Proficient Health Powers Award-Winning Telehealth Solution
GREENSBORO, N.C. – July 27, 2020 – Today Proficient Health, a healthcare information technology company, announced that a longstanding customer has been recognized for outstanding performance in telehealth.
The North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program (NC-STeP) has received a 2020 Breaking Barriers through Telehealth Award from the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center, an organization promoting the adoption of telehealth across eight states and the District of Columbia.
Based at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, NC-STeP serves dozens of communities across North Carolina that lack sufficient access to behavioral health providers. Participating hospitals use video to connect an experienced medical professional with patients experiencing an acute behavioral health crisis. Individuals who previously might have waited days to see a specialist have real-time, virtual access to psychiatric care.
Since its launch in 2013, the program has produced a $30 million return on investment by preventing unnecessary hospitalizations.
Proficient Health was selected by NC-STeP to develop the technology infrastructure that allows providers to share healthcare information seamlessly with the hospitals they support. A secure, HIPAA-compliant portal eliminates cumbersome paper-based processes and allows clinical and administrative data to be exchanged quickly and easily online.
The portal can be used to schedule consultations, share patient assessments, make referrals, determine the availability of inpatient mental health beds and collect the encounter data needed for billing. Information can be associated with the appropriate patient record and can be downloaded directly into an organization’s electronic health platform of choice.
Robb Hutchison, CEO of Proficient Health, says the experience gained from the NC-STeP initiative is helping his company solve the communication challenges faced by accountable care organizations, clinical information networks and other communities of providers.
“By building on what we’ve learned, we’ve been able to create a broad portfolio of online services that can quickly and affordably close the communication gaps common in healthcare,” Hutchison says. “NC-STeP has paved the way. Their work proves the efficiencies technology can offer and serves as a ‘gold standard’ for organizations looking to launch new telehealth initiatives.”
About Proficient Health
Proficient Health is a healthcare information technology company specializing in solutions for the secure exchange of referrals and clinical information. Our affordable, online services and mobility solutions connect physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers – helping them easily share and manage information, improve service and care delivery, drive down costs, speed reimbursement and get more out of their electronic medical records platform.
