The mental health crisis in America is staggering. Over 17% of American adults struggle with any mental illness (AMI). As these individuals seek treatment, mental health centers need to elevate their systems to provide the same quality services to more people. Like with any business, it can be difficult to make changes when funding is low. The current administration recently announced $11.4 billion in cuts for grants linked to addiction and mental health.
So, what are mental health centers supposed to do? While it may seem counterintuitive, a change in software can help mental health centers lower their bottom lines. Modern mental health case management software was designed to help providers deliver better outcomes, comply with complex regulations, and manage increasing caseloads with less time and money.
But it can be difficult to know the right time to switch. If your team is struggling with one of the five signs listed below, it's time to upgrade your legacy case management system.
Sign #1: You Struggle to Track Client Progress in Real-Time
Mental health professionals need up-to-date case notes to make the most accurate decisions for their clients. Notes are critical to client progress tracking and help justify the need for therapy or medication to their insurance provider. However, on older systems, scattered documentation due to paper files can wreak havoc on client care. It makes it incredibly difficult for mental health professionals to understand:
- The status of each client in their care plan
- Which services have been delivered
- Which services need to be scheduled
- Which tasks are still pending
- Who is responsible for each task
Without a single place where caseworkers and program directors can see all components for a client, it's easy to miss follow-ups or duplicate work.
The Solution: PlanStreet's Real-Time Case Tracking Dashboard
✅ PlanStreet's real-time case tracking dashboard shows complete case visibility, automated timelines, and milestone tracking so that everyone's in sync. The customizable case board has color-coded columns that can be changed to fit the needs of your specific clients. Track their mental health needs, personal growth objectives, support services, and more.
Sign #2: Your Team is Drowning in Administrative Work
Mental health centers are of all sizes. Smaller clinics and solo practitioners can wear many hats, including the administrative side. However, it can be incredibly challenging to meet the administrative demands. In 2023, insurers denied 3.2 million prior authorization requests. Stats like these show the administrative challenges mental health centers face. Your staff may resonate with some of these issues:
- Inaccurate insurance claim submissions, losing money for repeated denials and resubmissions.
- Redundant forms make it difficult to understand which one is the most accurate.
- Manual data entry eats up time that could be spent focused on clients.
- Switching between software systems can cause duplicate data that doesn't match.
While these issues might seem minute at the moment, they all chip away at time in the day--which impacts the quality of care that clinicians can give.
The Solution: PlanStreet's Automated Workflows
✅ PlanStreet's automated intake, smart forms, and pre-configured workflows ease the stress of day-to-day operations and improve staff satisfaction. Time-saving conditionality features ensure that only necessary information is collected from clients. The forms can change depending on how a client responds, making it easier than ever to enroll clients into the services that help them thrive.
Sign #3: Missed Appointments and Service Gaps Are Common
The caseload for mental health professionals varies from 30-40 to several hundred. Juggling between clients requires detailed record-keeping. So, if clients are slipping through the cracks due to miscommunication or just falling off the radar, that's a red flag to change up your software. Service delays are unacceptable. Longer wait times make it more likely that a patient misses their mental health visit, increasing the possibility they stop seeking care altogether.
The Solution: PlanStreet's Calendar and Task Management
✅ Work smart and hard. With PlanStreet's case tracking for behavioral health systems, you get:
- Calendar integration: Works with Google and Outlook
- Smart reminders: Real-time notifications for due dates, critical tasks, and more
- Task management: Automate task and gain clarity over who is doing what
- Inter-agency collaboration for continuity of care: Share case notes, prescription updates, and more across nonprofits (if necessary) while maintaining HIPAA compliance.
Sign #4: Reporting and Compliance Are Time-Consuming and Stressful
If an organization or individual is found to be noncompliant with HIPAA, they can face anywhere from $141 to over $2 million in fines. Manual reporting to funders, HUD, and other licensing bodies is time-consuming and less accurate. This is due to:
- Heavy documentation requirements, which, if done incorrectly, can lead to claim audit failures.
- Standards that change and evolve. Recently, the COVID pandemic encouraged a leap to telehealth, so new rules followed.
- Staffing shortages due to decreased funding from the federal government.
The Solution: PlanStreet's Intuitive Reporting Platform
✅ PlanStreet offers customizable dashboards, automated reporting, and real-time audit trails, ensuring you stay grant-compliant and data-driven. Our reporting platform utilizes user-friendly Microsoft Power BI. Understand your data with hundreds of data visualization options, including:
- Design visuals such as tables, charts, graphs, and matrices.
- Filters to hone the specific data included in the report.
- Customization through colors, fonts, labels, and layouts.
Sign #5: You Can't Easily Measure Program Impact or Grant Utilization
Every nonprofit could use more money. But when you've got a particular project in mind, grant funding can be a great way to see it fulfilled. However, grant reporting requirements can vary significantly. They likely won't just hand over the money and trust you'll spend it how you promised--you must track the funding as it's spent. If your current mental health case management software doesn't have the right tools, then you can't see how the funding is improving outcomes.
The Solution: PlanStreet's Grant Management Software
✅ With PlanStreet's software, your team can automate and streamline:
- Grant disbursement tracking: easily disperse money from any grant down to the dollar.
- Outcome-based reporting: see the history of the whole grant and outcomes from your clients.
- ROI measurement for funders: create a report around a single KPI or milestone so that grant funders can understand your success in seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Should a Modern Case Management Software Include?
Modern case management software should include HIPAA compliance, role-based access controls, real-time dashboards, mobile case management, client self-assessments, and integration with external agencies.
How Do I Know If I Need New Case Management Software?
You need new case management software if you can't scale your analytics to meet growing needs, you have security concerns due to outdated encryption standards, and your team struggles to work with the clunky interface. As a rule of thumb, it should be faster to work in your case management software than it is to do it manually with paper. If you find yourself creating workarounds, it's time to start shopping.
What Is Real-Time Case Tracking?
Real-time case tracking is a digital system that lets teams track each client's progress, notes, tasks, and service history in one place. For mental health professionals in particular, this should include live patient monitoring to track symptoms, medication adherence, and appointment attendance, as well as automated alerts for set constraints, such as deteriorating symptoms or missed appointments.
Is Upgrading My Legacy System Difficult?
Upgrading your legacy system is easy with PlanStreet. We offer personalized onboarding, data migration support, and custom configurations.
Can I Track Grant Disbursements and Program Outcomes?
Yes, you can track grant disbursements through our grant management features with simple grant distribution. Once a grant has been used completely, it no longer shows up in grant disbursement boxes.
Is Your System HIPAA Compliant?
Yes, PlanStreet is a HIPAA-compliant case management software and meets NIST and FedRAMP-ready data security standards for behavioral health reporting and compliance.
Upgrade Your Legacy Case Management System and Switch to PlanStreet
If any of these signs hit close to home, your organization could benefit from a comprehensive case management upgrade. PlanStreet's platform is built for mental health professionals with tools that enhance productivity, accountability, and care delivery.
PlanStreet's case management system for nonprofits includes:
- A user-friendly web and mobile app
- Workflow automations to streamline assigning tasks
- Standardized assessments to ease intake, progress tracking, and more
- Scalable solutions to grow with your team
- HIPPA-compliant, encrypted data security
- Real-time case progress tracking
Book a demo today so we can show you how PlanStreet can help your mental health center not just operate but thrive.