Business Efficiencies and Effectiveness Project (BEEP)

Background and Purpose: Improving business and clinical practices within mental health community-based clinics is needed to align with new regulations growing out of national and state healthcare reform, as well to continuously improve quality. In partnership with NYS OMH, CTAC launched the [name] project, designed to use data informed decision making and continuous quality improvement methods to strengthen fiscal and operational process to address individualized organizational goals while simultaneously preserving and in some cases, expanding service capacity. 

 

Methods: 26 clinics volunteered to participate in the [name] initiative and committed to participate in a year-long learning collaborative.  Data captured:  (1) clinic characteristics (size, volume, populations served); and (2) three performance measures: net operating costs, productivity, and no-show rates over time.

 

Findings: Analysis of participating clinics and performance indicators suggests that technical assistance, through the organization of an intensive learning community, facilitated the process by which clinic leaders were able to identify strategies in order to improve their business and clinical practices to strengthen their ability to provide behavioral health safety net services.

 

Conclusions and Implications: Rigorous studies of macro-level strategies for promoting performance changes in business and organizational practices are needed. Linking viable business practices to evidence-based clinical care is likely to result in a stronger community-based system for behavioral health the public sector.