When the right mindset meets the right technology

Michelle Gilreath, MSN, APRN, MPHNP-BC, CEN, CCRN, started her own private practice with only four patients and a paper prescription pad.

"I literally just put one foot in front of the other," she says, reflecting on the moment she decided to open Mindwell, her psychiatric nurse practitioner practice in Mesa, Arizona. "I wasn't sure what I was doing or how I was doing it."

One year later, she has 180 patients on her caseload. She's running a thriving solo practice, spending her evenings with her grandbaby instead of buried in administrative work, and she's done it all without a single employee other than herself.

Gilreath attributes this success to a combination of her own determination and her partnership with athenahealth.

Choosing the right foundation

Starting a behavioral health practice straight out of school is daunting by itself. Doing it alone, with no business background, can feel impossible. Gilreath remembers her concern over choosing an EHR, given how foundational that technology would be to her practice.

"I fell in love with athenaOne® right away," she recalls. But she was concerned that it was too pricey for a start-up practice, so she chose a cheaper alternative. She lasted less than 30 days on that other EHR.

"I canceled my contract and went back [to athenahealth] and said, ‘I was just kidding, please take me back,’” she says.

From there, she built her practice on the infrastructure of athenaOne and never looked back.

Clinical tools built for behavioral health

It’s important for Gilreath to use an EHR personalized for behavioral health so that her workflows can be tailored to how she works. She wants to simplify operational complexity and streamline the processes that are unique to her organization practice unique, so she can focus on what makes each patient unique.

athenaOne for Behavioral Health sets Gilreath up with tools and features to make that happen.

For example, treatment goal automation in athenaOne streamlines care planning without sacrificing the personal touch Gilreath appreciates about having her own practice. Mental status exams replace physical exams in her documentation, which is a change athenahealth made specifically based on feedback from behavioral health providers.

Text macros and AI-powered documentation shortcuts transform her charting experience. "You don't even have to work hard at it,” she says of completing her clinical documentation. “You don't even have to type all the stuff in."

Telehealth services were also critical for Gilreath during her first seven months operating entirely remotely. The integrated athenaTelehealth platform tracks session time automatically for documentation requirements while keeping everything within the patient chart.

“I love that the telehealth platform is directly in the chart,” Gilreath says. “It's just all so inclusive and really intuitive to be able to use. And the telehealth platform is a really good platform.”

Intelligent interoperability bringing the right information to you at the right time

For Gilreath, interoperability features like ChartSync eliminate the need to chase down information required to treat the whole patient, which is particularly valuable when patients can’t recall every detail of their health history. Patient data from other providers populates automatically, marked with blue dots to indicate external sources.

"You don't have to beg for it and send a fax and wait 10 days and hope they respond and send another fax,” Gilreath explains. “You open your chart and it's right there.”

The virtual front desk that doesn’t have working hours

Gilreath uses Enhanced Self Check-In to create a smooth, self-serve digital experience for her patients while offloading much of the work that comes with intake. Her custom forms and questionnaires get sent automatically after a patient schedules an appointment, and the outreach walks patients through insurance verification, copay collection, and intake documentation.

"athenahealth's digital check-in allows me not to have a front desk person because it quite literally sends the link to patients and walks them through the check-in, just as though they would have come to an office and had a front desk person hand them a stack of forms,” Gilreath shares.

The system even handles insurance photo uploads and automatically populates chart information, eliminating common verification errors before they become billing headaches.

Bringing balance to Gilreath’s time management

All of these capabilities serve two ultimate goals: empowering Gilreath to be present with her patients and to spend time with friends and family outside of work.

“athenahealth has allowed me to have more time to do other things because I am not spending hours trying to figure out billing, I am not spending hours trying to figure out charting,” Gilreath says. “It is so streamlined and so comprehensively done and so well thought out.”

Mindwell grew quickly on athenaOne. The comprehensive platform meant Gilreath didn't need multiple vendors or software systems or to hire a large staff, she had a robust solution through a single log-in.

Beyond the numbers, and beyond the mission, Gilreath now has time for what matters in her personal life. Even serving as a solo practitioner just one year after opening her own practice, a notoriously challenging endeavor, she has a great work life balance.

"I don't know that I spend more than 30 or 45 minutes a day completing my charting and billing before I can go home and be with my grandbaby for a little while," she says.

Choosing an EHR, an integral decision to your practice’s success

Looking back, Gilreath's advice to other behavioral health providers is simple: "You're crazy if you don't [choose athenaOne] because it just makes it so convenient."

Her short and impressive journey from four patients and a prescription pad to a thriving practice of 180 patients proves that, with the right foundation, solo practitioners don't have to choose between growth and a life.

"I really have grown tremendously as a human, as a professional and as a business owner, and I owe a large part of that to athenahealth,” Gilreath shares.

Ready to build your practice on a foundation designed for success? Discover how athenaOne can support your journey from startup to thriving practice.