having problems with provider burnout, staffing shortages, and challenges operating at peak census. On-call and vacation coverages only add to the stress.

Augmenting onsite teams with virtual teams can deliver high-quality care while ensuring staff is working top-of-license, hospitals are optimizing revenue and providers are not burning out. 

Integrating virtual and on-site care teams in inpatient psychiatric units is a best practice deployed nationwide, enabling a continuity and level of care that may not be possible if you are fully reliant on on-site providers. 

3. Provide 24/7/365 access to quality behavioral healthcare in EDs to increase throughput and reduce ED boarding

On average, patients wait 4.7 hours to receive mental health care in the emergency department.

If a patient is left waiting for hours to see a psychiatrist, that’s time the room could be used for another patient in need of urgent care. The faster a patient can get through the ED, the more financially sustainable the ED will become.

Not only is timely care the right thing to do financially, it’s also the right thing to do clinically.

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“As it relates to ED throughout, virtual care has helped us reduce the time our behavioral health patients spend in the ED. Before our partnership, the patients who had the longest length of stay in our emergency departments were our behavioral health patients.

We launched a whole value stream approach, and with help from Iris, we’ve seen the length of stay decrease from 12 hours to nine hours. This 25% improvement has had a big impact on our ED throughput.”

Joe Clubb, Vice President of Operations in Mental Health and Addiction Services at Allina Health

 

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We’re proud of our work with Allina to help their population gain access to behavioral health care. In addition to our partnership with Allina, we’ve helped our partners increase ED discharge rates 15% while reducing 7-day revisit rates 42%.

Click here to read the full story of how Iris helped support Allina Health’s behavioral health initiatives.

 

4. Optimize behavioral health care delivery for patients across the outpatient spectrum by leveraging short-term care models, top of license providers, and digital tools to ensure every patient receives timely care

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“These factors require a holistic and planful strategy. Not all patient journeys need to be solved simultaneously, but having an idea of the ideal end-state will ensure every step you take gets you closer to your desired goal.”

Dan Ferris, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Iris Telehealth

 

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Widening the aperture and focusing on patient acquisition, loyalty, and reducing leakage creates cascading financial benefits that support long-term investment in behavioral health.

Additionally, patients seen by an integrated behavioral health team reduces total cost of care, improves outcomes, and reduces burnout of your existing providers.

 

5. Leverage data to measure and manage key clinical, operational, and financial KPIs

You can only manage what you can measure, and success starts by defining what key performance indicators and operational, financial and quality metrics matter most to your hospital.

For some organizations, it might be ED throughput, length of stay in the med surg unit, average daily census patient in the psychiatric unit or no-show rates in an outpatient clinic.

By measuring and understanding the data, you know where the opportunites for improvement exist.

At Iris, we have the clinical and operational expertise that helps ensure we’re putting what we learn into action. Our Quality Management program ensures we measure and monitor data regularly and drive continuous improvement activities to ensure our programs are hitting on key financial, operational, and clinical KPIs.

If you’d like to learn more about how Iris Telehealth can help you optimize your behavioral health solution at your hospital, please contact us today!

In a webinar hosted by Iris Telehealth Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Thomas Milam, Beth Engelhorn, Executive Director of Southside Behavioral Health in South Central Virginia and Iris provider Dale McQueeney, PMHNP, shared how virtual services can help optimize care delivery for patients experiencing substance use disorders (SUDs).

This blog breaks down the core takeaways of that webinar to look at the current state of the opioid epidemic and the role of virtual MAT programs in the crisis.

The leading percentage of overdoses derive from illegally made fentanyl

For decades now, communities across the U.S. have grappled with the opioid epidemic, which saw a significant increase between 1999 and 2010, reaching a stable trend between 2010 and 2020.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the leading percentage of overdoses derives from illegally made fentanyl with no other opioids or stimulants — closely followed by illegally made fentanyl mixed with cocaine and illegally made fentanyl with methamphetamine.

Access to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) services that support these patients is critical.

Patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) may experience challenges related to social determinants of health on their path to recovery

Dale McQueeney, PMHNP, has been with Iris Telehealth for four years and works with the Center for Human Development in rural eastern Oregon, serving as the primary provider for their MAT program and their Associate Medical Director for substance use disorder treatment.

According to Dale, patients experiencing OUD may encounter the following challenges in their journey to recovery:

• Homelessness
• Food insecurity
• Unemployment
• Lack of regular healthcare

These individuals need a lot of support and require a team of professionals to help them get the care they need, whether that’s dedicated certified recovery mentors, case managers, or a SUD team.

The role of Medication Assisted Treatment in delivering life-saving care

MAT programs engage patients in whole-person care that helps treat OUD by helping normalize brain chemistry, block the euphoric effects of opioids, and relieve physical cravings.

The benefits of MAT:

• Decreases opioid-related overdose deaths
• Decreases illicit opioid use and criminal activity
• Increases social functioning and retention in treatment
• Decreases transmission of infectious disease (HIV and Hep C)
• Improves maternal and fetal outcomes for pregnant or breastfeeding women

At Southside Behavioral Health, offering access to virtual MAT services is essential to effective whole-patient care

Southside Behavioral Health is a community service board that provides community mental health care across rural South Central Virigina.

They serve approximately 3,000 people —including through their MAT program, which heavily leverages virtual care due to the shortage of local providers who can deliver these services.

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“We offer MAT services hand-in-glove with our other services. If someone walks in the door, we do a comprehensive needs assessment and figure out everything they need.

If they want treatment for OUD, we send them to our nurse practitioner that prescribes all other mental health medication. We recently hired an Iris psychiatrist who helps us with that, and we consider it as part of the treatment continuum within the agency and don’t differentiate between that and anything else someone comes in for.”

Beth Engelhorn, Executive Director, Southside Behavioral Health

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In addition to virtual providers, Southside also has specialized staff who treat SUDs and focus on whole-person care. They work with the person on their goals, and they choose their own course of treatment.

 

Good care starts with comprehensive assessments, informative screenings, and a non-judgmental approach

Beth’s care team at Southside conducts comprehensive assessments to figure out each patient’s needs.

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“Our team is really good at working through all the assessments and why they need to be done. We are a grant funded program in regard to our MAT, so we’re required to have patients fill out an additional assessment that has to be done.

We make it a reward – if they complete the form, they get a gift card. We as a team work really hard to make sure the person feels heard and that they know they’re not just a number or a piece of data.”

Beth Engelhorn, Executive Director, Southside Behavioral Health

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Most Southside patients receive virtual care directly in their clinics due to bandwidth limitations in their rural communities. At their first MAT appointment, Southside staff will have patients take a drug screening – with subsequent screenings happening at provider discretion as patients continue their treatment.

The results of these screenings help the provider have a conversation with the patient about how it could affect their treatment, safety, and provide information to help the individual decide how they want to proceed.

From the providers perspective, Dale says that she’s rarely surprised to learn what shows up in a drug screen. She says communication is key and she lets her patients know that she won’t stop prescribing to them if they tell her what they’re using.

Dale says the information she gains about her patients provides guidance into how to support them.

 

Reducing barriers to care and reducing stigma are keys to quality treatment

Dale schedules each patient’s first visit to take place over video at the clinic whenever possible, so she and the patient can make eye contact and the team can conduct the initial drug screening.

However, to reduce as many barriers to care as possible, Dale holds subsequent appointments over the phone or over video from the patient’s home if it’s harder for them to come into the office.

During her visits with patients, Dale is also mindful of the stigma patients may experience day-to-day.

A study by the Cohen Veterans Network found that 31% of Americans have worried others judging them when telling someone they’ve sought behavioral health services. The report states that 21% have lied about getting care.

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“I try to bring a sense of non-judgement into all my interactions, and I listen. They appreciate that I meet them where they are, and I get to know them as people. Low barrier, non-judgement, and harm reduction are all the techniques I try to bring.”

Dale McQueeney, PMHNP, Iris Telehealth provider

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Ensuring patients can get quality care in a judgement-free space is crucial to their well-being and recovery.

 

Life-saving medications keep patients alive and are an important part of a harm-reduction approach

Dale shares that it’s very common for her patients to use substances outside of buprenorphine – like methamphetamine and cannabis. If she knows they’re going to be using methamphetamines, she recommends using fentanyl testing strips as a part of a harm-reduction approach.

Dale also shares other techniques she uses with her patients, including motivational interviewing.

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“I do use a lot of motivational interviewing. I grab onto those little kernels, that little bit of hope, and I hope for them. I say things like, ‘I’m trying to keep you alive. I think you’re worth being here.’

And because they are – all of my patients are worth being here. I find those little things – there’s always something that you can grab onto.”

Dale McQueeney, PMHNP, Iris Telehealth provider

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At Southside, Beth says they’ve had to provide a lot of training to move their providers towards a harm-reduction approach and lean on collaboration to help provide holistic for their patients.

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“We offer people harm reduction kits where we give out fentanyl strips, syringes, and whatever someone needs to keep themselves safe.

We talk to them about their increased risk to their general health and it becomes a place of dialogue. We let their therapist know they tested positive for cocaine and amphetamines and the nurse practitioner reads my notes and we have a conversation about shared client. I appreciate the team approach – we share concern for their health and safety.”

Beth Engelhorn, Executive Director, Southside Behavioral Health

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Virtual care helps bring addiction treatment to rural areas

The behavioral health provider shortage has hit many communities hard – especially those in rural parts of the country. According to the Health Resources & Services Administration, there are 122 million people living in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs).

That makes sourcing behavioral health providers even more challenging for those living in rural areas. However, with telehealth, these communities can access specialists they otherwise wouldn’t be able to recruit.

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“Virtual care has allowed us to bring in professionals, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, therapists, where we wouldn’t be able to have them in our area at all. Our MAT program would probably not exist if we didn’t have virtual care.

It has actually allowed us to bring this to our community and let it grow. And not only that — to have really competent, talented people ready to provide those service.”

Beth Engelhorn, Executive Director, Southside Behavioral Health

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Behavioral health providers like Dale, whose focus is on treating those with dual diagnoses and prescribing medication for addiction treatment, creates rich connections with her patients in Oregon, even while living in Maine.

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“I want to emphasize the power of telehealth. I live in Maine and became aware of how devastated New England has been by the opioid epidemic. And then I learned how other regions of the country were similarly affected. Now through Iris Telehealth, I have the ability to use my skills and education to serve the people of rural Eastern Oregon. That’s all because of the power of telehealth.”

Dale McQueeney, PMHNP, Iris Telehealth provider

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About Iris

If you’d like to learn more about Iris and our MAT services, please contact us today!

You can also click here to watch the full conversation with Beth, Dale, and Dr. Milam.