Standardization
“Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
– George Bernard Shaw
At ZenCharts we are committed to the field of Human Service and Behavioral Healthcare. We have been in the trenches for over 3 decades and know the growth of our industry has been slow and continues to be an uphill battle. Parity with our partners on the medical side of healthcare is getting closer and seemingly within our grasp. But with that comes the responsibility to come together as a professional field should, in order to standardize our language and documentation process. Big data brings with it concerns about personal privacy however there is a huge upside tradeoff i.e. to ensure patient safety, complete data sets assist us in regards to informed recommendations for treatment and to enhance the continuum of care process.
Doing the same things over and over and expecting better results have proved fruitless, added to the fraudulent perception in the field, and caused a stir culminating in reimbursement issues thwarted by the managed care companies! At ZenCharts we have pulled together some of the foremost authorities in the field from all perspectives to assist you in building standardized documentation tools, clinical decision support tools, coupled with compliant, fiscally prudent and beneficial systems to ensure enhanced patient care systems and maximum reimbursement.
As an industry, we embrace terms like, “Client Care,” “Best Practice.” and “Value-Based Care.” For the informed professional we recognize the need to address the whole client yet at times we want to simplify and move people through the continuum. However, without a defined plan of action, we are limited and ultimately are governed by the managed care insurance carriers case managers. We do our best to present a case yet ultimately we succumb to the care managers decisions about our clients level of care and ultimately discharge.
With that said, doesn’t it make sense to standardize documentation to ensure our clients are afforded the best in care and to assist the Utilization Team to secure the care the client needs? If your answer is “Yes” and I am sure it is, then join us and our team in embracing a standardized version of the documentation.
Our goals are simple:
- Meet all stakeholder’s needs.
- Be usable by all sizes of organizations.
- Be usable by all Levels of Care and Models of Treatment.
- Be simple and clearly understood.
- Connect a quality management system to Clinical processes.
I get it, we all want to work with the process we already know, have been educated on, or what we believe to be the most effective. But, we need to account for all of the stakeholders therefore, having a standard format for documentation is in the field at large, our agencies and more importantly the clients best interest. As we progress at ZenCharts we will keep you informed and honor your input!
