Bergen New Bridge Medical Center shared results from its partnership with NeuroFlow, a leading behavioral health technology company, that show how integrated, digital screening has improved patient outcomes and compliance with key quality measures.
Using NeuroFlow’s IntegrateBH solution, patients have been screened for behavioral health needs – depression, anxiety, alcohol, and substance use – at a rate 14x higher than pre-NeuroFlow screening rates in the Medical Center’s Ambulatory Care Center.
NeuroFlow collects depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder assessments digitally from patients prior to their appointments at the medical center. Providers can access this data via tablet to identify mental health or addiction challenges and refer patients to the care they need, including an integrated psychiatric nurse practitioner that supports same-day interventions and referral support.
“Our care teams can now more quickly identify behavioral health needs and navigate patients to the right level of care, often during the same visit, which can save lives,” said Deborah Visconi, president and CEO, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. “By using NeuroFlow, we have been able to provide rapid, measurable improvement for some of our most vulnerable patients.”
The medical center participates in the New Jersey Quality Improvement Program (QIP-NJ), which incentivizes expanding access to care and improving behavioral health and substance use disorder outcomes. The program’s benchmark requires that 80% of eligible patients receive substance use disorder and depression screening with appropriate follow-up care.
Prior to partnering with NeuroFlow, the Medical Center’s screening rate for required assessments among eligible patients was only 5.8%. By introducing NeuroFlow, which uses SMS texts and tablets to screen patients in its ambulatory care center, the medical center was able to dramatically increase the number of patients screened for these life-threatening conditions. The screening rate for substance use disorders and behavioral health rose to 81.6%, surpassing the benchmark established by QIP-NJ.
As a result, patients received critical care for life threatening conditions, and Bergen New Bridge was able to receive significant funding from QIP-NJ for achieving the required benchmark. As a safety net provider, the additional funding allowed the hospital to continue its mission to provide care to vulnerable populations.
