Program directors understand the importance of reducing errors, overcoming workforce shortages, and improving medication management for the individuals they serve. Collaborative care has emerged as a solution to the challenges and complexities that arise in treating behavioral health needs—providing an integrated approach in which a team of healthcare professionals works together to provide comprehensive and holistic care through teamwork, patient-centered care, and service integration.
Pharmacists are often one of the most trusted members of the care team along with nurses because of how accessible they are to individuals and other providers—in fact, they are ranked third most trusted medical professionals overall, not just within the collaborative care model, according to a 2023 Gallup survey. However, their role in collaborative behavioral healthcare is often overlooked.
In this article, we will explore how collaborative behavioral healthcare helps individuals achieve their health goals and live fulfilling lives while making the work of healthcare professionals and program directors easier—and demonstrate the crucial role pharmacies like Altruix play in the collaborative care model.
What Is Collaborative Care?
The collaborative care model, also known as integrated care, combines the expertise of various healthcare providers to improve patient outcomes. It emphasizes teamwork, patient-centered care, and the integration of physical and mental health services, aiming to provide comprehensive and cohesive treatment. Collaborative care has been found to be especially effective in behavioral healthcare, with studies demonstrating improved outcomes for mental health issues and reduced disparities in mental health care for people in racial and ethnic minority groups, in addition to reduced overall care costs.
This model of behavior healthcare involves:
- Coordinated Care: Care is organized across different providers and settings, relying on regular communication and information sharing to keep all care providers on the same page. Pharmacies play an especially critical role here in managing prior authorizations, handling financial assistance, and acting as a connection between the individual, the prescriber, and insurance.
- Centralized Pharmacy Fulfillment: Close collaboration between care providers and pharmacies ensures more efficient cycle fills and packing, more accurate fulfillment, and specialized medication adherence solutions. Through the hybrid pharmacy model, centralized pharmacy services also serve as a backup to smaller co-located clinic pharmacies. As a result, clinics don’t have to deal with temp staff or a closed pharmacy.
- Co-located Care: When available, having multiple providers in the same location can facilitate better communication and provide more immediate integrated care.
- Integrated Care: Mental and physical health services are fully merged with shared electronic health records (EHRs), ensuring continuity and comprehensiveness in behavioral healthcare.
The Role of Pharmacies and Interdisciplinary Teams in Collaborative Care
The collaborative behavioral healthcare model succeeds or fails on the ability of all stakeholders to work together as a team for the patient’s benefit. Social workers address social and environmental factors, offer counseling, and connect patients with community resources. Psychologists provide diagnostic services, psychotherapy, and behavioral interventions. Primary care providers manage overall health and coordinate care among specialists.
As for pharmacists, they wear many hats in the collaborative care model. For instance, pharmacists are often more easily accessible than nurses and can more readily offer direct counseling and assistance. The pharmacy serves as a vital link between patient, prescriber, and insurer that helps ensure that individuals can overcome the barriers standing between them and their treatment.
For example, Altruix’s role within the collaborative care model includes coordinating medication management and ensuring timely access to prescriptions. While pharmacy teams are not, strictly speaking, care coordinators, they are indispensable for coordinating care for tasks like prior authorizations, medication delivery and access, medication adherence, transportation, and financial support.
Medherent is one of Altruix’s most powerful tools in the collaborative care model. In addition to the work our pharmacies do to manage medications, handle preauthorizations, and ensure prescriptions are filled quickly to avoid delays in treatment, we utilize Medherent to automate the medication administration process and ensure that medication is taken at the right time, freeing up both care providers and the individual from the often time-consuming burdens of medication management.
Four Benefits of Collaborative Behavioral Healthcare
Collaborative care models offer significant benefits for individuals and providers:
- Improved Outcomes: Collaborative care can improve health outcomes and quality of life. Studies suggest that individuals receiving collaborative care are more likely to see significant improvement in their symptoms compared to those receiving standard care.
- Enhanced Satisfaction: The comprehensive and personalized approach makes the individuals you serve feel more supported by their providers and pharmacies—and more satisfied with their care. According to a survey by the American Psychiatric Association, individuals in collaborative care programs reported a 30% higher satisfaction rate compared to traditional care.
- Better Access to Care: Integrating mental health services into primary care settings reduces the stigma around behavioral health conditions and makes it easier for patients to access necessary care. The National Institute of Mental Health reported that collaborative care models increased access to mental health services by 25%.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Collaborative care reduces hospitalizations and emergency room visits, leading to lower overall healthcare costs. A report by the American Journal of Managed Care indicated that every dollar spent on collaborative care yielded a return of $6.50 in healthcare savings.
Collaborative Care Makes Life Easier for Program Managers
For program managers, implementing collaborative care models can streamline the management of complex patient needs and improve overall program efficiency:
- Streamlined Communication: All team members can access shared electronic health records (EHR), ensuring that everyone is on the same page and reducing the time spent on coordinating care.
- Resource Optimization: Interdisciplinary teams use resources more efficiently—for example, social workers can handle social determinants of health, and Altruix’s pharmacists can focus on managing prior authorizations, freeing up primary care providers to focus on medical issues.
- Improved Outcomes and Reduced Workload: The holistic approach leads to better patient outcomes, which in turn reduces the frequency of emergency interventions and hospital readmissions. This leads to a more manageable workload for program managers.
- Data-Driven Decision-Making: Collaborative care models often involve robust data collection and analysis, enabling program managers to make informed decisions based on comprehensive patient data. This leads to better resource allocation and program adjustments.
Improving Behavioral Health Outcomes with Altruix
Collaborative behavioral healthcare provides an invaluable solution for meeting the diverse needs of patients with mental health conditions. By bringing together a team of professionals with different expertise, this approach ensures thorough and personalized care, leading to better patient outcomes. Individuals benefit from collaborative care through better healthcare outcomes and increased independence; for program directors facing challenges like limited time, staff shortages, and the risk of medication errors, collaborative care offers a practical way to deliver more effective and efficient services and reduce the strain on healthcare staff while cutting down on hospital visits and other healthcare costs.
Altruix is committed to supporting your collaborative care team through personalized pharmacy care that ensures timely medication access, seamless pharmacy support, and access to cutting-edge and innovative healthcare tools like Medherent to improve patient outcomes.
Connect with an Altruix medication management expert today and discover how we can support your team with world-class pharmacy care.
Sources:
- National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. (2024, March 22). Pharmacists ranked third most trusted medical professionals in 2023 Gallup Survey – National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. https://nabp.pharmacy/news/blog/regulatory_news/pharmacists-ranked-third-trusted-medical-professionals/
- Brenan, B. M. (2024, February 7). Nurses Retain Top Ethics Rating in U.S., but Below 2020 High. Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/467804/nurses-retain-top-ethics-rating-below-2020-high.aspx
- National Library of Medicine. (2022, December 30). Collaborative mental health care: A narrative review. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9803502/
- Collaborative care could help reduce disparities in mental health treatment. (2024, July 2). National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2024/collaborative-care-could-help-reduce-disparities-in-mental-health-treatment
- Collaborative Care model reduces total health care costs | HR Policy. (2024, May 17). HRPolicy. https://www.hrpolicy.org/insight-and-research/resources/2024/hr_workforce/public/05/collaborative-care-model-reduces-total-health-care/