Psychiatrists require unique features in an EHR to manage daily work efficiently. Even EHRs designed for mental health providers can fall short if they’re built primarily for therapists and not psychiatrists.
Psychiatry EHR software includes the ability to prescribe and monitor medications safely, psychiatric templates for documentation, and supportive workflows for a prescribing physician’s schedule and billing needs.
If your EHR wasn’t built with prescribing providers in mind, you may be losing hours or days every month to workarounds.
Why Psychiatry EHR Software Is a Different Category
Prescribing providers have specific clinical workflows and most EHRs weren’t designed to handle them. Psychiatrists and therapists offer different types of appointments and session durations, and psychiatrists have the added responsibility of prescribing medication and documenting it correctly.
If you use an EHR designed for therapists in your psychiatric practice, you’re forced to create workarounds at key steps in your daily workflow. What does this cost you in lost time, compliance risks, and overhead expenses?
Prescribing providers deserve equal support from their EHR. But what is the best EHR for psychiatry? Let’s get into the specific features.
5 Features That Define a Psychiatry EHR
1. E-Prescribing and PDMP Integration
An EHR for psychiatrists offers easy ePrescribing and Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) checks. PDMP checks need to live within the EHR for efficiency; removing additional sign-ins from the checking process makes it easy to perform the check early in the process, avoiding potential complications or oversights. Likewise, sending a prescription should be an easy task within your system.
E-prescription features should comply with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) policies on electronically prescribing controlled substances. A DEA-compliant system maintains a system of controls to help psychiatrists dispense medication safely. It protects your practice from compliance violations.
Psychiatry practice management software should make the medication side of psychiatry as safe and easy as possible.
2. Psychiatric Documentation Templates
Psychiatric documentation includes medication management notes, mental status exams, and psychiatric evaluations. These are details a therapist wouldn’t include in their notes. Rather than forcing psychiatrists to bolt these items onto notes designed for therapy, an EHR for prescribing physicians includes these capabilities in their templates.
3. Medication Reconciliation
Psychiatric medications are powerful tools, and psychiatrists have a responsibility to guard patient safety. They track patients’ medical history and flag potential abuses or drug interactions.
Psychiatric management software enables providers to track these data points within the system and to keep precise documentation on a patient’s pharmaceuticals. EHRs without these integrations force providers to leave their primary workflow and sign in to other services to complete this critical task.
4. Scheduling for Mixed-Provider Practices
Psychiatrists usually need a more dynamic schedule than therapists since their visits tend to be shorter and more variable from patient to patient. A therapist may see the same clients weekly for 45-50 minute sessions, while a psychiatrist mixes longer intake appointments, brief follow-ups, urgent check-ins, last-minute openings for symptom changes, and more. This creates a less repetitive calendar that’s more sensitive to changing clinical needs.
A psychiatry EHR accommodates scheduling for different appointment types and session lengths, rather than forcing therapists and psychiatrists to use a one-size-fits-all structure. It’s especially helpful for providers who want to balance routine management appointments and higher-acuity sessions throughout their day.
5. Billing for Psychiatric Services
Psychiatry claims need to reflect the medical aspects of the visit along with the therapeutic aspects. Psychiatrists commonly use evaluation and management codes for diagnosis, medication management, and medical monitoring, while therapists bill psychotherapy-specific CPT codes.
For a psychiatrist to bill efficiently, the EHR should allow this sort of coding. A system built for psychiatry can support E/M coding, psychotherapy add-ons, and the clinical documentation needed to keep claims clean.
For more information on navigating electronic software as a psychiatrist, reference the APA guidance on health information technology for psychiatrists.
The Case for One Platform for Prescribers and Therapists
An EHR should be the unifying tool of a practice, but if it fails to support psychiatrists, it may cause fragmentation instead. It can become a silo, where therapists work efficiently, but psychiatrists go around it at important steps in their process.
This siloing stymies communication in the practice. Continuity of care is disrupted because clinicians can’t easily check their colleague’s work in the patient’s record.
Information is delayed, duplicated, or lost, with practitioners relying on manual updates or inconsistent documentation. The simplest tasks, like confirming a treatment history, get cumbersome.
And that’s to say nothing of missed revenue if the billing system doesn’t easily support psychiatric billing standards.
A unified platform eliminates this bottleneck by bringing psychiatrists and therapists into a shared operational environment, where everyone can access up-to-date information from a single source of truth. Workflows smooth out, and so does billing. Patient care improves, leading to better long-term outcomes for patients and practice.
Frequently Asked Questions About Psychiatry EHRs
Looking for deeper insight as you evaluate platforms? Take a look at some commonly asked questions and answers from our team here.
Can psychiatrists use the same EHR as therapists in their practice?
Yes, but only if the platform is intentionally built to support both provider types. Plenty of behavioral health EHRs are designed for therapy workflows but treat prescribing as an afterthought. Find an EHR structured with both provider types in mind.
What is PDMP integration and why does it matter for psychiatry HER software?
PDMP stands for Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, a state-run database that tracks controlled substance prescriptions. EHR software with real-time PDMP integration allows prescribers to check a patient’s prescription history inside of their normal workflow, without having to jump over to a different web site or program.
Schedule a Demo for Your Psychiatry Practice
Valant fulfills the complete spectrum of behavioral health workflows, including the needs of prescribing providers. It keeps all providers and administrators on the same page, while enabling efficient workflows for everyone. Features like note templates, scheduling, and billing codes are flexible; e-prescribing and PDMP checks are easily available to prescribing clinicians.
See the platform in action. Request a live demo or watch a pre-recorded one now to learn about our features and how they can elevate the daily work of your mental health practice.
