Mental health care demands precision, accessibility, and security. A standard EHR system falls short when addressing the unique needs of behavioral health providers. That’s where specialized mental health EHR systems come in.
These systems do more than just store patient records—they simplify the day-to-day challenges of mental health care. With secure telehealth, easy progress tracking, and personalized treatment planning, they help providers focus on what matters most: their patients.
By closing the gap between clinicians and those who need support, mental health EHR systems make care more accessible, organized, and effective—no matter the situation.
Now, let’s dive into the features that make these systems a game-changer for mental health practitioners.
What are electronic health records (EHR)?
Electronic Health Records (EHR) are digital versions of a patient’s medical history, bringing everything—diagnoses, treatments, prescriptions, and notes—into one secure and accessible place.
Replacing paper records that are easily altered, misplaced or destroyed, electronic health records provide a better solution. They are a quickly accessible copy of treatment plans, diagnosis, prescribed medication and all patient data in one standardized digital object.
For mental and behavioral health, specialized EHR systems go even further. They help therapists and counselors stay organized, ensure HIPAA compliance, and offer tools like secure messaging, appointment reminders, and billing support.
More than just a digital file, a well-designed EHR makes care smoother, more connected, and focused on what matters most—the patient.
How does EHR in primary care differ from mental health EHR software?
The main differences between behavioral health EHRs (also called mental health EHRs) and primary care EHRs lie in data classification, coding, regulations, and reporting requirements.
The primary difference between the two lies in the type of data they collect through screening tools, treatment records, and progress notes. Mental health EHRs place greater emphasis on care coordination and patient engagement in clinical settings to enhance treatment outcomes.
It is also subject to HIPPA’s requirements in accordance with data privacy regulations.
Why develop a Custom Behavioral Health EHR solution?
Excellent patient treatment is the main goal healthcare practitioners strive to achieve. Daily routine, huge caseloads and billing issues can, however, get in the way of this, which leads to the decrease of the quality of the institution as a whole.
Behavioral health EHR provides an immediate software solution to the issue by bringing the focus back to what’s important through the through elimination of distractions.
These are just a few of the ways the solution is achieved:
- Streamlines workflow for the staff by reducing human errors, duplicate entries and by providing easy to understand templates through which paperwork is done much faster.
- Improves patient outcomes by allowing practitioners to access the data easier and make more informed decisions vital to further treatment.
- EHR contains treatment plans, clinical data, prior medication and electronic prescriptions that are simple to access by necessary personnel.
- Electronic medical records can be used to analyze employee performance and patient information, generate reports and share with other healthcare providers when needed.
- EHR systems will assist the mental health practice in adherence to regulations and local policies, preparing the business for potential inspection.
Any behavioral health practice benefits from built-in patient portals and telehealth features. They allow providers to handle insurance claims, keep clinical notes, and maintain strong HIPAA regulations compliance.
Is the mental health field a big enough market?
There is a valid question that arises here of course. And that is whether mental health is a big enough issue for an organization to invest in a software solution for it? The answer is yes and here’s why.
According to the National Health Interview Survey Survey, only 10% of US adults showed signs of depression and anxiety in June 2019. And now, approximately 40% of American adults report these symptoms.
The same mental problems are affecting over 56% of young adults, a majority of which are susceptible to substance abuse and suicidal thoughts.
When EHR systems are designed specifically for behavioral health services, they often add patient portal access and telehealth features that help connect mental health specialists with more patients.
What these side effects mean for mental health practices is they will have to deal with a far bigger and quickly growing demand for their services. The only way this demand can be adequately handled is by employing behavioral health EHR software.
Why is it so difficult to develop an EHR system?
Despite all the functionalities mental health practices can benefit from by implementing an EHR system, it is still no easy task to do so.
But being aware of all the challenges of developing and integrating such a system will allow mental health providers to avoid future problems and make the transformation from the traditional data storage of patient records to the digital one far smoother.
One of the main issues with EHR systems is the cost of implementation. A big chunk of the investment for such a system would go for the selection, design, development and optimization of it. Studies show that the cost of purchasing and installing an EHR system can range anywhere between $15 000 and $70 000 depending on provider. (4)
These costs have to deal mainly with hardware and software components, staff training, maintenance and anything in between. Having mentioned this, the benefits of such a system greatly outweigh this particular challenge.
The question then becomes, how to find the right partner for the endeavor. With the right software partner, creating an EHR system will not only be easier, but it would also pay for itself in the long run.
Another issue small practices and big ones can come up against is staff resistance which is an expected hurdle. Mental health professionals still have difficulty accepting the efficacy of electronic health records and the privacy protocols that keep them guarded.
There are a lot of cases in which staff members are simply not used to the digital change and lack awareness of how the system works, which is exacerbated by the idea of not receiving any proper guidance on the matter.
Yet by investing in behavioral health ehr platforms and a well-designed electronic health record, behavioral health practitioners can enjoy seamless integration of clinical workflows. This makes document management simpler and ensures better communication with other healthcare providers.
Finding the right software partner
A good EHR development partner should provide strong preparation and ongoing support for practitioners. They should assist with operations and address potential challenges proactively. One key difficulty is that, even with proper training, medical staff must adjust their schedules to accommodate it, which can disrupt workflow.
This can quite directly result in decreased business for the institution. Naturally it may be true in some cases, but what matters is that such a training will not take more than two weeks. The results that the correct use of such a system will be able to reap for the healthcare providers in question more than covers for the small losses.
Such EHR software for behavioral health may also offer electronic prescribing of controlled substances, helping a therapy practice or non prescribing clinicians maintain better oversight. With built-in appointment reminders, it becomes easier to handle clinical notes, track insurance claims, and maintain an efficient and profitable practice.
When it comes to software solutions in patient care, one of the biggest questions is one of data security. In today’s world, digital systems seem to be easily accessed by harmful individuals which can lead to many more problems than what such an optimized system seeks to solve.
The 7 necessary features of behavioral health EHR
Understand and use the core functions of behavioral Health EHR
In such a case, what matters most is the developer of the software and the team that maintains it.
Having a good software partner in such a situation can save the healthcare provider more than enough trouble when it comes to data management. Furthermore since mental health practices collect some of the most personal information of a patient it remains of vital importance that this data be protected.
Necessary features of behavioral health EHR
Behavioral EHR has to have a wide variety of capabilities in order to do its job excellently. These are seven of those core features that it cannot do without.
Mental health-appropriate documentation and data forms
There are many things that come into play when generating the documentation and records for an individual, ranging from a patient’s condition, medication, prescriptions and many others. And everything becomes even more specialized when talking about mental illness.
There is bound to be a difference between the type of information you provide a psychiatrist with and the forms you have to fill out for any other kind of medical issue..
A lot of psychiatric patients have problems with addiction and substance abuse. And to be able to adequately gather data from the individual, such a system has to provide a form with questions about what type of drug the addiction is; an age when started using; consumption.
These are just some of the things a psychiatric healthcare provider has to take into account before being able to have better medication management.
This mental health EMR approach to clinical documentation helps behavioral health practices track all relevant info for treatment plans. By automating mental health progress notes, they can offer more thorough group session insights, leading to better outcomes for mental health patients.
Telehealth as an option
It is now apparent that patients have to be able to communicate with their doctors online. That is why an EHR solution has to have the feature of being able to maintain online meetings and establish this communication.
Something else the pandemic caused were high stress levels in the population that will have their long-lasting effects. Being able to integrate telehealth devices that can track heart rate and other physiological parameters can help healthcare professionals better understand the mental state of their patients.
Security of the behavioral EHR system
As we have previously mentioned, safeguarding patient information is something that no data gathering system can neglect. That is why building a mental health EHR solution that is well protected, utilizing the latest security features in the business is of vital importance.
The software can bring many benefits with it, but if it is not protected well from potential hackers then all those benefits will be of no use.
Compliance with regulations
There is a definite possibility that you will be sharing a lot of sensitive information with other healthcare providers when treating a behavioral health patient. Such patients can be sent to be checked for hypertension, diabetes, high blood pressure or migraines for example. They can also be referred to a neurology specialist or internal medicine practitioner.
In such situations the electronic medical records of the patient will have to be accessed by these other professionals. The system has to uphold all regulations and restrictions set by HL7 – Health Seven International which is a worldwide standard for maintaining safety when exchanging patient information.
Cloud feature
Patient information has to be always accessible by different providers when needed. To be able to accomplish such a task, cloud technology can be used.
As we have previously mentioned, traditional paper records are a thing of the past, that can be easily tampered with or destroyed. And although electronic health records provide a digital solution to this problem, those records are stored on a hard drive somewhere.
Being able to store it on virtual cloud servers, adds another level of security to the patient’s data. It also helps manage the information when it comes to exchanging it with other departments or healthcare providers.
E-prescribing
E-prescribing is the ability of a medical practitioner to electronically send an error-free and understandable prescription to the pharmacy. The reality of digital prescriptions is that they cannot be tampered with in any way and they optimize the process of the pharmacy receiving them.
Whereas the old way was for patients to take the note from the doctor and bring it to the pharmacy, after which they’d have to wait for the prescription to be filled out.
Having instead doctors be able to approve online prescriptions can accelerate the whole process. Using e-prescription also limits the amount of prescription errors as the system can keep track of any discrepancies and uphold any regulation standards.
Managing billing
Having to take care of the financial side of the medical practice can be demanding, especially for smaller practices with less staff members. Furthermore, healthcare professionals shouldn’t be expected to be versed in financial practices.
When it comes to mental health, having to deal with the bill is one of the last things that is on a patient’s or doctor’s mind at the time. That is precisely why having an EHR system with an integrated feature that takes care of billing can be a great aid to behavioral health professionals for patient care.
Using an EHR system is also a virtual patient portal that simplifies the entire process. Such billing integration can also be of great assistance when it comes to authorization, insurance verification and the processing of claims that the medical practitioner shouldn’t have to deal with.
In turn optimizing the process and improving patient outcomes as doctors can direct more of their focus towards patient care.
Behavioral health software that is purchased “finished” doesn’t meet the
individual needs and criteria of your patients or mental health services that your institution seeks to provide.
Benefits for patients and caregivers
Patients and caregivers both benefit a great deal when healthcare teams use electronic health records (EHR) and other digital tools. First, these systems provide quick and secure access to important medical information. This helps patients feel informed about their health.
They can see test results, track appointments, and send messages to doctors without waiting in long phone queues. Caregivers also gain peace of mind because they can easily check on a loved one’s progress, medications, and upcoming procedures.
Communication improves as well. Patients and caregivers receive timely updates on treatment plans or changes in medication. They can also ask questions right away through online portals, instead of waiting for the next in-person visit. This real-time support reduces stress and makes it easier to follow doctors’ advice.
For caregivers, EHR and similar platforms save time and reduce paperwork. Details like allergies, previous visits, and ongoing treatments are all in one place. This means less chance of losing records or making mistakes. More accurate data also helps avoid treatment delays or repeated tests.
BGO Software: Expert Development for Scalable and Compliant EHR Solutions
BGO Software can be your trusted partner for building and maintaining an EHR system that streamlines practice management and health information technology. Whether you run a private practice, solo practice, or group practice, BGO Software ensures your EHR stays efficient, compliant, and up to date with physical health and behavioral health care needs.
With innovative features like telehealth, behavioral health EHRs allow clinicians to schedule virtual sessions across specialties. Built-in patient and client portals help non-prescribing clinicians manage more patients remotely.
All of these means more efficiency and better patient outcomes for your practice.
Backed by responsive customer support, BGO Software helps providers focus on quality care while keeping all of your systems running smoothly.
That is why a development team is oftentimes required in order to manage such specialized features and compensate for all of the challenges an EHR system bears, especially if you don’t already have a tried and tested business.
And if you already have a proven platform, you would still need a trusted partner with years of experience in the industry to update the system to better fit into market standards and client expectations.
Ivan is a Technical Copywriter with extensive experience in the field of medical technology and software development. He specializes in translating complex technical concepts into clear and engaging content tailored for both industry professionals and broader audiences.
link to the author’s linkedin profile
