Which Patient Outcomes Should Your Facility Track?

Patient outcome tracking is becoming more common—and even required—throughout the healthcare system. Many insurers and certification commissions are now requiring behavioral health facilities to track outcomes and use data to prove their care is effective.

Even though some outcome tracking is required, many people cannot settle on which outcomes to track or what tools to use to track them. Are patient readmission rates enough? Or do you need to track quality-of-life measures, too? Each behavioral health facility may need to spend time deciding which measurements are most important to their programs—and their bottom lines.

Patient Satisfaction Scores

Patient satisfaction scores are easy to measure both while your patient is under your care and afterward with telephone or mail surveys. Because patient satisfaction scores are linked to better patient outcomes, these scores can help inform you about the quality of your care. They can also help you make adjustments to your program.

If you are considering changes to your program or if there is a particular part of your program that you’d like to highlight, you should create custom metrics that track those results. Use your scores to inform your program changes and communicate your outcomes with insurers.

Patient satisfaction scores can also impact your reimbursement from Medicaid, with greater scores leading to the highest reimbursement possible. Keeping track of these scores is necessary for both quality of care and your revenue.

Patient Outcomes Tracking for Sobriety

There are also numerous ways to track your patient’s sobriety even after they leave your care. Vista Research Group is one of many companies who has made a big dent in the market. Vista works with behavioral health facilities to track patient outcomes 6 months and a year after care, reaching patients through phone calls and emails. They provide tracking of many outcomes related to sobriety such as:

• Steady employment

• Steady housing

• Incarceration rates

These outcomes can show that your treatment is effective, leading to sobriety and improved lives for your patients. These results will also serve as leverage for contract negotiations with payors.

Improve Your Outcomes After Treatment

Various apps are also helping connect patients, their families, and healthcare providers to create long-term support throughout treatment. One app, Rallyest, makes it easy for patients and their support team to communicate so that patients receive frequent encouragement and can reach out for help quickly when they are struggling. The app strives to prevent relapses by providing meaningful connection.

Such apps also provide outcome tracking through goal setting. Patients can set goals such as finding employment, staying clean for six months, or other indicators of sobriety. Your facility will have access to the goals data and can follow up with patients to make sure they are staying on path. This helps your patient reach his/her goals and gives you more quality metrics.

Already tracking patient outcomes? Datapro can help you use your quality metrics to negotiate better reimbursement rates with payors. Contact us today at 805-579-3537 or fill out our online form to learn more.