Sarah Mendenhall, PMHNP, Shares How She Connects with Patients Virtually

Iris clinicians are at the heart of what makes our organization such a special place to work. That’s why we’re turning the spotlight on the amazing work they’re doing every day. This month, we’re sitting down to talk with Sarah Mendenhall, PMHNP.

Q. How did you find Iris and decide you wanted to be an Iris provider?

A. I was doing telehealth for another company and wasn’t happy, so I started looking for other opportunities. I liked that Iris had more traditional full-time positions with comprehensive benefits versus many other places I had applied to at the time that had more contract-based positions. I was looking for something else more long-term and settled.

Q. How does telehealth compare to in-person care?

A. It’s pretty comparable in my opinion. It’s very convenient, especially with the onset of COVID, it’s been easier to reach people in their homes with some of the lax in regulations. We’ve been able to do a lot more phone calls for some visits or Zoom meetings from people’s homes, which has been convenient because I tend to work in very rural communities in various parts of the country, and getting them to come to the office sometimes can be very difficult.

I like that you can reach patients where they are to help improve their ability to engage in treatment. That’s a wonderful thing.

I do miss being in the office and being around colleagues a little bit more and those types of day-to-day benefits. However, because of technology, I’m able to stay connected with my coworkers in a very fulfilling way as well as just bridging the gap with patients. Video conferencing is still useful, and it doesn’t feel too impersonal like I feared it would before I transitioned to all telehealth.

Q. How do you foster connection with patients virtually?

A. It helps to start, especially when you first meet with the patient, by telling them where you are to try to help them understand that you aren’t just another person. I also like to reassure them sometimes that I’m a provider that’s been with the clinic where they’re seeing me for an extended period of time. I’m not planning on transitioning anywhere because sometimes, that can be difficult when engaging in mental health treatment, especially if there’s been high turnover. I know that’s been a concern for some patients with virtual versus in-person providers.

Fostering connection is similar to how I have always done. You try to learn about people and who they are on a day-to-day basis and see if there are just ways to connect with them, and that’s just the best way I can find to connect with people.

Q. As a healthcare professional, how do you manage work-life balance?

A. I’m not always the best. I probably read emails more on my days off than I should, but luckily I don’t get too many. I have my dedicated workspace, which helps a lot, especially if you’re working within your home. That’s an incredibly important piece to help maintain your mental health because it can be difficult not to leave your home very much, especially when you’re first getting used to it. Then, when I’m finished with work, I spend time with my family. I have two very small children, a two-year-old and a seven-month-old, so they tend to keep me very grounded because it’s hard to focus on other things when I’m not in my office doing work.

Q. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

A. It is probably when clients tell me they feel heard and listened to. That’s always an experience I hope my patients have with me. And when I have a patient that expresses those feelings towards our provider-client relationship, it makes me feel like I am doing a good job because it can be hard to always feel that way in anything, but especially in this field, it can be really easy to feel like you aren’t doing a good job and you could be helping more and all those types of things. That’s the most fulfilling thing when patients express those thoughts and feelings to me. And just seeing people improve, get through something challenging, and feel better afterward.

Q. What do you love about working with Iris?

A. It gives me the freedom to have a really good work-life balance. Iris cares about their providers and really works to bridge the gap between you and your placement. So if you’re having an issue, maybe with your placement, something that you wish was going a little bit better, or anything that could come up, you have someone that has your back, and that is going try to negotiate with you and for you, and that can help ease a lot of stress.

Q. Why do you think telepsychiatry is important to the future of mental healthcare?

A. The access. When people struggle with their mental health, it’s very hard to engage, and it can be very difficult or exhausting to get up and leave your house sometimes. Or you could be having an issue at the hospital or while you’re incarcerated, and we can reach people in many different ways and expand our collaboration with multiple areas.

Q. What advice would you give someone new to telehealth?

A. Look at your camera, not your patient, because that helps facilitate eye contact. Still, look at your patient, of course, but if you want to inspire the eye contact feeling, then look at your camera lens. That’s the biggest thing. I think that’s the biggest piece of advice because otherwise, it’s similar to being in person.

At Iris, we believe our providers should be respected, valued, and applauded for the work they do, and we couldn’t be more proud to say, “thank you” to our very own Sarah Mendenhall. If you’d like to learn more about working for Iris Telehealth, contact us today.

How Iris Telehealth Compares to Locum Tenens

Medical groups and telehealth locum tenens groups are often compared but have distinct differences in their approach to patient care, the provider selection process, and care team integration. At Iris Telehealth, we’re a medical group facilitating telepsychiatry services to communities across the country. Our behavioral health providers work with patients and organizations to provide high-quality, value-based care.

So, what’s the difference between a medical group approach and telehealth locum tenens approach? Keep reading to learn more about telehealth locum tenens, how their approach differs from a medical group solution, and how telepsychiatry can bring the best value to healthcare organizations across the U.S.

What does it mean to be a telehealth locum tenens group?

Telehealth locum tenens are typically used for part-time or short-term provider fills. Regionally, locum tenens have niche groups that provide temporary work when organizations need an extra hand. For example, if a provider goes on maternity or disability leave, a locum’s group could provide a temporary fill for their position. Providers could be contracted anywhere from six to 12 months (if your organization needs a provider to serve a long-term position for your community, a locum tenens group is probably not for you).

Telehealth locum tenens may also be used when a healthcare organization doesn’t have adequate behavioral health support and need additional physician staffing. Hospitals or health systems may work with a telehealth locums group to help supplement gaps like those left by the ongoing provider shortage. At the height of the pandemic, 85% of healthcare facilities utilized locum tenens.

While locums telepsychiatry services typically provide short-term solutions, medical groups like Iris have the staying power to make a meaningful impact on the healthcare organizations they serve.

Three distinct differences between telehealth locum tenens and telepsych partners

Even though locums telepsychiatry services may be a convenient solution, achieving long-term stability can be challenging for their partners. Long-term stability takes shape in several ways – including cost, collaboration, and continuity of care. Although a challenge for locums, long-term stability is where a solution like a dedicated telepsychiatry partner shines. Let’s take a closer look at how these two approaches compare.

Cost: Locums come with a higher hourly rate for a short-term fill. Higher costs can prove difficult for organizations for obvious reasons like expense, but the extra lift of licensing and credentialing each new provider can also become tedious. With locums telepsychiatry services, your team also has to run point on any background checks, paperwork, and reference checks that must take place.

At Iris, we manage all recruiting, supporting, and supervising costs. Additionally, we handle all the licensing and credentialing to help make the implementation process as smooth as possible. By tailoring market rates, finding the best solution for your organization’s challenges, and strategizing to find the most cost-effective solution, we create an implementation process that works for everyone.

Collaboration: Integration is an essential part of our approach to care. Iris providers become a seamless part of your care team, building trust and rapport with your patients and your organization. Securing this trust between providers in the same health networks creates comfort and reliability.

For locums, without a long-term provider solution, it’s difficult for an organization’s providers to feel like the locum tenens physicians are part of the team, and can make it challenging to build concrete workflows.

Continuity of care: The beauty of securing a long-term provider fit is the relationship that can build between patients and providers. When patients can see the same provider consistently, the patient experience is better. But, when organizations have high provider turnover rates, patients have to continually re-tell their stories – which can negatively impact engagement. This turnover can create distrust, increase no-show rates, and even cause a patient to convert to a clinic that provides a long-term solution.

With these components at play, working with a provider who can deliver on cost, integration, and continuity of care can be essential to your organization’s success.

The value of job matching

At Iris, job matching is an essential piece of the puzzle. When matching a provider with an organization, we take several things into consideration to ensure the match is right.

The Iris Match includes:

  • Provider experience
  • The mentality of the organization’s executive team
  • Prescribing philosophies
  • Personality match
  • And much more

In contrast, most locum tenens groups look at age, range, specialty, where they’re licensed, and run the standard checks – but the process stops there.

Locums telepsychiatry solutions can gloss over the critical details that help create stability and long-term job satisfaction. At Iris, we value clinician happiness and want our providers to feel good at their jobs. That’s why we take an extra step to get to know our providers, understand what they want, and learn how we can match them with an organization that meets their needs.

Additionally, our licensing and credentialing team allows us the flexibility to look outside of the state for providers who might have more pertinent experience for the position an organization is trying to fill.

Positive outcomes from a medical group approach

Partnership is a central component of a medical group’s approach to care. For Iris, it’s an essential part of who we are and what we value. From the beginning, our partners meet with key stakeholders at Iris who get to know what they’re looking for, their needs, their model, and what it takes to make a successful provider match. We’re also clinically driven and have clinical leaders that help educate our recruiters.

Based on this approach, we’ve been able to secure successful matches and drive positive outcomes for our partners, like Swope Health and Spectrum Healthcare. Together, we helped them achieve the following outcomes for their population:

  • Secure the right provider match for their community
  • Guarantee functioning telepsychiatry systems
  • Seamless provider integration
  • Increase their show rates
  • And reduce their waiting list

We care about our partners and the mental health of their patients. That’s why we take time to make thoughtful matches, like we did at Swope and Spectrum, to help expand care and drive better outcomes.

Where Iris fits in

At Iris, we work with you to create a long-term placement that facilitates high-quality care for your patients and care team. We provide support along the way to help with implementation and customized workflows and assist your care team with licensing and credentialing.

If you would like to talk more about how we can help your organization secure a long-term provider fit, contact us today.

How Telehealth Has Impacted Mental Health Care

Every day, we see first-hand how telehealth improves access, bridges care gaps, and enhances patient experiences and outcomes.

For many Americans, telehealth has changed how patients receive care and how health systems, community clinics, and providers facilitate care.

Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of telehealth for mental health.

Table of Contents

Improving access to mental health care
How telehealth bridges care gaps
Enhancing patient experiences with telehealth
The future of telehealth
Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Improving access to mental health care

One of the most considerable challenges in behavioral health is access. For rural populations, individuals living far from mental health services may have issues finding high-quality and culturally competent care. In a survey conducted in 2022, researchers found that 88% of the rural population reported being open to telehealth. And those who required a doctor more often were even more likely to be interested in telehealth.

These figures are significant, considering that 1 in 5 rural Americans require mental health care.

Leveraging telehealth in rural communities allows Americans to receive the care they need. It also bypasses access, transportation, wait times, and stigma challenges. Since virtual services can occur on-site at a clinic or from a patient’s home, they are an effective way to provide care when barriers exist within a community.

How telehealth bridges gaps in care

Telehealth addresses care gaps for specialized populations, including older patients, children, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and those from diverse cultural backgrounds. Recent data shows that Black patients’ telehealth visit completion rates skyrocketed to 70% from 52% in a Philadelphia health system during the pandemic. According to this study, the challenges of physically traveling to a clinic and taking time off work are significant barriers to mental health care. Virtual behavioral health services can minimize any social determinants of health that communities face.

For example, with a virtual care option, children do not need to miss school, older patients who have trouble traveling can stay home, and patients from marginalized communities can work with a provider who can better relate to and address their unique mental health needs.

Additionally, leveraging telehealth can help organizations combat the worsening psychiatrist shortages, which contributes to a significant gap in mental health care.

Enhancing patient experiences with telehealth

Patients like the results and flexibility telehealth for mental health provides and want to keep using it. While some patients may need to come in person for care, having virtual behavioral health options can deliver massive benefits.

Here are just a few ways telehealth improves the patient experience:

  1. Better health outcomes: Telehealth can foster better communication between providers and patients, improving health outcomes overall. 93% of patients report that they would use telemedicine to manage prescriptions, and 91% of patients say they patients would use telemedicine to adhere to appointments. Patients can also proactively manage their health with the usage of telehealth by using it for prescription management and appointment adherence.
  2. Increased continuity of care: Access is everything in mental health care, and telehealth helps improve access and supports continuity of care. In a 2023 study conducted by CVS and The Harris Poll, 85% of people between the ages of 33 and 40 believe that digital health services have made mental health care more accessible. When patients can see the same provider consistently, the patient experience is better. Telehealth makes getting care easier for patients.
  3. Access to specialty care: When patients need a specialist, such as a child psychiatrist, it can be challenging to navigate the system and find a provider. Telehealth facilitates more straightforward access to mental health specialists for patients and enables collaborative care between providers and specialists, ensuring the best patient care possible. In fact, a 2022 AMA study reported that 75% of clinicians reported that telehealth enabled them to provide quality care.

The future of telehealth

Telehealth has become the new normal, and we think it’s here to stay. With many healthcare organizations leveraging virtual behavioral health to provide high-quality care, their communities and providers can experience the benefits of telehealth for mental health.

In December of 2022, President Biden signed the Omnibus Bill, providing $10 billion for behavioral health and expanding telehealth flexibilities for Medicare beneficiaries. This bill supports expanding workforce development programs and buprenorphine deregulation in the behavioral health industry.

For patients, telehealth has significantly contributed to reducing stigma. The next phase of healthcare involves finding non-stigmatizing and meaningful ways to support individuals with mental health conditions. Telehealth has presented opportunities in this regard and has offered individuals a way to diminish barriers, especially ones related to stigma.

We’re confident telehealth will continue to increase its impact on the behavioral health landscape in the years to come.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Telehealth has significantly impacted the behavioral health landscape and will continue to have an impact in the future. If you’re looking to implement telehealth into your organization, contact us today to see how our telepsychiatry services can help.