One of the most challenging operational issues about addiction treatment is software.
The admissions, clinical and revenue cycles of a patient all have different guidelines and parameters that must be followed. For these reasons, there are many different applications and software to help with these departments.
Many facility owners and operators can attest to the struggles of tying to consolidate all the programs needed to properly run a facility, but to no avail.
A Typical Scenario
A potential patient needs treatment. He finds your facility online and calls the number on your website. Great, you have an inbound inquiry and the opportunity to help someone.
The call comes in and is tracked, usually with a system like Call Tracking Metrics. If the patient is a match for treatment, he is the added into a CRM. The CRM will keep track of any communication with the patient and sometimes it will even facilitate a pre-screen and a clinical evaluation.
If everything goes well, the patient comes to treatment.
Next, you have to document the patients treatment stay. You have to document medical records, sessions, groups, medication and length of stay. This is usually done through an EMR. Some more popular EMR software are Kipu or Zencharts.
Now, the patient has fulfilled his stay in treatment. You move the patient down to the next level of care or maybe the patient even returns home. Regardless, you have to move his account to a revenue cycle software that assists in filing the claim to insurance.
We haven’t even talked about scheduling software, analytics software and ways to communicate with alumni. It’s not uncommon for facilities, clinicians, marketers, operators and accountants to be juggling 10 different programs.
There’s gotta be a better way.
Could Lightning Step Be the Answer?
This morning, I was given a tour and a live demo of a new software that seeks to solve the problems just explained. The software is called Lightning Step.
Lighting Step is the first software that encompasses a CRM, and EMR and a revenue management system all under one login.
This way, your entire organization can use the same software from admission to graduation. The entire treatment process can be implemented and documented with one online application.
This could be a real game changer.
Lightning Step seeks to solve a difficult problem. There have been a handful of companies that have attempted to crack this technology riddle before. None have prevailed.
I have personally tested most of these applications when they hit market and I can attest to Lightning Step being the most seamless and the most user friendly that I have seen thus far.
Don’t get me wrong, there is room for improvement. For instance, Lightning Step is not able to API into a call tracking software. So if your treatment center has an admissions department that uses a call tracking software like DialogTech or Call Tracking Metrics, there is no way to seamlessly transfer a lead from these programs into Lightning Step. It’s still a manual process.
But all things considered, that is an improvement that can be implemented by the engineering team. I feel perfectly confident in saying that Lightning Step is the best all in one software I’ve tested so far.
I Expect This to be a Success
I haven’t been endorsed in any way to write this article and I have no vested interest in the success of the company. As a professional who has worked in the technology sector of addiction treatment for years, it’s exciting to me that there may finally be a practical solution to a real hole in our system.
How many leads have been dropped because of a clunky CRM or no CRM at all? How many insurance claims have been denied because of poor documentation? How many mishaps have there been?
Technology does not replace common sense, but it does give us the capacity to decrease the amount of moving parts in a system.
If Lightning Step succeeds in creating a seamless transition from one department to another, I believe it will be a success and I believe it will greatly improve the administrative side of addiction treatment.
