3 Things to Look for in a Measurement-Based Care Solution

The behavioral health crisis we find ourselves in should not be a surprise. In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic—which is still not fully behind us—there has been a notable increase in news stories highlighting prominent people’s struggles with depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, and other mental health challenges. All this attention has finally placed the topic of behavioral health in the global spotlight and is helping the much-needed de-stigmatization that the conditions so deserve.

Today, behavioral health organizations are searching for real solutions to tackle this crisis.  But a big question remains: How does a limited supply of behavioral health resources meet the overwhelming demand for services? Two goals need to be accomplished:  

• Expand access to care for those in need 
• Improve clinical outcomes for those who are suffering 

Providing more people with access to care and implementing optimal treatments to improve clinical outcomes will allow behavioral health organizations to achieve their main goal: efficient and effective treatments for as many people as possible. 

The question then becomes: How can behavioral health organizations deliver the most effective and efficient care? The answer is clear: measuring clinical outcomes with an evidence-based measurement-based care (MBC) solution. 

If your behavioral health organization is committed to measuring outcomes with evidence-based methods to improve clinical outcomes and expand access to care, then make sure the MBC solution you choose has the following three components.

Be User-Friendly for Both Patients and Clinicians

Though widely understood that measurement-based care (MBC) is clinically validated to increase treatment effectiveness and improve patient outcomes, only 18% of psychiatrists and 11% of psychologists use it in routine practice. 

What could possibly explain the slow adoption rate of MBC, given its proven effectiveness? One main reason behind many proivders’ general reluctance is that, until recently, MBC tools and approaches have not been easy to use—for patients or clinicians.

Patients who engage in their own care are far more likely to improve clinically. When patients actively participate in their care, they feel more empowered and have increased awareness of their progress, and therefore are far more likely to improve. 

To achieve this goal, the MBC solution must be patient-friendly. It must be simple to use, intuitive, and patient-focused—much like our everyday apps that we’ve grown accustomed to. Anything more complicated could deter patients from participating, leaving the behavioral health organization with incomplete information (e.g. limited patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)) to deliver care. When MBC solutions are as user-friendly as all the other apps we use, patient engagement rates can be well over 80%, compared to the industry standard of 40%. This high engagement rate is critical to collect the information needed to identify patient status relative to treatment as well as understand population health trends based upon aggregated data.

Clinicians, meanwhile, are likely to hesitate with any new technology that does not easily integrate with their existing workflows. Therefore, the MBC solution must seamlessly integrate into current IT environments and clinical workflows so that clinicians can easily use it without any wasted time or disruption of their regular routines. Ideally, the MBC solution should ease the burden for clinicians who today are collecting PROMs during the session. An automated MBC solution can send out evidence-based assessments in advance, allowing patients to complete them at their convenience on any mobile device, which, in turn, allows the clinician to be fully informed of the patients’ responses before the session begins. This not only saves 10-15 minutes of valuable session time, but also allows the clinician to focus directly on the issues and symptoms reported to guide care and treatment.

When one can achieve this level of patient and clinician engagement with a user-focused MBC solution, it will lead to better patient engagement, stronger therapeutic alliance between the client and clinician, and, most importantly, improved clinical outcomes.

Have a Comprehensive Library of Evidence-Based Measures

The number of evidence-based screening measures theoretically available to support behavioral health treatment is robust and essential in meeting the vast array of conditions requiring treatment. That said, strictly relying on the assessments available within an EHR is often quite limited, thereby making it extremely difficult to administer evidence-based care in a comprehensive manner. The analogy would be having a limited set of clinical diagnostic tests to manage the ever-growing list of infectious diseases. The wrong test would be meaningless or provide incomplete information. 

It’s important for behavioral health organizations to choose an MBC solution that delivers that breadth of expertise and assessments to improve treatment efficacy and enhance patient-provider interactions while integrating within their existing IT ecosystem. 

Provide Actionable Data to Guide Care and Assess Population Health  

Behavioral health organizations need more patient data to better understand and serve their patients and populations. A lack of information about a patient could lead to a misguided treatment plan, wasted time, and a slower road to recovery—creating unnecessary friction in the treatment process.  

Valuable patient data that is captured from evidence-based assessments, intake forms, social determinants of health questionnaires, and past results of behavioral and physical conditions provide the essential data and insights to understand patient and population risk levels and quickly match patients with the right level of care. To fully capture the value of an MBC solution, comprehensive clinical outcomes should be collected, and detailed analytics and reporting should be utilized to help guide treatment throughout the care journey.

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To match patients more quickly to the right treatment, clinician, and program, organizations must understand severity and acuity levels of incoming patient levels.  For example, a patient with severe depression who would benefit from a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) should see a psychiatrist and not spend unnecessary time speaking to a therapist who isn’t licensed to prescribe medication. Furthermore, what if the SSRIs made such a drastic improvement in the patient that he/she no longer needs weekly meetings with a psychologist? Patient needs often can change over time, and clinicians need real-time data that indicates progress and changes in order to take action and modify the treatment plan. The better-informed organizations are to make these decisions, the quicker patients receive optimal treatment and improve, thus freeing up capacity for new patients and reducing waitlist times. This is a critical strategy to expand access to care by using actionable data to efficiently and effectively treat patients.

The topic of behavioral health is coming out of the shadows. The time is ripe for providers to fight today’s crisis with a robust, comprehensive solution that puts powerful, actionable data in the hands of people providing care to best enable them to improve clinical outcomes and improve access to care. As more behavioral health organizations take the leap of integrating an MBC solution into their practice, we’ll be well on our way in reaching more people who need help and improving outcomes for those who are suffering. And when those two things happen, we will make tremendous strides in combating the behavioral health crisis.

Eric Meier is president and CEO of Owl.

The views expressed in Perspectives are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Behavioral Healthcare Executive, the Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Learning Network, or other Network authors. Perspectives entries are not medical advice.