January Newsletter
Happy New Year!
Happy 2025 to our valued partners, team members, and the entire behavioral health community! We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and is looking forward to the days ahead. Indeed, a new year is often a time of optimism, excitement, and planning. Many mental health organizations and providers likely have some great ideas on ways to improve patient outcomes and workflows.
Rest assured, Orbit Health is committed to helping organizations execute their 2025 strategies by providing flexible behavioral health support. Whether a rural health clinic needs a part-time child psychiatrist or a hospital emergency department seeks overnight telepsychiatry consultations to optimize throughput, we’re here to help find solutions.
Thanks again, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for important industry updates throughout the year!,
Q&A with Dr. Charles Chaney: Part 3
Question: How do you measure quality of care in the context of behavioral health and telepsychiatry?
Answer: I like to group quality of care into three categories: structure, procedure, and outcome.
Structure encompasses technology, policies, procedures, facilities, personnel, accreditation, and certification. It’s important to note, these measures apply to both the provider and the greater health system. Metrics include:
- Ratio of providers to patients
- Efficacy of an electronic medical records system
- Reliability of video technology in delivering care
Procedure hones in on other daily workflows and best practices, including:
- Time-to-treatment and first consultation from initial referral
- Clinician communication (team and patients)
- Culturally-sensitive care delivery
- Family engagement efforts to promote outcomes
- Providing education on self-help groups and support resources
- Effective health plan administrative and office staff services
Outcome measures assess the impact of psychiatric interventions on patients. Important metrics include:
- Percentage of patients returning for a follow up visit within a certain period of time
- Average time between psychiatric visits for existing patients
- Rate of patients not following up with their psychiatrist
- Ratio of patients who report worsening symptoms over a given period of time, measured by patient health questionnaires such as the PHQ-9
- Rate of readmissions in a psychiatric hospital or urgent care setting
- Relapse rates when considering dual diagnoses and substance use programs
Important Community Update
Orbit Health wishes to extend its thoughts and prayers for everyone affected by the recent brush fires across Los Angeles and the broader region. We know how the tragedy impacts the whole community and promise to do our best to serve our clients and patients during this difficult time.
Please know our telepsychiatry services continue to be available for everyone with a smartphone/device or computer and internet or mobile data service. Orbit Health continues its mission to deliver accessible behavioral healthcare to all, even in challenging circumstances that might otherwise limit in-person care.
If you think we can be a resource for your team or patients, please contact us today.
Behavioral Health Spotlight:
Telepsychiatry for Rural Hospitals
Orbit Health is honored to serve organizations big and small in both urban and rural communities. Our flexibility allows us to seamlessly augment needs in a variety of environments. But today’s spotlight is focused on partnerships with rural hospitals that struggle to address all psychiatry needs in-house. Here’s how we help:
- Implement a “virtual behavioral health unit”
- Provide instant access to licensed MD psychiatrists via video for consultation, patient evaluation, or treatment
- Augment ED after hours psychiatric coverage to manage beds and optimize throughput
- Extend MD psychiatrist advisory services to hospital staff 24/7
Read more about Orbit Health hospital partnerships here.
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or Schedule a partnership consultation TODAY!
