Health Services – Behavioral Health Practices Improvement

Published September 6, 2023

Behavioral Health remains concerned about improving and ensuring the consistency of productivity among clinicians across the division. The review focused on developing an understanding of practices used by highly productive Behavioral Health clinicians to leverage best practices to improve overall productivity. Additionally, it included reviewing the supporting operational systems, client workflows, scheduling, and division productivity measures.

What was found:

The Behavioral Health division currently utilizes many effective performance measures. However, there is room within the division’s productivity measures system to improve the following areas:

• developing appropriate productivity measures for staff;
• clarifying expectations for the staff;
• accurately reflecting the time clinicians spend on client care;
• equitably distributing cases within teams; and
• enhancing the division's ability to identify community needs for resource allocation.

EPIC, Behavioral Health's electronic health records system, features a collection of documentation aids collectively known as smart tools. Broadening the promotion, utilization, and training on these tools could greatly assist with the documentation requirements faced by all clinicians in the division. The division could refine its onboarding processes for new employees and provide clearer guidelines regarding the supervision of interns. When clinicians in downtown Bend need to provide services outside their workplace and division fleet vehicles aren't readily available nearby, their productivity is affected as they spend time finding and using alternative transportation options.

What was recommended:

• going through the process to develop appropriate productivity measures;
• reviewing the accuracy of the data contributing to measures;
• creating a library of smart tools;
• evaluating onboarding processes;
• clarifying the policy for intern supervision; and
• optimizing fleet utilization at downtown Bend locations

Recommendation update:

At the time of the 2024 update, staff had developed work groups to address the recommendations but work was not complete.