Introduction | Western Tidewater CSB | Credible Partner Success
Before choosing the Credible Behavioral Health EHR platform, Western Tidewater CSB (WTCSB), headquartered in Suffolk, Virginia, listed reliability, efficiency, ease of use, self-service updates, timely responses to state reporting changes, and the necessity of being paid quickly and accurately for billable services as reasons to choose a new EHR.
Five years and counting since GoLive, the organization has found what it was looking for, while navigating the complexities of growth and expansion and the urgencies of providing services during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Implementation Success | The Benefits of a Proven Process and a Dedicated Team
“The process improvements that the dedicated Credible team brought to our implementation — benchmarks, goals, red lights, green lights, and yellow lights – kept us on track,” Carpenter said. “We did not have that with our previous EHR and as a result never fully implemented the software. Now that we have been live for more than five years, we are part of a large group of Credible partners in the state, which provides shared knowledge that we contribute to and benefit from.”
Onboarding Success Post GoLive | Growth and Expansion
WTCSB has expanded since its GoLive, and that has meant hiring, which means onboarding and training. Getting new people up to speed easily years after GoLive has been an additional benefit of the Credible EHR.
“We have grown budget wise, program wise, and people wise since our GoLive, and we have seen that the ease of use we gained with Credible continues with onboarding new hires,” Carpenter said. “We direct them to the Credible courses that are available, and we also conduct our own end user training.”
Clinical Documentation Success | Farewell to Paper
The day the Credible Behavioral EHR platform went live for WTCSB, the agency left behind a hybrid workflow of paper forms supplementing gaps in its previous digital tools.
“Credible enabled us to build a complex diagnostic assessment in the EHR that used to be on paper because it couldn’t be built into our previous platform. We were finally able to walk away from paper,” Carpenter said. “The ease of the form building module was a selling point for me, as we can easily keep up with documentation requirements per various regulatory bodies and state reporting elements,” Carpenter said.
Signature rules in Credible add accountability and traceability to documentation and deadlines, supporting timely filing and enabling supervisors to manage for completion, which leads to faster claims submissions and payment for billable services.
Telehealth Success and COVID-19
“We serve a unique population, including the seriously mentally ill, with a large portion of people who might not have access to video and audio. With the doctor shortage, and the licensed professional shortage, we are able to have patients come into the office and receive services in a room equipped with a telehealth camera, that connects them to a remote provider, which we document in the Credible EHR,” Carpenter said. “VA Medicaid has opened a wide range of telehealth options going forward, and a lot of our patients really like it.”
Reporting and Analytics Success | Self-Managed Metrics
Updating forms and reports for analytics, metrics and tracking has gone from being a lengthy and expensive process requiring costly custom work orders to being a simple self-service process.
“We have an abundance of reports and productivity measures now, which enable us to track metrics, and see improvements. The advanced reporting, ad hoc reporting and the BI tools are supporting the outcomes and metrics for our clinical data, our financial data, our compliance data, and our organizational success,” Carpenter said. “We have increased our data tremendously to the state, and we are showing improvement with our state reporting.”
Billing and Claims Success | Efficiency and Ease of Use
“When we were choosing a new EHR, we had been pulling our hair out with the billing, because key information was in five or six different places,” said Rae Perkins, Finance Supervisor for WTCSB. “Today, we are confident that we are getting paid for the billable services we deliver, because we can manage our programs and services with a transparency we didn’t have before. We can easily track our revenues, and see where there are balances.”
“We have seen a reduction in denials, and we have been able to revamp our finance org structure, to take people off of doing data entry to focus on where they could be more effective in getting payment for services,” Perkins said. “We changed the way they looked at things, to have more follow up if there is a denial, and we have the tools to examine it in detail now. We have had a significant percentage increase in revenue through this process.”
“WTCSB is part of a large and successful partner community in the state of Virginia, and they consistently show leadership in how they approach solutions to emerging challenges,” said Stefanie Wood, Qualifacts + Credible Partner Success Manager.
“Seeing how effectively WTCSB has managed growth and market changes during its time since GoLive on the Credible platform shows what a committed team can do when it has tools that serve their mission,” said Joe Wheeler, Qualifacts + Credible Product Management Lead.
About Western Tidewater CSB | A Community of Hope
Established in 1971, Western Tidewater Community Services Board (WTCSB) is the single point of entry for access to mental health services, developmental disabilities support, and substance abuse services for Franklin and Suffolk and the counties of Isle of Wight and Southampton.
Although this is still the core of our service today, Western Tidewater CSB has also evolved into so much more – it has evolved into a community of hope and caring.
As a public, community mental health agency – and the local authority on Mental Health, developmental disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services – Western Tidewater CSB is held to a higher standard of service by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. We uphold these standards in every aspect of our organization – our clinicians, counselors, staff, and our entire support system.
OUR VISION | At Western Tidewater CSB, your relief is our priority, and we are always available and accessible to all. We find purpose in providing a community of HOPE.
OUR MISSION | Our mission is to provide a coordinated system of quality, recovery-oriented care to the citizens we serve. Moving forward together, we are committed to doing our part to unite with the communities we serve in their peaceful efforts to promote equality, foster goodwill, and offer strength and service to all citizens in need of our support.
We continually strive to value staff, support diversity, and promote excellence and personal choice in the provision of consumer care:
- WTCSB strives to respect cultural differences
- WTCSB strives to support multi-cultural awareness and growth by identifying trainings and resources.
- WTCSB strives to build cohesive workplace environments by promoting cultural equality.
- WTCSB strives to partner with community efforts to advocate for racial and cultural parity.
About the Credible Behavioral Health EHR
At Credible, our Mission is to partner with our customers to support and extend their ability to deliver quality care and improve the lives of the clients they serve. Through each of our Partnerships, we strive to deliver the highest quality behavioral health technology with unmatched value. Every day, we keep our focus on providers, be they community-based, correctional, clinic- or school-based, youth, inpatient, or residential, differentiating ourselves through innovation, value, and customer service.
