Healthcare facilities across the country are increasingly embracing telepsychiatry as a way to provide patients with quality mental health services, regardless of their zip code. By connecting patients and clinicians through live videoconferencing , telepsychiatry helps expand access to clinicians in rural or other underserved areas, where it can be difficult to hire and retain quality on-site staff. While successful programs can improve care quality, support better clinical outcomes and reduce costs, the right approach is key.

If you’re planning to implement a telepsychiatry program, here are five essential steps to help ensure success.

Healthcare spending is skyrocketing in America, reaching a whopping $3.5 trillion in 2017 and projected to rise another 5.5 percent annually over the next decade. As the industry seeks to contain these costs, providers are shifting their focus from the quantity to the quality of care they deliver – and that’s where value-based care comes in.

In contrast to the traditional fee-for-service model, the value-based approach rewards providers for efficiency, as well as patient health outcomes. Reducing expensive – and sometimes avoidable – acute care episodes is integral to the success of this approach, which is why mental health is an important part of value-based care. By identifying and resolving behavioral health issues earlier, healthcare organizations can keep patients healthier – a win-win for patients and providers.

In our ongoing Sector Spotlight series, we focus on how telepsychiatry can help value-based care providers access mental health services that benefit their patients and their bottom lines.

Elizabeth Carden joined Regroup in 2017 with a primary goal in mind: to see how technology could increase access to mental health services, regardless of zip code. Two years later, she is still drawn to the opportunity to expand access for communities by bringing telepsychiatry solutions to Regroup’s health facility partners, their staff, and of course, their patients.

In this edition of Ask Regroup, Carden discusses how Regroup works with its healthcare partners to meet their ongoing needs, and how internal and external communication is key to making sure the partners’ needs are being met.

Dr. Adia Cobb has spent her entire life interested in helping those in need. From volunteer service trips overseas to focusing on underserved populations during medical school, Cobb recognizes the need for building bridges to improve access for those who need it most. Now a bilingual child and adolescent psychiatrist with Regroup, Cobb has worked in a variety of clinical settings, including treating young people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

In this edition of Ask Regroup, Cobb shares how telepsychiatry brings balance to her life and allows her to treat the unique issues facing children and adolescents effectively.

With a career in behavioral health spanning more than three decades, Julian Cohen has been instrumental in shaping the way communities throughout the U.S. access mental health treatment. Before joining Regroup in February this year, Cohen most recently served as president of Teladoc Behavioral Health and, prior to that, CEO of Breakthrough Behavioral.

Here, Cohen talks about how Regroup works closely with healthcare organizations and telepsychiatrists to improve access and care through strong partner, provider and patient relationships.

In communities across the country where wealth and medical care is scarce, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) can be a critical safety net to keep the neighborhood alive and well. These community healthcare centers provide access to medical, dental and behavioral health services, regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Since most FQHCs operate in areas where quality mental health providers are in short supply, telepsychiatry can enable them to offer behavioral health services to underserved patients.

While the approaches to promoting mental health are as varied as the conditions treated, telemedicine is transforming how providers across the spectrum care for patients. Whether patients receive treatment from their community health center, primary care physician (PCP) or in specialized settings, like corrections, telepsychiatry is a proven way to care for patients with a variety of mental health needs.

Implementing a telepsychiatry program can help healthcare organizations eliminate many obstacles common in providing mental health treatment, from overcoming geographic barriers to reducing costs by allowing facilities to choose the right level of care. For organizations that are new to telepsych, however, rolling out a program often comes with many questions. Here, Regroup’s Director of Clinical Deployments, Chelsea Greenbaum, answers common questions about getting started with a telepsychiatry partner and how Regroup guides its partners through the deployment process.

Whether providing telehealth online or seeing patients in person, clinicians need to make strong patient relationships a priority. Long believed to be true, a 2014 report offered clear evidence that trusting relationships between clinicians and patients lead to better treatment outcomes. In fact, the report stated that efforts to improve the patient-clinician relationship “can produce health effects just as beneficial as taking a daily aspirin to prevent a heart attack.”