Fully Virtual Behavioral Health Services

Access TeleCare Case Study

Access TeleCare achieves superior patient outcomes, staff satisfaction, and operational efficiencies for Oceans Behavioral Hospital Lake Charles.

Virtual Inpatient & Outpatient Behavioral Health Care Coverage

The Challenge

Hospital administration and on-site providers at Oceans Behavioral Hospital in Lake Charles, Louisiana were experiencing challenges with full-time, consistent staffing of psychiatrists and other psychiatric providers for its 20-bed inpatient facility and intensive outpatient program.

Multiple hurricanes devastating the region combined with the pandemic contributed to behavioral health professional shortages, gaps in service availability, and long wait times for area residents needing inpatient and outpatient behavioral health care. After inpatient discharge, patients were experiencing wait times of four to six months for outpatient, follow-up treatment, increasing the likelihood of relapse and inpatient readmission.

The Solution

A fully virtual behavioral health program with Access TeleCare gave the facility much-needed capacity to care for its inpatients and provide timely follow-up, step-down outpatient treatment. With Access TeleCare’s partnership, Oceans Lake Charles is now able to provide outpatient treatment within 7 to 10 days. In addition, with a dedicated pod of multiple psychiatric providers, there are no gaps in care for behavioral health patients if a psychiatrist is out sick or busy with his or her own practice. A psychiatric professional is available whenever the facility needs one.

“It‘s been a great partnership with Access TeleCare. They go above and beyond to make sure they’re very much part of our team, and their providers make sure we are their priority. They have truly exceeded expectations.”

– Misty Kelly, RN, MSN
Administrator | Oceans Behavioral Hospital Lake Charles

When a behavioral health hospital faced challenges staffing its facility with full-time psychiatrists and behavioral health experts, hospital leaders reached out to Access TeleCare to provide full coverage for its 20-bed facility and intensive outpatient program.

Learn more about our programs and how comprehensive telemedicine programs can transform behavioral health care for your hospital.

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Patient-Centered Care

With Access TeleCare, behavioral health hospitals have 24/7 clinical coverage with a pod of behavioral health professionals that allows for flexibility, uninterrupted coverage, and a truly patient-centered focus.

Intensive Outpatient Coverage

Patients leaving inpatient care step down to the facility’s intensive outpatient program and have the same relationship with the Access TeleCare psychiatric professionals, promoting care continuity and reducing wait times for outpatient follow-up.

The Access TeleCare Difference

With Access TeleCare, behavioral health hospitals have 24/7 clinical coverage with a pod of behavioral health professionals and essential administrative functions to increase quality and enhance efficiencies.

Telemedicine Program That Supports On-Site Staff and Enhances Quality and Utilization Management Functions

When Oceans Lake Charles first introduced the teleBehavioral health program with Access TeleCare, on-site teams initially were somewhat skeptical. They worried about patient resistance and dissatisfaction with remote clinicians, workflow disruptions, and reliable clinician coverage. Through full integration with the facility’s EMR, secure messaging platform, and Access TeleCare’s easy-to-use technology, the team’s initial skepticism dissipated as they realized that Access TeleCare’s approach to care delivery was the solution to their capacity challenges, not an obstacle to overcome.

Prior to Access TeleCare, nursing and executive leadership were spending a disproportionate amount of time managing provider schedules and working around providers’ scheduling needs and availability. If a provider was unavailable for whatever reason, a patient might miss out on rounding or experience a delay in being admitted. With the transition to Access TeleCare, staff almost immediately experienced a shift with the Access TeleCare providers being easy to reach, readily available and responsive, and flexible as urgent needs emerge.

“With patients coming into our facility day and night needing admission, the Access TeleCare team always has someone available for us. They’re very responsive to what we need, even if we need middle-of-the-night help with medications. They’re just a phone call or click away. They really seem to cater to us.”

– Justin Goodfriend, RN, MSN
Director of nursing | Oceans Behavioral Hospital Lake Charles

The partnership also gives on-site staff access to a larger operational apparatus, including medical director, to help with utilization review and management, quality measurement and improvement, and ongoing education and professional development. For example, the Access TeleCare psychiatric medical director participates in the facility’s quality and performance improvement meetings, helping the facility look at ways to reduce falls, minimize violence outbursts, adjust medication protocols, and other activities that are not directly patient-facing but impact patient safety, quality and outcomes, and patient satisfaction. With insurers increasingly limiting coverage of behavioral health inpatient stays sometimes just to three days, documentation of the need for ongoing inpatient treatment is essential. For the Oceans Lake Charles team, having the Access TeleCare partnership is a significant help.