Behavioral Health Quality and Safety Consulting Group Improves Clinical Care

At Schafer Consulting, we conduct in-depth assessments and develop action plans to improve behavioral health service quality, patient safety and reduce adverse events. In doing so, we assist hospitals, mental health and substance abuse treatment programs reduce the risk of critical incidents and sentinel events while enhancing clinical care.

We work nationally with hospitals, inpatient psychiatric units, emergency departments, residential treatment facilities, rural hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals and outpatient clinics.

Behavioral Health Quality and Patient Safety Consulting Group Improves Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Programs

We work nationally with hospitals, inpatient psychiatric units, emergency departments, residential treatment facilities, rural hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals and outpatient clinics.

Behavioral Health Safety Assessment

The list below briefly describes the areas we often review relative to psychiatric patient and safety and quality on inpatient psychiatric units and in Emergency Departments. In practice, we tailor each project to our Client's needs and goals.

Clinical Program

Clinical program model and daily schedule
Patient Treatment plans
Patient Safety plans
Active treatment
Close Observation Levels and protocols
Clinical documentation
Program culture

Safety Tools

Vetted Risk Assessments (e.g. suicide severity rating scales, violence assessment, safety plans, restraint reduction)
Policies and procedures (e.g. suicide risk assessments, suicide, violence, elopement precautions, restraints, use of force)
Safety checklists
Environment of Care rounding

Safety Procedures

Safety & compliance mitigations
Precautions ordering and monitoring
Precaution handoffs
Administrative rounding
Restraint reduction techniques and training

Staff Communication

Staff recognition for safety accomplishments, “saves” and “catches”
Emergency Dept to Inpatient Units
Shift reports
Nurse to nurse
Nurse to therapist, therapist to nurse
MD to nurse, nurse to MD
Shift Huddles
Teamwork
Patient status

Staffing

Nurses, Therapists, Social Workers
Physician leadership
Physician engagement in unit and Emergency Dept. programming
Physician involvement in supporting a culture of team-focused safety
Physician staffing and rounding

Security

Contraband searches
Weapon searches
Cameras, recordings
Motion detectors
Policies and procedures
System testing

Behavioral Health Quality Improvement

We work with Behavioral Health programs to improve the quality of care and treatment outcomes. Using quality metrics, collaboration and observation our team helps hospitals assess and improve mental health and substance abuse treatment.

National Quality systems that our team improves include those from the Psychiatric Core Measures from the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting (IPFQR) measures and Hospital-Based Inpatient Psychiatric Services (HBIPS). The Specifications Manual for the National Hospital Inpatient Quality Measures from the Joint Commission and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services aligns both criteria to create a common national hospital performance measures with a single set of common documentation.

These measures and data elements are reviewed relative to the Behavioral Health operations and identify impediments to optimal performance. Our written findings and recommendations can then used to implement changes.

Get in Touch With Us

We use industry best practices and over twenty years hands-on field experience working with Behavioral Health management teams to accomplish our goals. Discuss your safety and quality objectives with our consultants today.

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