Are you feeling overwhelmed while researching electronic medical record solutions (EMRs) for your psychiatric practice? The market is full of options, but only a narrow subset fit the needs of psychiatrists.
The best EMR for psychiatry is one purpose-built for psychiatric workflows. General platforms with a few added features for behavioral health won’t cut it. Even popular platforms for therapists may not meet the standards you need as a prescribing clinician.
To find the proverbial needle in the EMR haystack, you need a strong evaluation framework; a list of criteria a platform must meet to be considered for your practice.
What Makes a Platform the Best EMR for Psychiatry?
Plenty of EMRs are designed primarily for physicians. They offer generalist features, maybe a few behavioral health capabilities tacked on as an afterthought. Some are marketed for therapists but lack important prescribing and medication management features.
To meet your needs, the best psychiatry EMR should offer built-in ePrescribing, psychiatric documentation templates, medication reconciliation and tracking, psychiatric CPT codes, and support for mixed-provider practices.
While conducting your psychiatry EMR comparison, keep these criteria in mind.
5 Criteria for Choosing the Best EMR for Psychiatry
1. Built-In ePrescribing with PDMP Integration
A system with full prescribing capability will include the ability to send prescriptions electronically, real-time PDMP access, controlled substance workflows, and DEA compliance built into the flow. When therapy and prescription information live in the same record, providers enjoy a holistic view of every patient’s treatment.
Real-time PDMP access, in particular, tightens your workflow. Without it, you need to jump between systems to complete the prescription process for each patient.
2. Psychiatric Documentation Templates
Far from a generic SOAP note, psychiatric documentation templates are designed to capture the nuances of mental status exams and psychiatric evaluations. You should be able to easily record the following:
- Mental health symptoms and their impact on daily functioning
- Notes on medication management
- Risk assessment (potential for harm to self or others)
- Contextual information: family dynamics, social stressors, trauma history, etc.
Trying to include all of that information inside a generic note template is inefficient and tiring for clinicians.
3. Medication Reconciliation and History Tracking
Maintaining medication records across visits is a bedrock step in psychiatric treatment, and an EMR for psychiatrists should have it built-in. Using an additional program to manage medication records is a time-consuming workaround.
Working with controlled substances demands accurate and complete records that meet the highest privacy standards. Don’t build your daily workflow around a platform that doesn’t support such a crucial aspect of your practice.
4. Billing for Psychiatric CPT Codes
Generic healthcare is focused on billing for episodic care. You need a system that handles session-based billing, with unique behavioral health CPT codes and psychotherapy add-ons.
In addition, your billing must factor in the complexity of varying payer rules, a reality that generic medical care is much less affected by. The top EMRs for psychiatry will have richer functionality built into their systems.
5. Support for Mixed-Provider Practices
Search for an EMR that supports the needs of both prescribers and therapists, without requiring them to use separate tools or duplicate data entry. Psychiatrists and therapists frequently coordinate to help patients, and their EMR should reflect this.
Simply put, a mixed-provider EMR offers your practice more potential for growth.
What to Watch Out for When Comparing Psychiatric EMR Software
As you shop for your EMR, stay away from these common traps:
- Platforms that market to behavioral health broadly but lack psychiatric-specific functions.
- Long-term contracts that don’t support your team with adequate IT help and training.
- Hidden costs involved in switching from one system to another.
Frequently Asked Questions About Psychiatric EMRs
Is there an EMR designed specifically for psychiatrists?
Yes, there are EMR platforms built specifically for behavioral health. Some go further by specifically addressing the needs of prescribing providers. The key is distinguishing platforms designed for psychiatry from those that were designed for therapy and merely adapted for prescribers after the fact.
How is a psychiatry EMR different from a general behavioral health EMR?
A psychiatry EMR prioritizes prescribing workflows, PDMP integration, and medication management in a way that most general behavioral health EMRs do not. While both types handle clinical documentation and billing, a psychiatry EMR treats e-prescribing and medication reconciliation as core features.
How many providers use Valant for psychiatry?
Valant serves thousands of behavioral health providers across the country. Among our client roster you’ll find solo psychiatrists, solo therapists, and group practices with both prescribing and non-prescribing clinicians.
See Why Psychiatrists Choose Valant
Valant was built from the ground up to be an all-in-one platform for both psychiatrists and therapists. We include critical psychiatric functions like PDMP checking and prescribing within our system, and Valant comes loaded with psychiatric-specific templates and behavioral health CPT codes.
Request a demo today to see how Valant can take your psychiatric treatment workflow to the next level.
