CarePaths Blog

New Assessment Center Supports Measurement Based Care

CarePaths new Assessment Center supports measurement based care (MBC) which is fast becoming a practice standard. The Joint Commission as well as ONC now require clinicians to use standard measures in their practices. (see A Tipping Point for Measurement Based Care https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ps.201500439).
MBC may be a new name but it is an old idea. It is the systematic use of patient-reported rating scales and the use of the results (feedback) to inform clinical decision making. Studies show that feedback to clinicians of patient progress during treatment can improve outcomes, particularly by alerting clinicians to patients who are not improving.
CarePaths new Assessment Center provides clinicians with a robust resource to integrate MBC into their practices. Instruments in the Assessment Center include the most widely used standard instruments: e.g. PHQ 9 for depression, GAD 7 for anxiety, etc. There are also measures for specific conditions such as ADHD, OCD, Mania, etc.
A new measure in the Assessment Center is the WHO 5. It is a very short wellness measure (5 questions) that is remarkably accurate at identifying patient’s with clinically significant anxiety and depression. (see https://www.psychcongress.com/saundras-corner/scales-screeners/well-being-index/who-five-well-being-index-who-5). Clinicians also find it useful for therapy as it identifies the areas of social/emotional functioning that are of biggest concern to the patient.
The way the assessment center works is this: clinicians decide which assessment battery (or instruments) they want their patient to complete and on what interval, weekly, bi-weekly, etc. The patient accesses the assessments in the patient portal. The patient portal has been reconfigured and there is now an alert titled “Assessments Due Now” which the patient clicks on to take the assessment.
There are three default batteries for Adult Assessment, Adult with Pain Assessment, and Child Assessment.
Clinicians can use these standard batteries or create their own. If you want to create your own battery go to Admin Site – Clinical – Batteries – New Battery. Type in the Name you want for the battery – save battery. You will then be able to add assessments and frequency to the battery you created. You can remove/change batteries by following the first 3 steps and clicking on the battery name. You can also add or remove assessments to that battery.
Once the battery is created you can assign it to any patient. To assign a battery to a patient go to their patient chart – clinical – monitoring – assign assessments – add battery. Choose the battery for that patient.
Of course, you don’t have to use a battery. You can just add instruments on a patient specific basis. To do this click assign assessments-add measure.
Both the patient and the clinician receive a report once the measure is completed.
In the near future, the full assessment center will be available in a downloadable app which will also enable teletherapy and text messaging.

CarePaths Online Therapy

In a few weeks Carepaths will roll out an online therapy app that allows clinicians to interact with clients via secure text messaging and teletherapy.

Messaging therapy has grown rapidly in the last few years and has enabled clinicians to provide treatment to remote clients and to those who prefer the convenience of this modality.

You can use this app in two ways. First, as a CarePaths EHR user you can use these features with your existing clients. Second, you can receive referrals of clients we recruit through the CarePaths Online Therapy service.

The Online Therapy service will work this way: CarePaths markets the service and matches clients with therapists. Therapy is conducted on the site via secure messaging and teletherapy. Clients are able to message their therapists 24/7. Clinicians respond to clients on a set schedule, either daily or three times a week.

Clinicians participate in the service as independent providers and not as employees of CarePaths.

The service will be exclusively fee for service. Clients will pay for the service via Credit Card on a monthly subscription basis. CarePaths will collect payment and will reimburse clinicians. Clinicians will be reimbursed about 80% of fees collected (most other online services, e.g. Talkspace.com and Betterhelp.com pay clinicians only 50% of fees collected). CarePaths will use it’s portion of the fees collected to defray marketing and administration costs.

Clinicians will boost their income by filling unused hours, while eliminating the need for claims, billing, and paperwork. CarePaths EHR users will receive preference to join the network. We want to insure that participants have sufficient business to make participation professionally and financially rewarding.

If you are a licensed clinician and interested in the program please email us at:
info@carepaths.com. Please indicate if you are interested in being a beta tester.