Liberty Behavioral Management Group manages behavioral health care facilities in New York State.
The group controls a network of high quality outpatient behavioral facilities across the New York area, all of which are designed to be affordable and accessible.
This includes inpatient detox and rehab services for adults and adolescents.
Liberty also provides marketing and operation consultancy to health care providers.
Liberty Group (partnered with Insights Surveys – a professional provider of survey research and experts at using Snap software) created customized patient reports using Snap Surveys’ complete platform for data collection to reporting.
The Challenge
Liberty behavioral Management is required by a new standard from national accreditation agency, the Joint Commission, to allow the access to an innovative set of individual patient reports for behavioral health care facilities (like Liberty) in treating chemical addictions.
Liberty created a paper survey called the Brief Addiction Monitor (BAM) which was given to their patients weekly or bi-monthly.
However, they had a tight deadline to show the auditors four new reports:
1) Individual patient report
2) Monthly report
3) Flagged report (triggered by a specific low score to alert the counselor of how their patient seems to be failing to respond to treatment)
4) Trends report showing how patients are doing over a four-month period.
There were 22 different items to score within 16 questions in 4 categories:
- Specific items to address
- Substance use disorder
- Risk factors
- Protective factors
The Solution
Insight Surveys used Snap Survey Software to create these two vital components in the required timeline:
- Paper surveys (scanned)
- Multi-dimensional context and Snap-generated customized Smart Reports
Let’s break down this down a little further.
HIPAA Compliant scannable paper survey & Administration
Firstly, to protect the privacy of patient data (and be HIPAA complaint) Insight preprinted only the patient’s first name and last initial, along with the month and year.
The paper surveys were distributed to the patients from the counselors, in person.
Next, the key was to preprint a unique ID number at the bottom of the back page that corresponded to the patient’s name, clinic, counselor, and other details.
The unique ID acted as the database’s primary key that Insight used to push and pull data from the external database into the survey’s hidden variables of last name, counselor, clinic, etc.
Easily Import / Export Data with Database Links
Using Snap’s Database Linkage Wizard, Insight is able to join cases where the variables (questions) match when importing or exporting to and from the external database, which held the unique ID numbers and all the subsequent individual data for each patient.
Reporting Using Contexts and Cell References
For the Smart Reports, Insight needed a way to create a multi-dimensional context – such as a super filter.
Using the advanced features of Snap Survey Software, Insight created a Derived Variable called UserID with the values of: ‘{LName} – {UniqueID} – {Clinic} – {Month}’.
This way when calling in the context (UserID=UserID@context) in the filter in the Analysis Definition for each report, Insight could access the above variables into that report.
Insight also needed a way to print the individual’s score for each of the 4 sections, which was achieved using cell referencing.
First, the total score was created in the derived quantity variable which added up the scores from the questions and invoking the custom weights (i.e. 0-4 points).
Secondly, to get the patient’s score for a particular section; the Analysis table was created calling in the total score variable in the Analysis field with the Statistics table in the Break field and the UserID=UserID@context in the Filter field. In the Descriptive Statistics tab the Sum must be used.
Once that runs, you simply right-mouse click in the cell calling in the Sum column and copy the cell reference (i.e. ProtectTotal R1C1) and paste that into the Smart Report.
Finally, Insight used the Text grid for the Smart Reports to align things properly.
Insight also used a combination of the context and PDF Creator to create the unique, descriptive file name for the PDF’s that are automatically created when the Smart Reports are run.
They are also then easily recognized and sent to the respective counselor and clinic.
The Outcome
Liberty has successfully complied with the updated standards of the national Joint Commission auditors and has much improved the reporting system.
As the ultimate goal is to improve the level of care given to patients, Liberty is now able to react faster to patients’ needs and better see patient outcomes over time.
Gaining the accreditation will also enhance Liberty’s reputation in the care industry.
Liberty Behavioral Management: http://www.libertymgt.com/
Insights Surveys: http://www.insight-surveys.com