In 2013 Daniel Callahan was the founder and CEO of a treatment center. Frustrated by the endless paperwork, he decided to invest in a system to streamline the process of client charting. However, he and his staff found the existing options even worse than handling paperwork by hand.
“It was a bit of a nightmare,” Callahan said. “We felt thrown to the wolves. My staff begged me to bail on the process as it was disruptive and not helping.”
With decades of experience working in behavioral health, Callahan began to think that he could build a better system, specifically designed for people working the behavioral health sector. Soon after, ZenCharts was launched. The product provides electronic health records (EHR) and customer relationship management (CRM) software specifically designed for behavioral health providers.
“As a social worker by trade I knew that what I wanted was more than a digital chart,” Callahan explained. “I wanted to see a workflow process and tools to assist the clinician with their strength, which is working with people and not paper. I wanted to build in patient safety features like alerts and notifications. But most importantly, I wanted it to be intuitive and simple to use.”
Compared to the competition, ZenCharts fit easily into the existing structure at behavioral health facilities.
“There are so many features that make the clinician’s job simpler and more structured,” Callahan said.
From the top down, ZenCharts was able to make record keeping easier for providers and administrators. Here’s how:
Giving Clinicians Room to Breathe
Most clients meet with their patients for 50 minutes. After the session they have 10 minutes to complete paperwork before their next client comes in. However, this can leave providers feeling harried and distracted, instead of refreshed for their next client.
“In reality, after a 50-minute session, a therapist needs a break to unwind and prepare for their next session,” Callahan said.
Yet, if a clinician doesn’t complete the paperwork in that moment, he or she may forget important information.
ZenCharts offers a solution to this problem. The software recommends that the clinician fill in the “notes” section of paperwork immediately following the session. This can be done in just a few moments, documenting the essentials and delaying the rest for time that is designated for paperwork.
“Then when they are fresh either at the end of the day or the next morning prior to the start of the clinical day they open their personal dashboard and review all open documents that need to be completed,” Callahan said. “This is done all in one place to better ensure the counselor does not miss any required documentation.”
With an easy-to-follow process in place, clinicians do not have to devote time or energy to thinking about what paperwork they need to complete — they simply follow the prompts that ZenCharts delivers. Since many clinicians report stress over records keeping and navigating electronic systems that are not intuitive, ZenCharts can make a big difference in job satisfaction and enjoyment.
Making Supervision Easy
While paperwork can be overwhelming for individual clinicians, it is even more daunting for clinical supervisors, who must oversee and approve everything that their subordinates submit.
“We become a clinical supervisor and all of a sudden our desk is piled high with paperwork,” said Callahan, who has worked in that role. “Their top skill — working with people and helping develop young clinicians — is not utilized.”
ZenCharts allows supervisors to more accurately and effectively review paperwork. Supervisors can access notes and files, sign digitally, and also comment and request additional information from staff all within the software on the supervisor’s dashboard.
“We leverage the technology so that people get notified what they need to do and when they need to do it,” Callahan said.
With clinicians and supervisors less stressed about completing reams of paperwork, they are able to better focus on client outcomes and providing the very best care to the individuals in treatment.
“ZenCharts has pushed the need for advanced software and developing significant and valuable tools,” Callahan said. “These tools are designed to advance the clinical experience and bring clinicians back to doing what they do best — working with people, not paperwork!”
ZenCharts provides electronic health records (EHR) and customer relationship management (CRM) software specifically designed for behavioral health providers.
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