behavioral health

After government stay-at-home orders derailed their plans for a patient support group, members of Kaiser Permanente’s Marlow Heights Behavioral Health team in Maryland set up a video chat for vulnerable individuals sheltering in place.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to be open and receptive to connecting with our members in a different way,” says Dawn Anderson, a psychotherapist with UFCW Local 400 and union co-lead for the Level 4 unit-based team. “This way we’re still supporting patients with serious health issues.”

Propelled by the global pandemic, Behavioral Health teams across the Mid-Atlantic States are using partnership principles and tools to transform how and where patients seek care — resulting in changes likely to outlast the crisis.

Connecting with patients

Therapists are working from home and counseling patients via telephone and video. Unit-based team members are meeting virtually, too, using collaborative digital tools to identify challenges and solutions.

They’re also using such tried-and-true performance improvement tools as the Rapid Improvement Model to reveal the best ways to connect with patients by telephone and video.

“Sometimes I will connect with patients on video, then after 5 minutes something will cause a disruption and I’ll have to ask if we can connect via telephone,” says Anderson. “We are still adapting to telehealth technology.”

Adapting quickly

The rapid-fire changes haven’t been easy for team members, who are conducting assessments with patients by phone instead of in person because of social distancing requirements.

“We’ve done things in this pandemic season that we normally would not have done,” says Reuben Steele, Behavioral Health operations manager and management co-lead. “That has caused some initial anxiety but, ultimately, the team has been able to adapt and adjust quickly.”

Being heard

Team members agree having a voice in decisions about ways to deliver care is helping them cope with change. A key feature of the Labor Management Partnership is involving frontline workers and union leaders in decision making.

“The LMP is a great way to think outside of the box and figure out what we can do to meet people’s needs,” says Lindsey McDaniel, a psychotherapist, UFCW Local 400 member and labor co-lead for the Silver Spring Behavioral Health team, a Level 4 UBT in Maryland.

Anderson agrees.

“We’re able to ‘check egos at the door’ and come forth with ideas and suggestions. That’s what I love about the UBT setting,” she says. “Our UBT consultant and manager support us and are open to feedback on team projects and goals. This is the forum where I feel my colleagues and I are being heard.”

When the Ridgeline Behavioral Health team members in Colorado decided to tackle outside medical costs, even they were surprised at how their small touch on a huge issue could result in such significant savings.

Team members identified two ways they thought they could have an impact—including finding out which of their patients were being seen frequently in the Emergency Department—while helping their patients get appropriate care. 

“We know from evidence-based medicine that if patients are seeking care in the Emergency Department for mental health issues, it’s unlikely to provide a long-term improvement in symptoms,” explains Amy Martin, manager of Ridgeline Behavioral Health. 

Team members began the project by researching which outside hospitals Kaiser Permanente prefers to have members and patients use. Armed with the new information, they created a flier explaining the options and shared it with the rest of the staff, who then shared it with patients. This way, when patients did access care, they were more likely to go to a facility that KP has a contract with and thus, cut costs.

The results were remarkable. The team’s patients’ visits to emergency departments decreased by 8.25 percent, which in turn reduced ED costs by 26 percent. The total impact for 2016: $1 million in soft-dollar savings.