Feelings. Moods. Acceptance. Denial.

And an EMR that Knows What to Do with Them

Sounds like the ingredients for a number one love song. But they are also the crucial characteristics about a patient that are revealed during a counseling session that a psychiatrist needs to keep track of.  And the task is not easy for a new adult psychiatry practice unless they have a customized Behavioral Health EMR.

Dr. Olukayode Awosika , owner of Pinnacle Behavioral Healthcare, a new adult psychiatry practice in Minnesota knew from the start that Behavioral Health EMR templates would make it easy for him to document his patients’ visits with a narrative description. Ordinary check boxes just wouldn’t do.  One of his biggest setbacks, however is that Dr. Awosika never perfected his keyboarding skills.

“I was searching for a platform that could accomplish everything from the front end to the back end. WRS Behavioral Health EMR really affected my choice because it was specific. My typing skills are not very good. When I demoed WRS, I learned that there are many options of data entry. Templates, transcription and dictation are all available. Information can be entered in many ways and that was great for my psychiatry practice, especially with my keyboarding skills being limited. So, my decision to select WRS wasn't difficult at all,” said Dr. Awosika in his review.

The Long and the Short of it

Dr. Awosika had evaluated several EMRs, including Practice Fusion, which he said is designed more for primary care and not for behavioral health. “Even though Practice Fusion was free, it was not good enough for what I was looking to do. I require a narrative with documentary notes. It is very burdensome to document patient visits if you don't have a system with psychiatric templates. WRS behavioral health templates and content have made it easier to document these visits. It is so descriptive,” he said.

Emphasizing in his review that psychiatrists have to describe everything in their interactions with a patient, including their patients’ moods and feelings, Dr. Awosika said, “You can't just check boxes in psychiatry the way that primary care or internal medicine physicians are able to, which most of the EMR software platforms are designed for.”

WRS “document by exception” template is unique. “You have all of the information in the template that you need to chart, and you can accept or decline. You have a clean, free flowing narrative at the end of your note. It allows you be be more descriptive versus just checking a box,” asserted Dr. Awosika.

 Dr. Awosika also likes to note certain things patients say and whether they accept or deny that they have a certain condition. The EMR offers options for him to select to describe patients and their thinking process.

“There could be several different options and I can select any of those options.  For the sensitive diagnosis of depression I can select several different things that a patient presented with, or I can select none of them, or some of them, depending on whatever the patient presented with. I have all the symptoms of depression already in a template. In the Behavioral Health EMR template I can now just accept whatever the patient presents with. When I complete the note everything I need to document is already there and the things that are not there are not in the final document. That absolutely makes my job easier.”

Free To Text

Psychiatrists are often confronted with the need to document things that fall outside the realm of a template. No worry. “The template is not fixed, so I can customize it. Because WRS is flexible, I can free text and adjust text if the template doesn't contain the feelings that I wish to describe,” commented Dr. Awosika.

Signing Off

When starting a new practice, many physicians are in a quandary when it comes to securing billing functions. Should you select an outside company or let the EMR company do the billing?  In Dr. Awosika’s case he had already signed a contract with an electronic billing company prior to choosing an EMR.  When he explained to the company he signed with that Waiting Room Solutions offered billing capabilities, they even recommended that he used WRS Billing Services. “It became apparent that the external billing company would have had to do double the work that they needed to get done,” stated Dr. Awosika in his review, adding, “The only thing that I have to do is copy my notes and sign off on them. WRS takes the lead. From the point of dropping the claim to presenting the claim to the insurance companies, it's all done by WRS electronically. I had to physically generate the claim where I worked previously.”  

Obtaining a plethora of patient consent forms can impede a new practice from gaining steam. But an EMR patient portal can make the job of obtaining patient consent forms easier. “We are going to encourage patients to interact with the patient portal from their home and the office. It’s part of the process. New patients have to accept privacy notices by the patient portal and sign off on those notices and consents before we can actually do anything with their chart,” explained Dr. Awosika.

An EMR that Handles Error Proofing

Protecting patients from harm from potential medication errors and drug/drug interactions are a main concern for psychiatrists. “Prescriptions are electronically prescribed and any potential interactions are easy to identify because that part is built into the WRS system. E-prescriptions can go directly to the pharmacy of choice and we don’t have to print any paper or fax anything, which is great,” said Dr. Awosika in his review.

Good Marriage

WRS Behavioral Health EMR Makes for an Ideal Partner

There’s no doubt that choosing an EMR can cause anxiety.  Will the software company walk away after the initial agreement? Will they provide assistance if problems arise? “It's an absolute pleasure to work with WRS. All of the staff has been great. Doing everything online has been easy. It's convenient to interact with the staff and software. My behavioral health practice was up and operating  in only a few weeks.”

Peering Ahead

While it’s too early to tell if an EMR will enhance his quality of life, Dr. Awosika is pretty optimistic. “I am developing more behavioral health templates as we go along. In my former practice I had to write all my notes except my initial evaluations. Now I don’t have to do that. You have all of the information that is put into the patient’s file—it rolls forward over to the next note so I don’t have to keep repeating things that are already in the patient’s chart. WRS will reduce the amount of time I spend documenting notes and I certainly will have more time to myself,” concluded Dr. Awosika.

Behavioral Health Testimonial