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How can your CMH contract agency
or CMHA clinical program...
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 Save up to 30% on clinical
services
Increase productivity
Increase client clinical outcomes
All while keeping some or all of your current
staff or contractors?
We can help! |
We began as employees of a large contract clinical
service and case management provider in Wayne County Michigan. When the Feds offered the State of Michigan an opportunity
to be one of the first states to try a more liberalized funding system, a competitive market was formed and our
home agency had to get ready for competition from other service providers. They saw that they could no longer afford
to keep the large cadre of clinical employees and still remain flexible and efficient enough to survive. So, we
offered to form a contractual group to allow those employees who wanted to stay an opportunity to continue to serve
their clients.
That was 3 years ago. In that time, we have learned quite a bit. But our efforts have paid off- for the agencies
who work with us, the contractors who make up our practice and especially the people that we support.
The PsychSystems model
When we began we were determined to design a program that was efficient and effective for everyone involved . Why
couldn't a system be designed that would attract good clinicians who were dedicated to working with people with
disabilities? Why couldn't a system be designed that provided agencies with a good financial value? Why couldn't
a system be designed to insure that documentation and clinical record keeping were accurate and "audit proof"?
The PsychSystems method has shown time and time again that everyone can be a winner with a well designed process.
PsychSystems uses technology, modern "telecommuting" practices and an expectation (that is backed up
with specific incentives) for quality therapeutic work that is unique to our type of arrangement. Agencies that
contract with us have seen:
An increase in client contacts with their therapist
An increase in the quality of documentation
Better response times during crises and emergencies
An increase in client satisfaction
An increase in client choice (more therapists to choose
from)
An increase in flexibility with clinical staff (if a therapist
is needed, we provide one, if not, the agency bears
no cost
for underutilized employee hours.
A significant decrease in total clinical expenditures (30%
or more) versus the old staff clinician model
How do we accomplish all of these things? Here are some of our main design points:
We are field based. We have designed
our system so that our therapists are in the field seeing their clients in their homes or day programs. While we
have office space for the client who wants to have sessions away from his home, we have designed our system to
promote the idea that therapists need to interact with not only the client, but the caregivers as well. This allows
a more complete treatment to be offered and allows for another professional to view the living situation of the
client first hand. This has proven to make our services more relevant and effective in helping our clients succeed.
We are efficient. Talk to a few of your staff clinicians- ask them how many
times they put duplicative information on different forms. Ask them how often they are doing paperwork that has
no relationship to the needs of their clients. I'm sure that you will get an earful of complaints. PsychSystems
uses the Unified Billing System that insures that therapists are putting all of the relevant information about
a client contact on one document, only 1 time. By using our computer based data system, all of the information
is entered only once and then harvested for the various purposes needed (billing, case review, authorization).
Clinicians are then able to do their job- help clients- not fill in bureaucratic forms.
We are effective. No matter what we do on the administrative side, if we are
not helping people, we are wasting our time and valuable public resources. We pride ourselves on having a 95%+
case success rating (meaning our therapist was able to help the person improve or at least maintain their gains).
We also have data showing our effectiveness in preventing psychiatric re-hospitalization, reducing physical injury
and helping to increase clients ability to truly become members of the community. We accomplish this by keeping
expectations high for our clinicians. Each PsychSystems clinician is expected to keep up with current trends- we
provide the most comprehensive journals to them and expect them to read them! We have a neuropsychologist on staff
(a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Michigan), a Forensic specialist, Autism specialists and many others
who are available to consult with our staff or to work on specific cases. The bottom line is this; we feel that
people who receive services from the public mental health system deserve the best treatment possible and we are
proud to specialize in this area.
The system works, even for old "staff clinicians". A number of our current staff are (or were) staff
clinicians in Community Mental Health programs. By joining PsychSystems and working with the system, they report
higher job satisfaction, a higher feeling of competence and a desire to work with us exclusively (in fact, many
of those who began with us part time have now joined us full time). While we understand that the transition from
one way to another can be stressful, our goal is to keep things straightforward enough that the learning curve
is short and the clinician's satisfaction is high.
We offer "one stop shopping" for agency administrators. Some agencies and CMHAs have attempted to contract
with individual clinicians, often with unpleasant results. What happens when the person on your panel decides to
leave- who fills her slot? How about communicating with everyone on your 'panel'- do you want to make many calls
or just one. We offer the advantage of allowing your clinicians the opportunity to set up a group practice. This
will allow the CMHA administrators to have one 'go to' number for a specific service, question or concern.
We know that budgetary constraints are making you consider tough choices. If you are looking to make a change in
the way that you employ clinical staff, lets talk. We are positive that we can help you improve services while
conserving resources.
If you would like further information, please call us at (734) 729-PSYC (7792) or e-mail us at support@psychsystemsonline.com
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