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.

At Iris, we’re proud to provide high-quality support to healthcare organizations nationwide. This support takes many shapes, from our COMs, who help ensure providers are set up for success, to our CAEs, who help organizations deliver on their behavioral health strategy – our multiple layers of support help improve our partner’s and provider’s experience.

That’s why we’re excited to share another essential component of support we provide – our Medical Staff Services (MSS) team! Keep reading to learn how this team helps ensure all licensing and telehealth credentialing is seamless and efficient for providers and partners.

The mission of the MSS team

If you’re a healthcare organization or a behavioral health provider, you understand all the work that goes into licensing and credentialing. There’s a lot to juggle, whether it’s keeping up with unique licensure requirements, filling out paperwork, or renewing licenses. That’s what makes the MSS team so special – they take care of it all.

The MSS team effectively licenses and credentials all Iris providers and gives providers and partners the most efficient, proactive, and trouble-free experience during onboarding and throughout the relationship.

This team helps ensure our partners and their patients have timely access to high-quality, thoroughly vetted providers who can focus on patient care without administrative burden. Through this team’s expertise in the healthcare field and their relationship-building skills, they help meet the needs of both providers and healthcare organizations.

Helping clinicians focus on providing excellent care

The MSS team takes a lot off of a provider’s plate. Once our clinicians provide their personal information, the MSS team takes it from there managing the licensing process, filling out credentialing applications, facilitating insurance enrollments, and more! That way, the provider can focus on doing their job instead of on clerical tasks. Because of this team’s expertise, they comprehensively understand everything that goes into an application and can complete the process efficiently and thoroughly.

Additionally, this team monitors files daily to ensure licensing and credentialing are on track, renew providers’ licenses, and verify everything they’re currently doing, along with work history and licensing.

This team is an invaluable resource to our clinicians and helps them do what they do best – provide the best care possible to patients all over the country.
Additionally, helping providers get licensed and credentialed proactively and efficiently translates to patients getting the care they need more quickly. It also means providers are set up properly and they can get started facilitating care without any issues.

This team helps address unexpected hurdles that come from working with providers from different states, meaning the organization doesn’t have to worry about doing additional leg work on their end.

Key accomplishments

The MSS team helps keep everything running smoothly, and ensures our providers, and partners have what they need.

Here are a few of their key accomplishments:

• The MSS teams has grown from 3 to 14 MSS team members from 2020 to 2023
• Provides licensing and credentialing for PMHNPs, physicians, LCSWs, and LMFTs – in the near term, they will begin licensing and credentialing LPCs
• In the second half of 2022, the MSS team implemented a new credentialing platform, CredStream, to optimize our workflows and tracking

At Iris, we couldn’t be more proud of all the amazing work this team does day in and day out to support our partners, providers, and patients.

Learn more about the support Team Iris provides

If you’d like to learn more about how our MSS team can help support your organization, contact us today!

Additionally, if you’d like to learn more about the support our CAE or COMs teams provide, check out our other spotlights here:

• Telepsychiatry Services in Action: Meet our CAE Team!
• Telepsychiatry in Action: Meet our COMs Team!

At Iris, we’re proud to provide a variety of support that help operations run smoothly and efficiently to hospitals and community health organizations all over the country.

Quick links
How CAEs amplify telepsychiatry services with top-notch support
Dedicated support to hospitals and community organizations
Partner spotlight
Get to know Iris better

Working with a supportive and collaborative organization is vital to long-term success and innovation. At Iris Telehealth, our team of Clinical Alignment Executives (CAEs) are crucial to helping create successful, long-term partnerships that help healthcare organizations make the most out of their behavioral health programs and ensure patients get the care they need. This team helps organizations deliver on their behavioral health strategy and enables program growth.

We can’t wait for you to learn more about their work and how they’re helping healthcare organizations change lives daily with telemental health services.

How CAEs amplify telepsychiatry services with top-notch support

So, who are the CAEs? The Iris CAEs serve as the primary point of contact for our partners and help ensure they continually experience a superior level of support that enables them to deliver the best care possible to their patient population. To make this support possible, our CAEs get to know who’s who within the organization’s team, help expand partnerships, and find new ways to deliver value.

To keep tabs on the value they’re delivering, our CAEs work closely with our partner organizations to measure success collaboratively. The insights from this collaboration can also help show us if a metric is not trending in the right direction and allows us to intervene early and provide additional support.

Across our partnerships with healthcare organizations, both big and small, our CAEs work in tandem to ensure our partners have what they need to continue to grow and do what they do best – care for patients.

Want to see what our partnerships look like in action? Check out our work with Geisinger Health!

Dedicated support to hospitals and community organizations

On a day-to-day basis, Iris CAEs engage in regular touchpoints with key stakeholders, learning about upcoming initiatives and figuring out what they can do to support the organization’s behavioral health needs further.

Here are a few other key benefits CAEs bring to the table:

• Big picture strategy: Iris CAEs have conversations with our partners around key objectives and potential gaps in their behavioral health model. They also check to see if there are any patient populations they aren’t reaching with their current care services. If gaps are determined, our CAEs work to understand if there are things we can do to help bridge and support.

• Leveraging KPIs, data, and metrics: We’re always looking at how we’re performing to ensure we’re hitting our expectations and the expectations of our partners. Our CAEs use data to tell the story of our service lines’ successes, guide partner discussions, and showcase our value.
• Alignment: One of the benefits of having a dedicated support team is streamlined communication. At Iris, key stakeholders always know who to reach out to if they need support. Additionally, because we work with many different organizations, we can share what has and hasn’t worked well for other partners and share internal resources and relevant tips. We also connect partners within the same area who are most likely encounter similar types of challenges to share advice and best practices.
• Financial stewards: We understand the financial landscape of our partners and make sure we’re good financial stewards for them. We also ensure our providers are within their contract rate ranges – and, we work to secure the most qualified and best candidates for the partner at the right price point.

Partner spotlight

Here’s a look at just some of the ways our teams have been able to effectively support our Iris Telehealth partners:

“We’ve really been pleased with Iris Telehealth just because of the open communication and the regular meetings. I can’t say that we have those being held within the other groups that we get other physicians or NPs from so we really appreciate that.”

– Clinical Director at Western Tidewater regarding monthly check-in meetings

“If I had to recommend a direction to get a psychiatric provider today, I would say we need to work with Iris. I truly appreciate when people are skilled at what they’re doing, do it quickly, do it well, and are so responsive.”

– Clinical Director at Middle Peninsula reflecting on the match-implementation process

“This summer I had no idea how our patients were going to get seen. We were in bad straits and now I am able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. People are getting served, they’re getting through our door. Without our Iris team we wouldn’t even be able to get them in the door.”

– Clinical Director at AuSable Valley on creating greater access to care through telepsychiatry services

Get to know Iris better

If you’d like to learn more about how our CAEs can help support your organization, contact us today! Our CAEs are actively working to help community organizations and hospitals and health systems meet the needs of the patients in communities just like yours.

Medical credentialing is the process of establishing the qualifications of licensed medical professionals and assessing their background and legitimacy. It is one of the most essential pieces of implementing a telehealth program in a timely manner. But what goes into this process for remote providers?

Keep reading to learn what it takes to get a remote provider licensed and credentialed in your state, what’s included in medical credentialing, and how taking the necessary steps for licensing and credentialing helps ensure patient safety.

What is included in medical credentialing?

Hospitals and clinics have a duty to their patients to thoroughly evaluate the experience and skills of their medical staff. They can be held liable for patient injury or mistreatment if they fail to do so. That makes working with an experienced partner who knows the ins and outs of medical credentialing essential.

Typically, the provider’s documents are collected and reviewed for the following:

• Medical education
• Postgraduate training
• Medical licenses (active and historical)
• DEA registrations
• Controlled substance registrations
• Continuing education credits and compliance
• Board certifications
• Employment history
• Privileges/affiliations history
• Professional liability insurance policies held
• Malpractice claim history, including statements from the clinician and court documentation (if applicable)
• Peer reference evaluations
• Federal and/or state background check, often completed via fingerprint collection
• Health screenings like drug/alcohol tests, general physical assessment, and anything necessary for physical interaction with patients, such as a TB test or flu shot
• Online databases – the National Practitioner Data Bank, the Office of the Inspector General’s exclusion database, Medicare’s Opt-Out Affidavits database
• Personal identification like (driver’s license, passport, and social security card)
• Clinician’s personal attestation history
• Disclosure of conflicting financial interests

The list can vary from facility to facility based on their bylaws and group accreditation requirements. Regardless of the requirements, the purpose is to protect the population from medical negligence and malpractice. While it seem that a physician “passing” the credentialing assessment from one facility would mean subsequent facilities should follow suit, history has proven that this assumption can be dangerous.

How medical credentialing helps ensure patient safety

The repetitive and detailed nature of credentialing is designed to protect patients and ensure the legitimacy of a physician’s medical license. However, it is possible to improve the efficiency and speed of credentialing without compromising quality, and this process is what our team at Iris does best. Our main goal as a telemental health company is to bridge the gap in the availability of psychiatric care across the country. We are successful because our goal is to prioritize quality care, and make thorough, diligent, and efficient credentialing our priority.

The role of provider matching in licensing and credentialing

At Iris Telehealth, we recruit and hire top-notch clinicians and help them find placement in our partner facilities across the country, a process we call “provider matching.” Provider matching helps ensure organizations get the best fit for their care team and patients.

Unlike many staffing agencies and locum tenens groups, these matches are meant to be as permanent as a typical onsite provider’s position would be. Providers are Iris employees and treated as independent contractors by the organization they are matched with. We also serve as mediators to ensure the relationship is successful for the long-term. This approach positions patients to get the highest level of care while also helping support the provider’s well-being.

One important benefit of the provider matching process is helping ensure the organization is matched with a clinician who can provide the right specialty care to patients, regardless of location. At Iris, we make that happen by getting the provider fully credentialed and licensed in the state where they’re placed. That way, nothing is standing in between your patients and they care they need.

About Iris Telehealth

Iris Telehealth has helped countless hospitals and community health organizations across the country add telemental healthcare to their list of services while matching them with the best providers for their communities.

We manage all the costs associated with recruiting, supervising, and supporting the best doctors, including paying their salary, PTO, medical benefits, 401k, malpractice insurance, licensing and credentialing fees, and CME expenses.

We believe everyone should have access to compassionate mental health care, and we have made it our mission to find innovative, affordable ways of making this possible! If you’d like to learn more about our services, contact us today.

This blog is solely dedicated to BLM and the support and actions we all can take to help end the injustice. The black box image is in reference to last Tuesday’s #blackouttuesday social media movement. You can learn more about it here.

The inequality issue in our world is not new, has gone on for way too long, and needs to be reformed now. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor were innocent individuals murdered by police officers because of their skin color.

2020 must be the year we become honest with ourselves, acknowledge systemic racism, vote locally and nationally, and implement changes toward justice. Enough is enough. Black Lives Matter.

We admit – we don’t have all the answers. However, we have provided resources below for individuals to educate themselves and donate to this cause. We will also continue to process, listen, and work to do our part to end this injustice.

Systemic Racism Explained

Places to Donate

Color of Change

Black Visions Collective

(scroll down to the bottom to donate)

George Floyd Memorial Fund

Campaign Zero

LGBTQ | Freedom Fund

Minnesota Freedom Fund

They are no longer taking donations, as they’ve received enough resources now, however; they mention other great organizations: https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/donate

No Money? No Problem.

Zoe Amira | Views For A Vision

Watch this video and let the ads run. 100% of the revenue collected from the ads is donated to various organizations in support of BLM. Please be sure to read the pinned comment and the beginning of the clip, to learn how you must engage with the video for the ads to monetize: https://youtu.be/bCgLa25fDHM

Petitions To Sign

Visit the below websites to sign the latest petitions.

Change.org

Justice for George Floyd

Justice for Breonna Taylor

Justice for Ahmaud Arbery

The Action PAC

Justice for Ahmaud Arbery

Justice for Big Floyd

Stand With Bre

Please keep in mind this is an example list. There are plenty of other petitions to sign and research about. The two above organizations are great for periodically checking new actions to take.

Support Businesses

Black Owned Businesses in Austin

Austin Monthly Article

Small Businesses Everywhere

Instagram Post of List

Actions to Take

Campaigns and other actions you can take. 

8CANTWAIT

Campaign Zero – contact your mayor or sheriff to implement 8 polices that can significantly decrease police violence.

Take Your City Budget Survey

Austin, TX Survey

Send An Email To Your District Representative

Send An Email to Your City Council Members

Email Template For Austin, TX made by Afterglow 

Register To Vote!

Mental Health Resources

All resources received from Ethel’s Club Social Media Post

• Dive in Well
• Sista Afya
• Therapy for Black Girls
• Healhaus
• Inclusive Therapists
• Ethel’s Club
• The Nap Ministry
• National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network
• Harriet’s Apothecary
• The Unplug Collective
• BEAM Collective
• Black Girl in Om

View the rest of the post here: Mental Health Resources

Educate

Listen, learn, and educate.

Films

• Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap
• Time: The Kalief Browder Story
• When They See Us
• 13th

Books

• The End of Policing | Alex S. Vitale (Ebook is free now on versobooks)
• White Fragility | Robin Diangelo
• The Fire Next Time | James Baldwin
• How To Be An Antiracist | Ibrahim X. Kendi
• Black Feminist Thought | Patricia Hill Collins
• Sister Outsider | Audre Lorde

Organizations

• Color of Change
• NAACP
• Antiracist Research and Policy Center
• United We Dream

Dialogue

Engage with diverse individuals and listen with an open mind. Have the tough conversations, and spread the knowledge.

We hope 2020 becomes the year that significant change is made. Neutrality is not enough. Please join us in this fight for a fair and equal world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a rippling effect across our nation and around the world. Healthcare institutions and clinics of all kinds are struggling to implement appropriate safety precautions and policies that protect the safety of patients, healthcare workers, and their families. We at Iris have been working with clinics to set up video and phone visits to make sure patients with severe behavioral health disorders stay well and get access to vital treatment and medications they need.

Already, healthcare workers are facing equipment shortages and having to trust the safety of potentially reused personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce exposure. Parents and grandparents are learning to creatively manage home life while daycares and schools remain closed, and family trips cancel. Workers whose jobs are in jeopardy, or who have been laid off or terminated, are worrying about how to pay their bills and what their financial futures hold. We are all severely affected in one way or another by this current crisis.

The great humanitarian and physician, Albert Schweitzer, once wrote:

“Reverence for human suffering and human life, for the smallest and most insignificant, must be the inviolable law to rule the world from now on. In so doing, we do not replace old slogans with new ones and imagine that some good may come out of high-sounding speeches and pronouncements. We must recognize that only a deep-seated change of heart, spreading from one person to another, can achieve such a thing in this world.”

Amid all the fear and frustration expressed in phone calls, emails, web updates, and 24/7 news reports related to COVID-19, I also see evidence of the “deep-seated change of heart, spreading from one person to another,” that Dr. Schweitzer wrote about and hoped for. In the coming days, we at Iris Telehealth hope to share examples and stories which bear witness to this emerging “change of heart” by consolidating many COVID-19 updates, sharing telemedicine best practices, and posting positive and encouraging stories of hope and resilience.

We are in this together, we will get through this together, and we will come out of it better people, together. Iris Telehealth is here to support patients, clinics, and communities, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for any help or information. Stay safe.

Sincerely,

Thomas R. Milam, MD

Chief Medical Officer, Iris Telehealth

About Iris Telehealth

Iris Telehealth is a telepsychiatry provider organization made up of the highest quality psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners. Our mission is to provide underserved communities with access to the best mental health specialists and prescribers. We are owned and operated by doctors who understand what patients need and have earned a reputation for providing outstanding customer service. Iris values building strong professional relationships with our partners and their staff. We are dedicated to understanding your organization’s needs and operational goals because we recognize that your success is critical to our own.

Part of the reason Iris Telehealth has been able to grow so much since it was founded in 2013 is because of the amazing employees who work relentlessly to dominate their jobs. So we figured it was time for us to spotlight them and give you a behind-the-scenes look at our staff! One of those fabulous employees is Katherine Dreyfuss, an Account Executive who is affectionately called Kiki in the office. She’s a major yogi, an incredible chef (Asian food is her specialty), and has an obsession with English Bulldogs. But that’s just the beginning of her awesomeness.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about what you do for Iris Telehealth?

A: My job is to reach out to different health systems in California and Arizona to determine how we might best be able to help them with their psychiatry needs.

Q: And what’s your favorite part of the job?

A: I have a lot of favorite parts. But my most favorite part is kind of getting to know the areas and figuring out how we can best make a difference. There are a lot of groups in rural or underserved areas where we’re able to make a difference and I think that’s the most exciting part — finding out the impact we can make.

Q: What do you say to people who might be skeptical of how awesome telepsychiatry can be?

A: That’s a great question! It actually surprises me how open the patients are to telepsychiatry because oftentimes you might find that it’s easier to open up to a stranger who’s not sitting in the same room as you. The computer screen kind of serves as a buffer and often allows patients to open up even more about what’s going on. More than anything, I try to relay that the clinician is someone who’s dedicated to helping this patient whether it be in person or via video conference. It’s all real time and all effectively helping the patient overcome whatever they’re facing.

Q: You’ve also encountered people who’ve used telepsych services from other companies. Why do you think Iris is the best telepsych company out there to work with?

A: Iris in particular is the best company to work with because we focus on providing a clinician to each health system we partner with that will be a good cultural and clinical fit. The clinician is in it for the long haul, which means that they develop a good relationship with the health system’s patients and staff. It’s a win-win for everyone involved because it provides long-term relationships and continuity of care, which we find to be extremely important.

Q: What are some of the things you’ve learned after working for Iris for almost one year?

A: What I’ve learned is… A LOT. I’ve learned that there is a lot of stigma against mental health in general, and therefore there is stigma against telepsychiatry. But there are so many different ways to make a difference when it comes to mental health and telepsych is only one way. So it’s been pretty powerful to be a part of spearheading an innovative way to treat mental illness. And I’ve been able to learn a lot through that.