How I use Upheal together with my EHR
Whether you’re doing in-person or remote therapy as an individual practitioner or a part of a larger organization, it’s easy to use Upheal in addition to your EHR. Ted Faneuff, Clinical Advisor and Therapist, talks us through how he uses Upheal to create progress notes seamlessly so that both fit into his daily workflow.
As a busy therapist, I had been searching for some time to find a solution that made my documentation easier. The work we do, as therapists, is rewarding and tough and I was eager to find a documentation solution that would produce excellent clinical output with little need for editing. It was also important for me to find a service that I could easily integrate into my existing workflows. In addition, I wanted something that would give me more time in my day to spend on self-care. In my practice, I see clients through many platforms, so flexibility was key. Here are the ways that I have been able to integrate Upheal into my practice – you might be surprised!
A good Calendar Sync is a must
The first feature that makes integration with EHR systems easy is Upheal’s ability to sync a Google Calendar with Upheal! Because I currently see clients through Upheal as well as different platforms, it is essential that I am able to see, in one place, what my day will look like. I can easily manage my calendar working at multiple practices and plan around my private events. See here for an article on how to sync your Google calendar.
Using Upheal’s own platform or other EHRs for online sessions
For many of my clients, I am able to use Upheal’s platform to hold sessions and capture documentation. To schedule sessions on platforms that allow external telehealth services, I copy Upheal’s unique link (specific to each client) and either paste it in the location section of the calendar invite or into the (editable) outgoing introduction email that some EHR systems have. This allows my client to access Upheal directly once they provide consent. After the session is concluded, I review the note, make edits, and upload the documentation into the respective EHR or system that I am using and complete billing.
Try the Zoom Integration for Zoom-only clients
If you’re using Zoom exclusively for your sessions, Upheal allows you to integrate with Zoom directly. This is great for the therapist who doesn’t want to change up their routine. The HIPAA compliant extension allows for your session content to be uploaded directly to Upheal. You can then take the session note information and load it into your documentation.
Capture notes from other digital health platforms
I, like many therapists, see clients through various digital health platforms that have their own telehealth platforms that might not allow a Zoom integration or Upheal link for the appointment.
For these circumstances, I have found the best way to capture my sessions and produce seamless documentation is to use Upheal’s audio recorder feature. (But please note, there’s a new web extension coming soon!).
I simply start the session on the non-Upheal digital health platform, and use another device, such as a separate laptop or my smartphone, to launch the audio recorder. When the session is complete, it will process as normal within Upheal. From there, I either download a copy of the note pdf and upload it into the platform or copy and paste it into the platform’s documentation system.
Or, use Use Upheal’s browser extension – coming soon
One thing that I haven’t tried yet, but am very excited about is the browser extension that’s about to be released by the Upheal team. Instead of using the audio recorder feature above, it will also be possible to simply sign into the web browser extension, and then hit record without needing any other device! This should create truly seamless integration with any web-based EHR (like Simple Practice, for example). I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to being able to fill out specific note forms with one click and having note content auto-populated for me.
Upload a recording from in-person sessions
If you see clients in person, you can still use Upheal! For in person sessions, you can either use the audio recorder feature discussed above, or you can record the session through your own device via something like voice memo and upload that recording directly into Upheal. I would suggest giving the audio recorder option a try first as this the most seamless way to record.
However you work, there’s a few things to consider: are you doing in-person or remote therapy? Which digital health platform are you using for calls? And how do you schedule your sessions? You can use Upheal in many different ways, including using it to create and store all of your notes, or using it just for the notes creation part and then copy/pasting or uploading the pdf into your EHR. Or, you can use the browser extension to seamlessly add content into your current EHR without any copying and pasting at all.
You can even use Upheal as an EHR replacement, for the telehealth calls and scheduling, but do your own client billing elsewhere (at least for now). It’s really rather flexible, and I’ve found it easy to meet all of my various needs.
We hope you found this useful! Get in touch with myself or the team if you need a little help getting started.