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 Dr. Heather Geis.

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

A. I wanted to do telehealth even before the pandemic. I’m in my sixties, I hadn’t tried it and thought it would be fun. I googled telehealth and Iris kept coming up as one of the best places to work, I contacted them, had an interview, and they hired me. It was very exciting!

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

A. Honestly, it’s very similar. The work is the same. I like that I get to work in a place that has never had a child and adolescent psychiatrist before. I work at a community service board in rural Virginia, and they see a lot of children and adolescent patients, but they’ve never had a child psychiatrist.

Being in telehealth allows a specialist like me to work in a place that’s never had access to that kind of care before.

Q. How do you foster connection with patients virtually?

A. All the virtual meetings and things that happened during the pandemic really helped us because people are a lot more comfortable with telehealth as a care delivery model.

When I first started, people weren’t as comfortable with it, especially in rural places. However, with the pandemic, a lot of people did virtual school, so telehealth became pretty normal. The more widespread use of virtual platforms has really helped.

In a way it’s been a benefit to be virtual because people don’t have to worry about running into me at Walmart. There’s more confidentiality to some degree.

I also feel like I’m more present with the patients because this is all I’m doing, and people are not calling me on the phone or stopping by the office to chat. I’m just with them. In a way, they get more of my attention being virtual.

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

A. I am kind of at the last third of my career. So, I chose to be a contract worker because I work less than I used to. It’s a lot easier to have work-life balance when you’re not full-time. That’s nice and Iris has that option available.

Another great thing is that you can choose how many hours you want to work. At the CSB, they don’t require me to do on-call. They say, “If you’re available and we need you, that’s great.” They have called me a few times and luckily, I’ve been available, but they don’t expect a call.

Basically, I work my hours and I’m done. That of course helps with work life balance, too.

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

A. Getting to work with people that would not ordinarily have access to my specialty is the most rewarding thing, but always helping patients is very rewarding in and of itself.

Q. What do you love about working with Iris?

A. Iris staff are very supportive. If I need anything, they’re always immediately available. When I first started, it seemed like I was calling tech support all the time, but I haven’t called them in a long time, so I guess I’ve figured it out.

But when you’re new and not figuring things out, they’re very helpful and available. They are a great team of people and they’re very supportive and engaging.

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

A. With the pandemic, I think we’re all more germ conscious too, so that’s certainly a benefit to the patient and the provider.

With telehealth, patients can connect with specialists they would ordinarily not be able to access.

We also don’t have to spend time commuting; we get to spend more time with patients. It affords a good work-life balance due to the flexibility of hours where you’re able to work in different time zones.

I’m an early bird, so I chose to work in Eastern time zone. I’m a Central time zone person, but Iris worked with me, and we were able to match my diurnal preferences with work sites. That’s been great for me because I get done early and start early. That’s a wonderful thing from a provider perspective.

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

A. There are a lot of ways to do it, for me, I signed up with a company. They deal with the contracts; they deal with the front-end issues. They spend a lot of time working with the clinics and making sure they’re providing the equipment and personnel needed, and they’re able to troubleshoot.

I really haven’t had any problems with my clinic, but I know, they’ve always told me, “If you have a trouble, we can help be an advocate for your needs.” I think working with a company is definitely very wise.

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 Dr. Geis. If you’d like to learn more about working for Iris Telehealth, contact us today.

In many rural areas across the U.S., and even in a lot of urban areas, there’s a significant lack of access to psychiatry or behavioral health services in general. Partially due to the ongoing (and worsening) psychiatry shortage, many healthcare organizations find it difficult to locate high-quality, local behavioral health providers to serve their communities.

Those challenges compound when an organization needs more specialized care — like bilingual providers or providers who specialize in working with children or older populations. Fortunately, virtual behavioral health services can go a long way toward filling those care gaps.

In this piece, we’ll break down how telehealth can benefit shortage areas across the country, what challenges your healthcare organization might face in implementing virtual behavioral health services, and best practices that will set you up for success.

What is a shortage area?

Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) is a federal designation that identifies an area as having a geographic shortage, which means there’s a shortage of providers for everyone in a defined geographic area.

There are also population-based shortages areas — Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs) or Medically Underserved Populations (MUPs), which signify a shortage of providers for a specific group of people — for example, migrant farmworkers or low-income patients. Organizations that qualify as facility HPSAs include public hospitals or nonprofit outpatient centers, correctional facilities, state mental health hospitals, and FQHCs.

Virtual behavioral health can provide critical behavioral health support to shortage areas

Shortage areas or HPSAs may be a particularly good fit for virtual behavioral health services programs because they are disproportionately affected by the national psychiatrist shortage.

Dr. Tracy Mullare, Medical Director of Outpatient Services, Iris Telehealth

These challenges [of the provider shortage] have affected children across the board, and those in rural areas have been particularly affected. Given this population’s proximity to mental health resources and other unique barriers like transportation and economic hardship, getting behavioral health support isn’t always possible.

Healthcare organizations in HSPAs are often unable to have an in-person provider on staff for their care setting, but through telehealth, they can access quality providers from across the country. Without utilizing virtual behavioral health services, organizations will often find themselves with long wait times — or without care entirely.

Having access to clinicians all over the country who can provide excellent care quickly and conveniently is a significant benefit for these organizations.

The American Psychiatric Association

Telepsychiatry’s evidence base – including outreach to rural and remote areas – is substantial in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and now in many war-torn parts of the world. Care to these underserved patients and communities has been one of the best successes of telemedicine. Outcomes have been positive in terms of satisfaction, validity/reliability, and clinical care relative to in-person care.

Virtual behavioral health can also open up access to providers with specific specialties that would otherwise be nearly impossible for healthcare organizations in HPSAs to staff. For example, in communities where the prominent language spoken isn’t English, having access to a telehealth provider who speaks that language is a huge benefit to patients as it enables them to see someone who they feel they can connect with.

Additionally, some providers specialize in behavioral healthcare for LGBTQIA+ patients or other specific patient populations. It can be hugely beneficial to have access to someone who is an expert in that area.

Through telehealth, your organization can access those specialties and fill gaps you can’t fill through your local provider network.

Challenges and considerations for implementing telehealth programs in HPSAs

Whenever your organization begins the process of searching for a virtual behavioral health provider, it might be difficult to find the right fit for your community. It’s important to make sure any potential providers understand the culture of your area and can work effectively with your specific patient populations.

Dr. Kavita Vasu, Iris Telehealth Provider

For underserved communities, they may have waited months for a specialty provider or had to travel somewhere else. Telepsychiatry bridges that gap, where they can see a specialist sooner and don’t have to travel as much. It’s nice that people in those communities can be served through telepsychiatry.

Working with a telehealth vendor, like Iris Telehealth, can be beneficial through that process as they have in-depth knowledge and experience with identifying, interviewing, and matching providers who would be a good fit for your community and your organization.

Initially, your organization may also face challenges in locating adequate funding for your telepsychiatry program. However, there is no shortage of federal grants available to help bring any necessary resources or technology to your community — you just need to make sure you consider the time it could take to apply for and receive that grant funding.

Some good grant resources to keep an eye on include:

• Rural Health Information Hub: RHIhub keeps an active list of all funding opportunities for all U.S. states and territories. If your organization is located in a rural area, this will be a great resource for current and future grants.
• SAMHSA: SAMHSA keeps a comprehensive list of grants for the improvement of quality and availability of substance use and mental health treatment services.
• Grants.gov: Grants.gov is the largest repository of federal grants for healthcare organizations across the country.

Setting your telehealth program up for success

Regardless of where your organization is located, there are certain steps you can take to help ensure the long-term success of your telepsychiatry program:

1. Train and educate your staff: Training your staff on specific systems or processes you may need to implement for your telehealth program can seem daunting at first, but it’s an important step to ensure you have the buy-in from your team to launch a successful program. As you walk them through any changes that might come with your new program, remember there are many resources available to help train your staff on how to work with specific technologies. Start by reaching out to your local telehealth resource center to learn more.
2. Work with a dedicated telehealth partner: If the prospect of launching your program and staffing it with telepsychiatry providers seems overwhelming, it may be a good idea for your organization to reach out to a company like Iris, who can help you set up your program from the ground up.
3. Educate yourself and your staff on how federal and state policies apply to you: It’s important to make sure your organization is aware of how billing and reimbursement policies affect your telepsychiatry program. And remember, there’s no shortage of evidence that patients like having access to telehealth services.

No matter what stage you’re in with your telehealth program, support is out there to help you build a program that provides life-saving access to behavioral health services for your community.

If you’re looking for highly qualified, compassionate behavioral health clinicians with experience working in shortage areas, Iris Telehealth can help. Contact us for more information about building an effective telehealth program.

Each day in IT is different, especially at Iris Telehealth where our team is responsible for supporting both clinicians and corporate team members. Their care and personability, alongside their in-depth technical expertise, sets them apart and creates exceptional experiences for the clinical and corporate sides of the house.

In this piece, we’ll take a look at some of the key duties and workflows our IT team puts in place to support our mission of creating a better world through healthy minds.

The mission of the IT team

Our IT team is multifaced. Through clinician support, IT creates reliability and confidence that providers will always have someone to turn to for technical support. In turn, our partners and their patients can depend on uninterrupted care and support.

For our Iris team members, this team supports workflows, efficiencies, and makes sure they have what they need to support our partners and clinicians. 

Adam Monsen, Director of IT Services at Iris Telehealth

When we provide support, we all try to have that same positive attitude, knowing that what we’re doing is bigger than ourselves – it’s the whole realm of psychiatry and patient care. That’s why we always try to provide the best service and never try to complain about anything. Anytime someone comes and gives us any specific problems or tickets, we’re happy to help.

The IT team works 24/7 to support our services. For example, for Iris’s On-Demand Services line, providers may need assistance at all hours of the night and into the early morning. Our IT team is there to answer the call and make sure they have the support they need to keep seeing patients.

On a daily basis, this team is communicating with team members, assisting with tickets, and setting up orientations for providers and new corporate employees. They’re also helping build laptops for new team members and sending out emergency laptops when needed.

They’re also consistently monitoring security, doing regular health checks, and making sure everyone can do their jobs efficiently. Additionally, this team is also looking at the various licenses our team’s leverage to ensure they’re being utilized efficiently and look at ways to cut costs.

Over the last few years, this team has saved the company significant spending costs by cutting licenses and transiting into different software and merging applications. This consistent monitoring helps ensure the most efficient workflows and the best outcomes for our teams.

Top notch support for providers and organizations

One of the primary goals of the IT team is to set our providers up for success and ensure they know they have someone to rely on whenever they have a technical challenge. For Iris providers, the goal is to support their technical needs so they can focus on what they do best – providing high-quality patient care.

Regardless of how tech savvy a provider may be, the IT team views it as their job to make the provider feel comfortable. That’s why, during the resolution process, the IT team makes sure to give updates on progress to help ease the provider’s minds and allow them to continue doing their work without worry of a lingering technical problem.

Dr. Jean Oelschlager, Iris Telehealth Provider

I was texting the IT team early in the morning, ‘This isn’t working, and I have patients starting at this time. I need help right away.’ Then, within minutes I was getting help. That’s been consistent because it’s happened several times.

I’m not a tech guru by any means, and that’s probably my greatest anxiety is wondering, ‘What’s going to happen with the computer? Or, is there going to be some upgrade or downgrade?’ The IT staff have been wonderful.

On the partner side, our IT team ensure Iris providers have minimal downtime. For example, if a provider is encountering technical challenges with their laptop that can’t be solved with extensive troubleshooting, they quickly build a new laptop and send it to the provider overnight.

Adam Monsen, Director of IT Services at Iris Telehealth

I feel that we are one of the best IT teams, not just in psychiatry, but in general. That’s because we are so quick to respond, attentive, and caring. We encourage people to send in a ticket. We want them to feel that we’re their friend, we’re here for them no matter what. That’s it. I think that’s the huge benefit to our IT team.

This level of support also takes the pressure off our partner’s shoulders. They can rely on our team to ensure our providers have the technical support they need, without tying up their in-house IT department.

Measurements of success

Most recently, the IT team was required to onboard two large groups of providers at one time. This process required coordination, laptop builds, answering calls, and managing a large surge of provider orientations. They handled everything seamlessly and our providers were able to get going without technical hang-ups.

Here are a few of their accomplishments over the last year:

• 3,000 tickets resolved
• Over 180 laptops built and replaced
• 99% satisfaction rate among Iris providers and team members

Additionally, this team maintains a 95-percentile rate for Service Level Agreement (SLA). That means if there are 500 tickets in a month, only 3-4% of tickets in responding or resolving quickly were violated. The remaining are answered or receive a response within the hour. 

Learn more about our support pillars

If you’d like to learn more about the technical side of implementing telehealth into your organization, contact us today.

Additionally, if you’d like to learn more about the support our teams provide, you can view additional spotlights here:

• Telepsychiatry in Action: Meet our Clinical Hiring Team
• Telepsychiatry Services in Action: Meet our CAE Team
• Telepsychiatry in Action: Meet our COMs Team
• Telepsychiatry Services in Action: Meet the Medical Staff Services Team

At Iris, we’re proud to collaborate with our partners to help them succeed and be prepared for any challenges they may face in their day-to-day operations.

Ten years ago, helping healthcare organizations understand virtual workflows and virtual care pathways was much more complicated than it is today. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of virtual care across all medical specialties and primary care has been critical, especially in behavioral health.

Today, behavioral health usage rates remain high. At Iris Telehealth, it’s not unusual for our partners to use telehealth 50-75% of the time for behavioral health care services. Everyone is used to telehealth.

That means, rather than primarily focusing on connecting and seeing patients (the core of virtual care), we’re now able to focus on emerging workflows that enable analytics that track no-show rates, billing and coding patterns, and patient engagement.

One area where we’ve seen a high opportunity for workflow improvement and high impact on patient outcomes is leveraging virtual care in the inpatient psychiatric unit.

The reality of behavioral health care in the health system

Behavioral health patients seeking care for urgent issues and experiencing long wait times in the health system is nothing new. That’s because many hospitals don’t have access to behavioral health resources. When they don’t have this access, they leverage social workers for care coordination, therapy, and patient support.

If a patient comes in with cardiac or lung issues, you want them to meet with a provider with the appropriate skill set and knowledge to assess them based on their presentation. Many emergency departments have excellent providers who have been able to treat behavioral health patients, but nowadays the acuity is much higher.

Access to inpatient treatment for patients who might be manic, psychotic, or experiencing withdrawal can be challenging – and it may not always be easy and efficient to direct them to the appropriate hospital bed or step-down unit.

That’s where we’re finding that, for many health systems, the emergency department is becoming like an inpatient unit. For organizations that partner with a telehealth solution like ours, patients can be seen by a psychiatrist or a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) in less than an hour of when they present to the ED.

From there, we can work with the ED staff on starting or restarting necessary medications or guiding the course of treatment – which makes for a better patient experience and smoother workflows for the on-site care teams.

In-person care verses virtual in inpatient psychiatric units

Through our partnerships with major hospitals and health systems across the country, we have found that hospitals and inpatient psychiatric units that have adopted workflows enable virtual care work very well.

When working with an organization, we like to learn about their culture around telehealth. We learn about their history and how they’ve embraced telehealth in the past.

It’s important for organizations to consider that the quality of an in-person provider isn’t necessarily better than that of a virtual care provider. We can get high-quality providers who want to work from their homes and virtually go into the inpatient psychiatry unit and ED, allowing patients to experience the high-quality care and professionalism they need and deserve.

Also, hospitals can have long-term virtual care providers seeing patients on inpatient units and engaging in rounding, team meetings, consults, and admitting/discharging patients.

A virtual behavioral health provider can be just as accessible throughout the day as an in-person provider. While you can’t knock on their door, you can send them a note through an instant messaging platform, text, or even call them on the phone just like an in-person provider.

There are many clinical duties on inpatient psychiatry units that require in-person support such as psych techs, nurses, and staff for things like lab draws and physical exams. However, in terms of behavioral health specialists, virtual providers can facilitate care that is as good as, or better than, in-person providers an organization might be able to recruit.

The key to integrating virtual and in-person providers

No matter the level of clinical care, trusting your team members is key, and that means spending time together. It’s important to note that being virtual doesn’t mean a provider is sitting at home doing nothing—it’s more like they’re in an office or a hospital next door. They may be 500 miles away, but they’re still available and responsive to patient and staff needs and questions.

For example, a nurse might have a question, or a patient might need to be seen twice or more during the day for something like an exacerbation of symptoms, possible side effects, or requesting to leave. In such cases a virtual provider would come back on video to see the patient and discuss concerns with the onsite team or even gather more collateral from family.

An on-site provider might be in a different location, stuck in traffic, and unavailable. However, a virtual provider can transcend those geographic barriers and see patients quickly with little if any delay.

Virtual care lends itself to collaboration and integration with on-site teams quite well. It allows for flexible, timely, and patient-centered care.

Virtual behavioral health programs and inpatient care

Continuity of care is critical to the patient experience. When you’re working with complex patients, it’s important to try and have continuity of care with the techs working around them and the nurses that can know and understand the nuances of their behavior.

With a solution like Scheduled Services, which is Iris’s approach to delivering virtual care, you have a provider working in the same units day after day — or being a part of the weeknight and weekend call teams and rounding team.

Building up the sense of continuity with the team and having that trust, consistency of care, and communication with patients in their behavioral health journey in the acute setting is very important.

Generally, our providers work on inpatient units just as an in-person provider would, though virtually. They have the same meetings, experiences with patients, and communication with the care team – all to help build that continuity.

The financial benefits of virtual behavioral health programs

There are also benefits of virtual behavioral health programs that lead to better financial outcomes. For example, by treating behavioral health, patients receive more holistic care that helps treat physical conditions in tandem, better improving total cost of care and reducing length of stay.

Additionally, having a virtual behavioral health solution in place can help improve ED throughput and ensure patients aren’t staying in the hospital longer than necessary.

There have also been recent policy shifts that have created major evolutions in how CMS and congress are working to look at virtual care reimbursement. It’s been more progressive than anything I’ve seen in my last 30 years of being in this field.

Change doesn’t happen a lot in medicine, but the recent changes to promote virtual access to care, particularly for people with mental health and substance use disorder issues, have been impressive and a huge win for patients and providers alike.

The future of behavioral health care

It’s important to challenge the myth that having someone on-site is better or necessary. Healthcare is moving away from care being solely driven by what happens in a brick and mortar facility.

In the future, not only will providers be working from home, but they’re also going to be seeing acute patients in the patient’s homes–patients who might otherwise have been hospitalized—in the emerging “hospital at home” and “remote patient monitoring” models that lend themselves quite naturally to virtual care.

Virtual care is helping the healthcare industry rethink our models and how we care for patients, both in acute care settings like inpatient units and partial hospital programs. Across the spectrum of care, virtual care continues to impact patients’ lives in ways that those of us in behavioral health care can really see.

If you’d like to learn more about how Iris Telehealth can integrate virtual behavioral health programs into your hospital or health system, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can contact us here or check out this page to learn more about Scheduled Services.

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 Betty Bell, one of our incredible LCSWs.     

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

A. It was about three years ago when I moved to Minnesota. I was flipping through the internet, saw a job opportunity, and applied for it. I didn’t think I’d like telehealth because I liked the in-person connection. However, I did a lot of research and saw that telehealth is just as effective as in-person care, especially with some of the modalities I use in therapy. I decided to try it, and I really like it. 

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

A. I specialize in trauma. I work with a lot of individuals that have trauma, and EMDR has been very effective. I researched before I took the job because I wanted to make sure I could serve the clients I work with, and the research said it was effective.  

I use bilateral music stimulations instead of tapping or other devices that can be used in this treatment. Those have been effective. Patients have been able to use those outside of sessions as well. It’s light music with bilateral stimulations in it, which helps them process. 

Telehealth is an asset, especially when patients live in a city where they struggle with transportation or stay home with their kids. They don’t have to load up the children and then drop them off at daycare or go to therapy. They’re able to get services right within their home. 

A lot of times when I work with people, that’s their safe place. That’s where they feel comfortable.  

I think telehealth creates fewer barriers for them to get therapy versus in-person – in-person takes gas to get there and pre-scheduling – telehealth saves a lot of time out of the patient’s day. 

Q. How do you foster connection with patients virtually? 

A. I firmly believe that building rapport right out of the gate is key in therapy. As we’re talking and communicating, if there’s anything that the patient’s not feeling comfortable with or they don’t think we have a connection, I ask them to let me know right away so we can connect them to someone they connect with.   

Because a lot of times in therapy, if you don’t have that rapport and connection, it’s not going to be as effective. We usually talk about that right away. I haven’t had anyone that didn’t like that approach. I meet them where they’re at, start with a basic conversation, and then build a connection that way. And then things lead into more details of the things they’re experiencing. 

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

A. I’m in my later forties, and I remember being a social worker in my twenties, where stress was more impactful. What I’m finding as I am older is that therapy is my passion. It doesn’t feel like work. It’s my calling – it’s what I’ve chosen to do. 

A lot of the times, with the people we serve, if they cross my mind outside the session, I’ll send them positive vibes, healing, or great thoughts. But I don’t take a lot of work home. I also exercise, get massages, and do a lot of self-care outside of the session, which also helps. It makes a difference when this work is what you’re called to do. 

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

A. I had a client who crossed my mind, and I couldn’t remember her name. Sometimes, it gets tricky, and suddenly, her name crosses my mind. Two weeks later, she messaged me. I didn’t have her contact information, but she remembered my number. That was pretty cool. 

I got to ask, “Hey, how are you?” “Are you still in this location?” “How are the kids?” We briefly touched base, and she’s doing well.  

She’s stayed in the community for three years. She is working, and her sons seem to be thriving. Before, they were struggling with homelessness. She struggled with addiction issues, and her mental health was pretty poor.  

The power of connection is really what therapy is all about. So, having a patient cross your mind and then suddenly they find you and reach out. That was amazing to me. 

Q. What do you love about working with Iris?  

A. Iris has created a platform where you’re connected to an agency where there’s a connection. That’s powerful. I adore the agency that I’m placed with. It’s in a different state, and they have a different community, and I really embrace that and enjoy that.  

I’ve worked with Iris for about two and a half years and have all the support I need. My supervisor’s a phone call, text, or message away. We meet on a regular basis. I get all the training I need.  

I can’t say enough about my connection with the agency where they placed me. I adore my supervisor there. They’re so supportive and appreciative. She often just says, “I appreciate you,” and I’ll tell you, that goes miles.  

I wouldn’t really work for Iris or even the agency I was placed with if I didn’t have those connections and that support and that extra training. I’ve been really pleased with even the environment. It’s been very positive, not negative. It’s really a great place to work. I’ve been very pleased. 

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

A. COVID-19 brought a lot of good things, even though it was a difficult time as well. Telehealth became even more important during that time when people were isolated.  

They couldn’t connect to services they probably needed. I think it opened a window for therapists.  

I think telehealth is here to stay. The way you can network between states – you can be in one state and be licensed to provide care in another state – the connections you can make are so powerful.  

When I talk to some of my clients, the chances of us meeting are like zero, but we get to be a part of each other’s journey and experience. Telehealth has opened a vast area for not only our clients, but for our professionals. It’s pretty exciting to watch. 

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

A. Embrace it and roll with the process. At first, I remember I was kind of nervous. Like, “Am I going to be able to keep up with the computer or network? It just seems like everything fell into place and I always had IT support.  

They’re always a phone call away, and even sometimes the clients will get maybe anxious, like, “I can’t hear you very well,” so we’ll adjust or maneuver things. But again, it’s just part of the process.  

So just embracing it and working with whatever obstacles may come. I think that you’re going to be able to see the fruition as you continue to just be relaxed and follow the process. I’m sold on it.  

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 Betty Bell. If you’d like to learn more about working for Iris Telehealth, contact us today. 

Depressive disorder is the most common cause of hospitalization among patients under age 18. However, the shortage of behavioral health providers in this setting makes meeting patients with timely care challenging.

A study from the Mayo Clinic found that, of 2,300 U.S. hospitals surveyed, 54% had no psychiatrist on staff or available for medical ED or inpatient consultations. When admissions for active psychiatric patients were needed, 59% of hospitals transferred them to another hospital – creating leakage within the health system.

For patients who stay within the hospital system and need care over 30 days, Beckers Healthcare highlights that it can create additional healthcare costs of $2,265 per stay. 

However, effective and efficient behavioral health integration can help decrease costs and improve patient experience. In their annual Environmental Scan, the American Hospital Association (AHA), shares that an inpatient integrated behavioral health model resulted in a 159% return on investment, and a study of six primary care practices found integration reduced ED visits by 14.2%. 

Integrating virtual care partnerships to support inpatient psychiatric units offers a simple solution to a complicated problem and helps keep patients from falling through care gaps. By bringing in a virtual behavioral health provider, patients can get the care they need, health systems can avoid leakage, and provider time can be used more effectively.

Integrating virtual care into the inpatient psychiatric unit

Making virtual care available in your inpatient psychiatric unit, your health system can alleviate staffing challenges, transform the patient and provider experience, and assist their on-site providers with behavioral health clinicians.

Teams are connected with a dedicated provider who serves the hospital on a consistent basis each week.

The American Hospital Association

Virtual care technology saves patients time and money, reduces patient transfers, emergency department and urgent care center visits, and delivers savings to payers. In addition, telehealth helps address physician burnout by reducing clinicians’ drive times and allowing more time for patients.

Virtual behavioral health care allows organizations to recruit from a larger pool of providers than they might not otherwise have access to in their geographic region. This capability allows patients to get the quality care they need for complex behavioral health conditions.

We call our virtual solution for this Scheduled Services, which ensures access to high-quality behavioral health providers who are dedicated to our partner healthcare organizations on a consistent schedule and are matched to the needs of their communities and care teams. This approach creates continuity of care for patients with complex behavioral health conditions. Additionally, virtual behavioral health providers have flexibility and can provide the same consistency that an on-site provider can and doesn’t position patients to have to repeatedly tell their stories.

Virtual behavioral health providers can round virtually and work weekends and nights – whenever care is needed. This flexibility also enables care team integration and allows providers to attend team meetings and be available to other clinicians just as they would if they were in-person. Virtual providers can collaborate, join team huddles, and consult with their team.

The benefits of a virtual provider solution  

Virtual behavioral health solutions help patients get seen more quickly, reduce expenses, and help promote quality care for patients who might otherwise be left waiting for treatment or end up back in the emergency department.

When determining who to partner with for a virtual behavioral health solution, it’s important to consider what other supports come along with the addition of a provider.

At Iris Telehealth, we pride ourselves on the support we provide to our partners to make sure they’re matched with a provider who has the right skillset and knowledge to treat the level of acuity they see within their inpatient units. We also provide clinical alignment executives who support and serve as a primary point of contact for our partners.

Laura Taylor, Program Director of Psychiatry at Carilion Clinic, Iris Telehealth Partner

Working with well-informed individuals who know exactly what to do, have had that experience, and can offer solutions while listening to needs. That’s what I’ve enjoyed so much about my relationship with Shannon [Iris Telehealth CAE].

These pillars of support also extend to help with licensing and credentialing as well as quality management services to ensure our providers are helping organizations meet their key behavioral health goals.

Treating behavioral health patients in the inpatient unit is no easy task, but we do our best to support each organization so they can experience the benefits of a virtual behavioral health solution.

How virtual behavioral health enables continuity of care

When a patient can’t get the care they need, when they need it, they may end up leaving the health system and going somewhere else for care. This potential for leakage is costly and creates a poor experience for patients.

When a health system has a behavioral health specialist readily available, the patient’s chance of being seen quickly increases. They receive proper evaluation and lessen their risk of their symptoms becoming exacerbated.

Additionally, in-person care may not meet demand in the same way a virtual solution can. There are several barriers an in-person provider may encounter versus someone working virtually. For example, while weather or traffic could keep a provider from making it into the unit, a virtual provider has consistent flexibility that supports a consistent schedule.

Laura Taylor, Program Director of Psychiatry at Carilion Clinic, Iris Telehealth Partner

To have an established Iris Telehealth provider was incredibly important because it created reliability on the unit. We knew exactly what we were working with when we had the physician. She was very reliable, and it created continuity of care.

Patients may need to be seen again and having a provider they know, trust, and can count on, can make all the difference in their care. Helping provide care to patients that’s high-quality and specialized can help them experience better outcomes and build trust with your organization.

How to get started with Scheduled Services

At Iris, we’re proud of the level of care we provide to patients. That’s why we have a 97% average patient satisfaction rate and a 92% partner retention rate. Additionally, our commitment to quality has helped us gain Joint Commission accreditation. We’ve treated 2.3M+ patients and counting and we’re eager to see how we can help those in your community get the behavioral health care they need and deserve.

If you’d like to learn more about how Scheduled Services can be integrated into your health system, don’t hesitate to reach out today. Contact us here for more information.

Today, many traditional care models remain siloed and fall short of whole-person-centered care that addresses both behavioral and physical health conditions – and how they impact each other. Emerging healthcare models, including virtual care and the expansion of digital health tools, seek to integrate value, quality, and access while keeping the patient journey and experience top-of-mind.

In this piece, I’ll share insights on why Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) is central to patient and provider satisfaction, the potential challenges and benefits of this approach, and what BHI looks like in practice.

The role of behavioral health in primary care

Behavioral health factors have a strong influence on patient morbidity and mortality.

In fact, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, as many as 75% of primary care visits include mental or behavioral health components. And, 67% of adults with a behavioral health condition do not receive appropriate treatment.

In the face of nationwide psychiatrist shortages, primary care providers (PCPs) are often positioned as the first-line of behavioral health care for their patients. However, while PCPs often want to know more about behavioral health and how to care for their patients, they don’t always have the time or specialization to treat more complex cases.

That’s because treating a behavioral health condition doesn’t always have a clear or obvious path for medication and treatment. However, by leveraging a virtual behavioral health solution, PCPs can ensure their patients are getting the help they need and healthcare organizations can ensure financially sustainable delivery of behavioral health services.

The financial benefits of Behavioral Health Integration

According to a Briefing Series on the Role of Psychology in Health Care by the American Psychological Association, the interconnection of behavioral health and physical health can have a profound impact on total cost of care:

• Behavioral health conditions like anxiety and depression can worsen chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes, and cancer.
• Research shows treatment of behavioral health conditions in primary care settings offset costs by 20-40%. 
• Research also shows fewer hospitalizations that result in significant cost reductions for patients with comorbidities and improvement in treatment adherence, translating to $105 billion in annual avoidable health care costs.

To add to these numbers, in a behavioral health analysis by Evernorth Health Services, treating behavioral health conditions in outpatient care is directly tied with a reduction in medical and pharmacy costs — with savings up to $2,565 per person over 15 months following a diagnosis and up to $3,321 per person over 27 months following a diagnosis.

These numbers show us that primary care providers shouldn’t face the burden of providing behavioral health services alone. And they don’t have to. With the help of a behavioral health specialist, their organizations can generate savings and their patients can experience superior outcomes.

Challenges and solutions organizations may face when implementing collaborative care

While behavioral health integration delivers clear benefits for your patients, care team, and PCPs, achieving it isn’t without its challenges. Some of the most common challenges we’ve heard from healthcare organizations include:

1. Long wait times for behavioral health providers: Providing timely access to care for mid-to-high acuity behavioral health conditions can be challenging. For example, if a patient needs medication management from a psychiatrist, wait times can often be too long. However, if a provider is integrated into a practice, seeing a SUD therapist, for example, may be quicker.
2. Greater level of assessment required: While PCPs take on the majority of behavioral health patients, sometimes the level of assessment is greater than what they can provide. While there’s no easy button, integrated care, even at a small level, can get the ball rolling.
3. Relying entirely on in-person care: In-person care is still the gold standard of care. However, by trying to rely on in-person care models alone, it can be challenging to get the right resources, at the right time, in a financially scalable way. Many organizations face insurmountable challenges recruiting onsite providers for some of their rural and urban settings. Virtual care transcends city, county, and state barriers, so patients have access to care regardless of location.
4. Triage and care navigation challenges: These approaches can be a challenge and lead to too much responsibility for the primary care provider. Primary care providers need help from the right behavioral health specialists for their most complex patients, and they need it in a timely manner. Partnering with virtual care providers in the navigation process can take additional burdens off patients and PCPs.

How Bridge Care Services Enables Behavioral Health Integration

For health systems looking to implement integrated behavioral health services, Bridge Care Services ensures the patients who need care first get care first – while being efficiently directed to an appropriate care plan.

Bridge Care Services leverages virtual care and an evidence-based care model to ensure patients that need escalation from primary care receive timely access to high-quality behavioral care, including therapy, medication management, or both.

This approach fills gaps in ambulatory and post-acute behavioral health care for patients, helping health systems achieve measurement-based outcomes and optimizing reimbursement for a financially sustainable behavioral health program. 

With Bridge Care Services, the pathway begins with a billable biopsychosocial needs assessment delivered by a licensed therapy provider within seven days of a patient’s discharge. The provider then determines the appropriate behavioral health specialist to manage the patient’s care needs with counseling, medication management, or both.

The care navigation and therapeutic support from this approach alleviate the burden on the health system’s resources using a cost-effective process that closes referrals to specialists sooner and returns patients to community providers when available.

Behavioral Health Integration at Iris Telehealth

The demand for virtual behavioral health services will continue to grow, fueled by patient needs, psychiatrist shortages, and the emphasis on integrated care.

Providers who embrace these services will not only improve the timeliness of the behavioral health care they deliver, the health of their patients, and their own work satisfaction, but will also ensure their viability in a new world of consumer-centric healthcare.

If you’d like to learn more about Iris Telehealth and how can help your health care organization implement Behavioral Health Integration into your practice, feel free to reach out today.

Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs) make for exceptional members and leaders of care teams. Generally speaking, PMHNPs not only have very diverse educational backgrounds, but they undergo a variety of trainings and are experts in delivering effective behavioral health care.  

I’ve seen the impact PMHNPs can make for healthcare organizations first-hand across my 20-year career as a PMHNP and from my experience serving as Iris Telehealth’s Lead Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. Over those years, here are the best practices I’ve seen for how organizations can effectively leverage PMHNPs and some of the specific benefits their communities experience when they lean into PMHNPs.  

How organizations can leverage PMHNPs for their behavioral health programs 

At Iris, we work with organizations all across the country to support the various needs of their patients.  

Here are some of the primary ways our partners leverage PMHNPs for behavioral health services:  

• Telepsychiatry: Organizations in rural communities or those experiencing the effects of the provider shortage have found great success in leveraging PMHNPs via telepsychiatry. While PMHNPs tend to live on the East Coast, telepsychiatry makes their services widely available.  
• Crisis intervention: PMHNPs are excellent at deescalating volatile situations. Once a situation is handled and the patient is triaged to an inpatient psychiatric unit, we provide follow-up care and execute quality improvement initiatives. We are excellent at keeping up with data and showing where our helps and enhances the overall effectiveness of our outcomes.  
• Patient advocacy: Another area where PMHNPs excel is communication. Many of our patients feel PMHNPs can speak at their level. We’re nurses first and understand the importance of bedside manner. We carry that into our treatment, and patients feel they can communicate effectively with us.  
• Medication management: A lot of organizations utilize PMHNPs for medication management because they have therapists who conduct therapy. While we always end up doing a bit of therapy, the largest part of our job is talking to patients, seeing what their symptoms are, and determining if medication is appropriate for them. We then write a prescription and follow-up every one to three months according to how well they’re doing and adjust as needed.  

The role PMHNPs play in reducing mental health stigma  

In independent practice states, our skills can be leveraged for leadership roles or providing community outreach, whether that’s teaching people about mental health stigma or helping them learn about their conditions before they escalate into something more severe.   

For example, if a patient is worried about what people think about them getting treatment for their behavioral health condition, it might keep them from getting help. However, if an organization is leveraging a PMHNP for treatment, the PMHNP can explain how treating a behavioral health condition is just the same as treating diabetes or hypertension.  

Everyone wants someone to talk to and there’s nothing wrong with that. When you remove the stigma, people get in earlier, and they’re less likely to escalate to a higher severity and can stay more stabilized throughout their life span.  

The advantages of hiring a PMHNP 

Part of our job is reaching out and communicating with primary care doctors because we often share patients. It’s important for us to let them know the patients we treat, so if they have anyone who needs behavioral health support, they can send them our way. This communication enables the best care for the patient.  

That said, we are very integrated into the organization we serve, building relationships in the community and with the on-site team. This approach helps create the best experience possible for the patient and builds continuity of care.  

On the other hand, if an organization is working with a Locums, someone who is in and out, behavioral health patients don’t tend to respond well. People don’t like to tell their stories over and over and they don’t feel comfortable knowing that someone is only going to be there for a short time.  

However, they respond very well know that their PMHNP is “their person” and they can trust them because they’re a part of the team. By being integrated into the clinic, we become one of the employees there and we’re not going anywhere.  

Why bedside manner and communication is a PMHNP’s superpower  

People may not realize all the different aspects of what a PMHNP can provide. Nurse practitioners can do research, outreach, crisis intervention, and medication management. They can also work in both inpatient and outpatient settings and do step down roles. There are an endless number of jobs a nurse practitioner can do.  

I would say our superpower, though, is our bedside manner. We meet people where they are. Whenever you meet a patient, you have to figure out how they communicate. Some people walk in and they’re joking – they want someone to be lighthearted, so they’re comfortable. But they also want you to be serious and provide medication management. However, if you’re really serious and to the point, they’re not going to trust you.  

It’s important to learn about your patients and figure out what’s important to them. If someone mentions their family, it’s important to follow up with them the next time you see them. Ask how they’re doing. These are all important aspects of building a good relationship.  

Building your team of PMHNPs at Iris  

Over my 20 years as a PMHNP, I can say that at Iris, we have a wonderful set of nurse practitioners. We strive to have the highest quality providers around and we do a great job of finding the best of the best.  

If you’d like to learn more about PMHNPs and the benefits they can bring to your organization, feel free to contact us today and see how we can find the best provider fit for your community.   

You can also learn more about how PMHNPs can benefit your organization here.  

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 Dr. Alonso Cárdenas.   

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

A. I found Iris through LinkedIn. I needed to stay in San Diego, and I love that Iris gives me the flexibility to work from home. I work for an underserved population in a rural area in Modesto, California, at a Federally Qualified Health Center.

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

A. Telepsychiatry is great. It makes a difference in rural areas with low access. I love being able to travel and spend time with my family while still being able to work and not having to commute.

Being able to have meals at home is great for work-life balance. If a new patient doesn’t show up, I can do maintenance of certification, articles, exams, play with my dog, or do laundry or dishes, which creates more room for quality of life on weekends. I have more time to go to the dog beach or hike.

Telepsychiatry has already grown since I was in training. Then there was the pandemic, and many more people are now used to FaceTime and doing meetings on Zoom.

Q. How do you foster connection with patients virtually?

A. I try to foster a connection as I did in person by being fully present and empathic, providing psychoeducation and resources, and genuinely being interested and invested in helping people.

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

A. Working for Iris as a child and adolescent psychiatrist helps with work-life balance. When possible, I do virtual care for my own health, too.

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

A. The most rewarding part of my job is being able to make a difference in the lives of patients, especially those who are underserved with complex social political issues.

Q. What do you love about working with Iris?

A. I love the culture at Iris. It’s very different than anything I’ve experienced since medical school. They’re so efficient and above and beyond helpful.

I once had a wireless keyword that malfunctioned, and they sent me a new one right away. I had a travel monitor that I had purchased myself malfunction and Beth Chase, my Clinical Operations Manager, checked in with me and asked if I needed anything, if my equipment was working properly, and then offered several travel monitor options that Iris could reimburse me for.

When there’s a workflow or scheduling issue with Golden Valley Health Centers, the FQHC I work for, she meets with them, troubleshoots problems, solves them, and then things improve quickly and promptly.

Q. How does the flexibility of telehealth help you do more of what you love?

A. Last year, for Christmas, I was able to go to my in-laws in Orlando and still be able to work. I would work and then hang out and spend time with family when I wasn’t working.

My wife is a law professor and gets to take a sabbatical; she’s studying and writing research on cultural heritage. We can travel and I can still work.

After work and on weekends, I still go sightseeing, and I love being able to do that.

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

A. Telepsychiatry is very important for mental healthcare. In addition to the access, it’s more comfortable. There’s much less of a chance that a patient will feel awkward running into a coworker at the psychiatrist’s office. It’s so convenient.

I’m going to date myself here, but as a kid, I used to go to Blockbuster video to rent movies – now we stream. I would sometimes have to catch and walk looking for a taxi. Now, for the most part, we use Uber or Lyft.

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

A. Advice that I would give someone who’s considering telehealth is work for Iris.

They’re super-efficient, helpful, and their IT team is amazing. They go above and beyond to the point of even offering to troubleshoot and problem solve, even when the issue is not their equipment or organization.

I think we want to have a growth mindset and continue to develop and evolve.

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 Dr. Alonso Cárdenas. If you’d like to learn more about working for Iris Telehealth, contact us today.

Meeting behavioral health patients with timely support, appropriate care, and proper follow-up is essential to their care journeys. Unfortunately, finding the right care isn’t always easy. Between provider shortages, increased demand for behavioral health treatment, and social determinants of health, patients may spend a lot of time waiting for care without ever receiving the support they need.

Bridge Care Services ensures the patients who need care first get care first – while being efficiently directed to an appropriate care plan. Keep reading to learn more about how bridge care enables Behavioral Health Integration across health systems.

Table of contents
Bridge care 101
How Bridge Care Services works
The benefits of Bridge Care Services
Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Bridge care 101

A dedicated bridge care program can help support health systems via a behavioral health integration model backed by clinical and operational expertise to solve common challenges health systems face in delivering ambulatory care in a scalable and sustainable way. This model ensures patients with a behavioral health referral get timely, high-quality care and appropriate treatment and follow-up – all while improving a health system’s total cost of care.

Keys to success:

1. Augmenting behavioral health access: Any system struggling with its referral volumes needs a mechanism to augment its clinical bandwidth to reduce its backlog – whether that means optimizing existing resources or leveraging a third-party partner like Iris Telehealth.
2. Financial sustainability: Health systems have to maintain financial sustainability for any program to stand the test of time. A bridge care program should be designed accordingly and optimized for reimbursement.
3. Care navigation: Clinical recommendations that direct the patient to the right type of care, from the right type of provider.
4. Quality Management: To ensure the success of any program, your care team needs high visibility into what’s going right – and what’s going wrong – across your workflows and patient and clinical outcomes. Bridge care leverages clinical support and oversights throughout the care program lifecycle to manage data-driven outcomes and demonstrate clinical and operational impact.

How Bridge Care Services works

There are six components that make up Bridge Care Services and help more people get the care they need.

Here’s how those components work to support health systems:

• Cross-functional care team: Our cross-functional care team of psychiatrists, therapists, and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners will fully integrate into your health system.
• Clinical prioritization: Referred patients are entered into a risk-stratified patient registry that undergoes a clinical review to ensure the patients who need help first, get seen first.
• Navigation assessments: A Licensed Clinical Social Worker will complete a Navigation Assessment to determine the appropriate level of care.
• High-quality care: Patients referred to Iris will receive the appropriate care plan for their needs. Whether that is medication management, therapy or both – and whether that is short-term care or longer-term care – we ensure each patient receives efficient, quality care.
• Collaborative transition:Once a patient can be safely managed by their primary care provider, ambulatory service, or community clinic – an Iris Care Coordinator helps facilitate a supported transition to the next care setting in the patient’s journey.
• Iris Insights:Your health system will have the backing of Iris clinical and operational excellence to ensure sustainable behavioral health care.

Click here for a more in-depth look at how Bridge Care Services works.

The benefits of Bridge Care Services

With the immense need for care, health systems are overwhelmed. Thankfully, Bridge Care Services can help organizations with the influx they’re experiencing, provide additional support, and continue providing the highest quality of care they’re accustomed to delivering to their patients.

When implemented properly in a health system, Bridge Care Services can help:

• Improve total cost of care
• Deliver optimized Behavioral Health Integration across the whole system
• Support organizational quality measures
• Increase patient satisfaction
• Decrease provider burnout
• Retain patients within the health system
• Keep patients in the referral queue out of the ED
• Support longitudinal care
• Reduce 30-day readmission rates
• Promote referring provider satisfaction

Bridge Care Services helps provide a transformative process for health systems, their teams, and the patients they serve.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

At Iris Telehealth, we believe patients deserve access to high-quality behavioral health care. That’s why we walk with them throughout their care journeys to help ensure they get the most effective care possible. If you’d like to learn more about our Bridge Care Services program, contact us today.

Behavioral health integration is not a new idea. It started to garner mainstream traction in the 1970s, and as we sit here in 2024, nobody disputes the idea that we should integrate mental and physical health. It is unquestionably the right thing for patient care, and for total cost of care.

The last fifty years have brought amazing ideas, pilots, and learnings — but as an industry, we have yet to drive widespread adoption and success. At Iris Telehealth, we think that is about to change. The data, care models, and technology have evolved to make driving scalable and sustainable clinical and financial outcomes possible. 

Let’s talk about what we’ve learned as an industry, where the industry is going, and why the time is now to drive widespread adoption of behavioral health integration. 

Why hasn’t Behavioral Health Integration lived up to the hype yet?

In entrepreneurship, there is a maxim that the success of any business comes down to 5% having the right strategy and 95% having great execution. With behavioral health integration (BHI), the strategy we all need to take to find success is no different. By integrating the right resources into a patient’s care team, we can drive better outcomes and better total cost of care.  

However, the biggest challenge with the industry approaches to date is scalability. There are no doubt great experiences, data, and outcomes. But results have been difficult to scale across patients of higher acuities, within rural geographies, and with financials that incentivize their organizations to invest over the long haul.

From our conversations with customers, too many have given up, or have stopped scaling their programs because they run into operational or financial roadblocks that prevent them from achieving their ultimate mission. 

So, how can we overcome this challenge to solve behavioral health integration?

There are a few key evolutions in the market that have changed the game: the ability to integrate virtual care locally, the ability to algorithmically identify the patients that need care the most, and the development of care models that are financially sustainable. Let’s talk about each.

Virtual care in behavioral health is a game changer. The unfortunate reality is that 70% of counties in our country do not have a licensed child psychiatrist and 60% do not have a licensed psychiatrist. Additionally, virtual care allows you to leverage resources across geographies to ensure resources are being used efficiently so that smaller populations can still receive great care.  So, virtual care has to be part of the story. But, again, it comes down to the “how.”  

The answer is dedicated virtual care teams with local integration. There must be trust between virtual and in-person teams with shared goals, technology platforms, and communication mechanisms.  

The on-site teams must truly see the virtual providers as an extension of their teams – something that can only be established if the virtual providers know the local culture, are operating on the same technology platforms, communicate constantly, and have aligned goals.  

The second critical ingredient is utilization of data to measure and drive success. Data has also unlocked our ability to determine who should receive care when. The reality is some patients are at higher risk of escalating than others, and the data exists within EMRs to intelligently prioritize who should get care first. This process could mean prioritizing the referral queue to ensure patients in highest need care first or it could mean proactively identifying patients that need care, even if they have not been referred. The data, algorithms, and technology are all there, we just have to do the work.

Finally, we have decades of learning around the optimal care model that we should apply going forward. Navigation assessments must be part of the story to ensure each patient is getting clinically appropriate care from a provider working top-of-license. We need to incorporate short-term care models as clinically appropriate. There must be a care team approach to ensure patients of all acuities can receive the best care for their situation. And, there must be collaboration with the broader team and community providers to ensure patients are receiving continuous, quality, whole-person care.

If we do all of these things, the financials follow – both on a fee-for-service basis and from a total cost of care perspective.  We have proven that it is possible to deliver great clinical care while delivering a positive operating margin for our partner health systems.  

So, what’s next for Behavioral Health Integration?

We cannot give up on the idea of behavioral health integration. If we take the learnings we’ve had as an industry over the last few decades and apply them, we can absolutely scale BHI across entire populations in a way that delivers sustainable financials and fantastic clinical outcomes — all while increasing patient and provider satisfaction. 

We believe Bridge Care Services is the answer to Behavioral Health Integration.

Bridge Care Services leverages a cross-functional care team to ensure patients who need help first, get seen first. They’re able to get the appropriate care plan for their needs and are supported throughout their care journey.

If you want to learn more about this service and how we can help your organization address behavioral health needs in a financially sustainable way, feel free to contact us today.

You can also learn more about our the services here and read our case study to learn what Bridge Care Services looks like in action.

For health systems seeking to provide high-quality inpatient psychiatric care, it’s essential to prioritize learning what patients need, how best to support them on their care journey, and how to connect with patients. While in-person care remains the gold standard, giving patients a virtual option can help reduce no-shows and ensure patients aren’t seeking behavioral health care in the ED.     

In a webinar hosted by Becker’s Hospital Review, healthcare leaders from Carilion Clinic and Bassett Health Network came together to discuss how they’re leveraging partnerships with telehealth organizations to overcome hiring challenges and help their communities get the best care possible. 

They were also joined by two providers, Dr. Tisa Ayuso and Dr. Ghazanfar Khan, who shared their experience providing virtual behavioral health care in an inpatient setting. 

How Carilion Clinic overcame staffing challenges during COVID-19 and beyond 

Laura Taylor, the Program Director of Psychiatry at Carilion Clinic spoke to the organization’s challenges navigating call outs during the COVID-19 pandemic. At one point, the organization had to shut down the unit and then reopen. Taylor said, “It took a lot of time to navigate scheduling to make sure that we were staffed appropriately to meet the patient needs on the unit.”  

From the hiring perspective, it took months for physicians to complete their credentialing. However, after partnering with Iris, Carilion was able to attain a reliable provider.  

Reflecting on this time, Taylor said, “To have an established Iris Telehealth provider was incredibly important because it created reliability on the unit. We knew exactly what we were working with when we had the physician. She was very reliable, and it created continuity of care.”  

Bassett Health Network’s approach to staffing providers in rural New York  

Bassett Health Network is in upstate New York, where its patients are geographically dispersed across the region.  

Amid cross-departmental changes, Bassett found itself with a shortage of clinicians on the inpatient side.  

While they were in the recruitment process, they couldn’t hire clinicians fast enough. They had leveraged locums to help run their inpatient unit, but they needed a long-term solution that would almost exclusively provide physician oversight on the inpatient unit. Dr. James Anderson, Chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Basset, said they wanted to expand their approach to virtual care. 

Anderson said, “We thought in the long term, it was going to create a situation where we could offer more flexibility when looking at full-time staff members. Even if they weren’t working full-time in a virtual capacity, they would have that tool as part of their tool belt. 

So, whether it was because of illness or convenience, it’s an important arrow in our quiver to be able to expand virtual health to include providing services on the inpatient end.” 

The provider experience facilitating virtual care  

While Dr. Tisa Ayuso has been with Bassett for a short time, she says her role as Virtual Medical Director has been going well. 

“We have our systems in place in terms of our morning rounds. We have the computer system up and running. We recently just got a fish-eye lens camera, so I have better visibility of seeing everyone in the morning meetings, which has been fantastic.” 

Along with working with patients, Dr. Ayuso also works with Bassett’s medical students to demonstrate best practices for delivering effective inpatient psychiatric care. 

Before working with Iris, Dr. Ghazanfar Khan started to experience the stress of the provider shortage and knew he wanted to make a change for his mental health. Since beginning his virtual inpatient role, Dr. Kahn enjoys focusing more on patients than commuting. 

“I’ve been able to focus more on my patients. I have charts pulled out when I’m seeing patients so that I can see their labs and medications and the nursing and social work notes. It has been working great for me. The hospital staff made it more convenient for me to transition from in-person to virtual.” 

The benefits and challenges of virtual care  

Virtual behavioral health makes it easier for patients to attend appointments and helps improve satisfaction overall. At Carilion, Taylor says that having a blended model has enhanced patient care. 

Reflecting on her observations, she said, “I had an opportunity to round with our telehealth psychiatrist, and rarely would I hear patients request a different provider. This provider was very good at building rapport quickly; they exchanged a wealth of information back and forth. I think patients felt very comfortable with that provider in a telehealth setting.”   

Besides a few technical glitches and finding the right place to take the video calls, Taylor says telehealth has been “almost seamless.” 

At Bassett, Anderson says they’ve heard almost zero patient complaints about virtual care. He said the challenges they faced were mainly on the front end. 

He said, “I wouldn’t say it was a challenge, so much as there were legitimate questions and concerns from staff on the unit about how we were going to operate on a daily basis. There were concerns about how we would get Dr. Ayuso in the room. It turns out that wasn’t as big of a deal as some anticipated.” 

Anderson also expanded on the benefits, noting, “I just got an email today from our clerkship director who is in charge of the medical student’s psychiatry rotation. He said the students are having a fantastic experience, and they love Dr. Ayuso. 

In some ways, there’s some suspicion that there’s even more contact with Dr. Ayuso than there might be if the psychiatrist was there on the unit. It’s been a surprise to some of the staff members on the unit about how non-disruptive it has been.” 

Advice on finding the right telehealth partner  

At Bassett, Anderson said they considered several things when searching for a behavioral health partner. “First,” he said, was “the ability to become impaneled with our various insurers. We absolutely want people that are willing and able to accept Medicare and Medicaid.” 

Next, Anderson said Bassett was looking for a partner who could serve as a collaborating physician for their nurse practitioners. After talking with multiple telehealth companies, Basset landed on Iris Telehealth because of their ability to meet their needs. 

Anderson said, “It was really strong communication and project management. To help us, we came in, and we sort of knew where we wanted to get to, but we didn’t know how to get there. Iris had this combination of knowledge and commitment to clear and confident communication. They had willingness to collaborate, but also had proven ideas that worked before – that was a big plus. 

They also had a clear commitment to quality services. When Iris is presenting a clinician to us, we know that clinician has already been well vetted by Iris. By the time we’re talking to the clinician, there’s a little bit of a halo effect because of the trust we’ve built. 

It’s not sign unseen. We build the partnership, and we see that things are working in other areas – it made it a pretty easy choice to go with Iris, and we’ve been happy so far.” 

The importance of collaboration and quality support  

For Carilion, Taylor said relationships and communication are incredibly important to finding the right behavioral health partner. 

“Working with well-informed individuals who know exactly what to do, have had that experience, and can offer solutions while listening to needs. That’s what I’ve enjoyed so much about my relationship with Shannon.” 

Shannon works as a Client Alignment Executive (CAE) at Carilion. Taylor says she’s enjoyed working with her CAE, who helps figure out what Carilion needs, how Iris can meet those needs, and the creativity of thinking outside the box. 

“The ease of transitioning a provider into the Carilion system is flawless,” said Taylor. “Every need is thought of. Every detail is considered when it comes to invoicing and general backend operations.  

Everything is very streamlined. It’s predictable, and there are no surprises. It’s been a wonderful experience. It’s meant to support Carilion and Carilion’s needs and not create barriers.” 

Figure out your next steps  

We’re so grateful for the time Laura Taylor, Dr. James Anderson, Dr. Ayuso, and Dr. Ghazanfar Khan generously shared with us. Thank you for your partnership and for all you do to help expand access to quality behavioral health care in your communities!  

Weren’t able to make it to the webinar? You can watch the full video here.  

If you’d like to learn more about integrating quality behavioral health programs into your organization, contact us today to get started!