Challenge
Ready to move up to an enterprise-level platform that would accommodate its growing programs and services, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska (LFS) needed to unify client records, data entry, and reporting for its full range of programs and services across its 19 locations in Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas while gaining visibility into clinical outcomes and organizational success. As a CCBHC, LFS also needed to meet specific reporting mandates, track outcomes, and document CCBHC services.
Solution
LFS chose Qualifacts because of the company’s national reputation and leadership supporting CCBHCs, as well as the Credible EHR’s flexibility, adaptability, reliability, and self-service capabilities. In addition, Credible has a growing state footprint in Nebraska with strong peer-to-peer leadership through the Qualifacts Customer Community which connects customers across the country.
Implementation Success
LFS’s GoLive was completed with collaborative discovery and solutions to tune workflows and set configurations to the organization’s needs. Since then, Qualifacts has supported the daily work of their programs and services, while enabling the organization’s teams to align around its CCBHC mission and strategic plans for the future.
“We were able to start taking advantage of the flexibility of the forms and documentation during the implementation process, and we have built on them since then as we have grown,” said Ann Behn, Director, Practice Management Systems at Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska.
Consulting, Enhanced Support Services, Enhanced Report Writing Services
To support their CCBHC mission, LFS engaged Qualifacts subject matter experts (SMEs) for consulting services, enhanced support services, and enhanced report writing services.
“We needed to get to a reporting and business intelligence level beyond where we were, and we were able to spend time with Qualifacts SMEs to gain that higher level knowledge,” Behn said. “The value has come back to us many times over. Our report writers have advanced their skill sets, learning from extremely talented staff.”
“We did the work that needed to be done collaboratively, so we gained visibility into what we were learning, so that we fully understand our tools and can move forward on our own,” Behn said. “The time we got to collaborate with the Qualifacts team has made us stronger data stewards who can pull the full value of our data and adapt our future workflows and inputs to get us the outputs we need. We’re miles ahead now. Learning to build and manage these tools ourselves has been the key to our ongoing success.”
Increased Access Success
CCBHCs must provide services to anyone seeking help for a mental health or substance use condition, regardless of their place of residence, ability to pay, or age. Crisis services, outpatient mental health and substance use services, screening, diagnosis and risk assessment, person and family centered treatment planning, psychiatric rehabilitation services, outpatient primary care screening and monitoring, targeted case management, peer support, and community based mental health care for veterans are all part of the LFS mission.
“We all have the same goal, and we all have the same purpose. The data we can see and report on in the Credible EHR helps us explain our clients’ successes, which then helps us with our stakeholders. The data also helps us identify our target populations and increases the sustainability of our business,” Behn said. “Caseload reporting has given us visibility at the staff and administrative levels to enable us to plan better for capacity and availability, with the front desk helping to manage workloads. Improved visibility into scheduling and tools for managing the caseload have cut down our waitlists, enabling us to serve more people and meet the demand from the community with the resources we have.”
Revenue Cycle Management and RCM Reporting Success
“Our business intelligence reporting enables our finance team to stay current on payment status, which helps us move forward as one organization,” Behn said.
HIPAA Compliance Success
“Actions taken within the Credible EHR are time stamped and they are tied to who has access to a record and who is working in a record, which supports HIPAA compliance,” Behn said.
About Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska
Lutheran Family Services expresses God’s love for all people by providing quality human care services that build and strengthen individual, family, and community life.
They achieve their mission through these broad service areas:
Behavioral Health: Supporting individuals and families through life’s highs and lows.
Children Services: Providing for the needs of children and teens through Prevention and Early Intervention and Permanency and Well-Being.
Family Services: Building stronger families through parent education, child support, and early detection and intervention.
New Americans: Welcoming refugees and immigrants through career, housing, legal, and translation support.
