Gaudenzia is one of the largest nonprofit drug and alcohol treatment and rehabilitation centers in the country, with 51 facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, DC. The center serves 19,000 individuals annually and operates 117 alcohol and drug addiction treatment programs for men and women.
PROBLEM
It’s no secret that communities are facing a substance use disorder pandemic. When COVID-19 came along, it only exacerbated the problem. Earlier this year, the CDC estimated more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths by 2021, a record number.
This increase comes at a time when the entire healthcare sector, including Gaudenzia, faced a debilitating workforce shortage. So not only is the need for care greater, but there are fewer team members willing to take on the workload.
“At the session level, each consultation session with a client requires detailed documentation and clinical notes,” Andrew Schmitt, Gaudenzia’s Director of Outpatient Services, who holds a master’s degree in social work from Rutgers University and has more than 20 years of experience in behavioral health care.
““Our counselors also need to check with clients on factors like their overall mental health, monitor their progress, and build a relationship of trust and mutual respect,” explains Schmitt. together. We really value that personal relationship. At the same time, robust, accurate clinical documentation is essential to keep us on track and accountable as an organization.”
Documentation is a time-consuming piece of consulting that can take away the time that employees spend interacting directly with customers.
“Another challenge for our organization is that we have developed our treatment model to incorporate evidence-based counseling techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational enhancement,” Schmitt noted.
“From a consulting perspective, it can be difficult to track which way a client reacts faster during sessions or how closely evidence-based techniques are followed from one session to the next,” he continued. “This again makes documentation and strong clinical notes a vital component of delivering quality care. We wanted to find an effective way to reduce stress. to your team members while ensuring accurate documentation and accountability.”
From a surveillance standpoint, he added, clinical supervisors have limited capacity for direct supervision and sometimes rely on clinicians to self-report their progress to clients.
“This can lead to a subjective reporting structure, which is challenging when it comes to accountability,” he said. “This also affects our advisors’ ability to get direct, actionable feedback or insight into ways they can improve their consulting approach. “
SUGGESTIONS
When it comes to clinical documentation and notes, the idea of automation offers a solution that can free up consultants to focus on customer care. That’s the mission at Gaudenzia, so the prospect is exciting, Schmitt said.
He commented: “From an employer perspective, we value our team members, including respecting their time and doing all we can to help prevent this. exhausted. “By replicating recorded client sessions and generating suggestions for clinical notes, automation has the potential to help our team members focus on caring for those with shared needs. It helps us maintain a healthy work-life balance.
“This is especially important amid the demands brought on by the pandemic, which we continue to feel today,” he added.
So Gaudenzia turned to Eleos, a conversational artificial intelligence provider, to generate data and insights for her behavioral health practitioners.
“As far as session insights are concerned, the suggestion is that Eleos could provide data such as advisor-to-client talk rates and it could report on how closely the techniques are adhered to by evidenced in each session and across a range of sessions,” says Schmitt.
“This provides the opportunity for on-demand live monitoring and allows clinicians to objectively assess and improve their own performance,” he continued.
Finally, there’s also a pre-session self-report component where they can share how they’re doing with their mental health and any challenges they’re facing.
Schmitt notes: “It has been suggested that this data could be tracked across sessions and would provide a visualization of a client’s progress over time or whether additional treatment interventions are needed. necessary or not”.
MEET CHALLENGES ONLY
Many Gaudenzia advisors have already started using the technology to record client sessions and benefit from AI-generated document recommendations, as well as session insights that help them track their own performance. me.
“One thing our team members find particularly helpful is the ability to identify key phrases that customers use often, as this helps highlight thought patterns or triggers,” explains Schmitt. certain activities can be resolved in session”.
“Our advisors have found that while it takes several sessions for the AI to learn and adapt to specific advisors and clients, the quality of recommendations for notes generated from a Recorded sessions will improve dramatically over time and free up our team members to spend more time interacting directly with customers,” he continued.
This really helps paint a full picture of the counseling relationship and how – or whether – a client is progressing in their treatment, he adds.
“We only use this technology during sessions with customer consent, and while we anticipate challenges in customer comfort when recording their sessions, team members Our clients are as interested in data as their consultants,” he said.
He continues: “We also often treat authorized clients who don’t necessarily feel they need help or understand why we use certain treatment techniques. “The ability to bring objective, specific data into sessions helps clients make connections and better understand their own needs. This can make the treatment process more collaborative and engaging.”
To implement this technology, the organization must integrate it with its electronic health record – Netsmart’s My Avatar. This led the IT and EHR departments to work with Eleos and Netsmart to create the solution.
“Fortunately, Eleos has a great working relationship with Netsmart, which has made this partnership smoother than expected and led to a relatively seamless integration,” Schmitt notes.
RESULT
One of the most notable successes the organization has seen to date is that the use of evidence-based techniques by team members has increased by 35% since implementing AI technology.
“Our organization has made significant strides in evolving our treatment model into an evidence-based and people-centred model, but for those advisors who have worked with For a long time, staying on track and avoiding accidental falls can be a challenge going back to previous techniques,” notes Schmitt. “To see an increase in fidelity with our new treatment model is significant.
He continued: “We also noted that at the time of the proposal, it took our clinicians about 10 minutes to complete the session notes. “With Eleos, our clinicians now take an average of 3.2 minutes to complete their session notes. This contributes to a significant improvement in the timeliness and quality of documentation.”
As of November 18, By 2022, Gaudenzia will train all outpatient programs on Eleos with a delicately integrated approach. The training is currently engaged by Eleos staff, Gaudenzia program staff, and IT and EHR teams.
“This helps us create a coordinated and integrated training approach that meets the needs of our mentors and any other team members who need to communicate with technology,” he said.
TIPS FOR OTHER PEOPLE
“It is essential for any organization considering implementing this type of technology to take an honest inventory of current projects and employee needs,” Schmitt advises. “While the outcome is worth the investment, it requires a significant uplift to deploy new technologies.
He continued: “With AI-related backgrounds, it also requires a cultural shift among team members. “I would say that organizations should be aware that there can be a wide range of reactions, from tech advocates to skeptics or even paranoid about the impact of AI-based solutions. “
What Gaudenzia found ultimately helpful was providing education and resources through internal messaging, and recognizing and applauding team members who have successfully used the technology to improve their own performance. surname.
He concluded: “I would also suggest creating a proactive plan for leadership engagement. “When clinical supervisors and others in leadership roles are brought in to work at the grassroots level, they can understand the basics of the technology and see the benefits first-hand, which helps create a genuine sense of support and allows us to lead by doing.”
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
