Finding the Right EHR to Meet the Unique Needs of Children’s Place
Children’s Place, Inc. is a unique organization located in Aiken, S.C. With roots dating back to the early 1950s, their stated mission, to protect, heal, and strengthen children and families from the impact of trauma in their lives through education, treatment, and prevention services. Children’s Place relied on paper for all of their clinical documentation and patient records. It was evident the organization needed to make a change, which led to their discovery of InSync Healthcare Solutions.
The Paper Cut
As a certified child care facility, Children’s Place seeks to fill the behavioral health care gaps that are plaguing the youngest of patients and their parents. The organization provides a structured setting for families, offering services ranging from therapeutic child care, community-based prevention services, a strengthening families program, and the beds for babies initiative.
As the organization’s Clinical Director, Mary Helen Simons works in conjunction with the Child Care Director to train staff and tailor plans for kids. One of her biggest responsibilities is also overseeing a staff of seven therapists that work with families, so she understands how important it is that their practitioners have the right clinical tools available to deliver quality care.
Reconsidering Everything
“We knew that EHR was the future and that it ultimately would be more efficient for our business to have the records be digital and no longer on paper,” Simons said. “Especially from a storage perspective. So it wasn’t really a matter of deciding whether to go to an EHR, but figuring out which system would be best for us.”
Given the uniqueness of Children’s Place – there’s only one other organization like it in the entire state of South Carolina – there was obvious concern that a search for an EHR would be difficult.
“I was worried about the forms we use being able to translate well into an EHR system because we are not a standard doctor office,” Simons said.
The Difference: InSync’s Configuration and Support
“We were put in touch with other business that use InSync and their satisfaction really sold us on how the software would be valuable to our organization,” Simons said. “Overall, we’ve been really pleased with the efficiency and the organization of the product,” she added.
Everybody has been happy with the software, especially because of the efficiency gains. We were also doing billing by hand, and now we’re completely freed up thanks to InSync. As we conduct an encounter, the system automatically handles the appropriate billing tasks, which saves us a lot of time. – Mary Helen Simons, Clinical Director
It was clear early on that the customization and behavioral health-specific capabilities would ease the concerns held by the organization at the beginning of their search.
“From the beginning, we’ve been able to customize everything,” Simons said. “While the printout view may look different, InSync has allowed us to translate all the information regarding treatment and assessment plans without issue, as we would have before when using paper.”
