Running a successful mental and behavioral health practice requires providing excellent client care and monitoring essential business metrics to assess your business’s health. By using your EHR to track key performance indicators (KPIs), you can gain valuable insights into your practice’s financial, operational, and clinical aspects. In this blog post, we take a look at the top six metrics mental and behavioral health providers should track to monitor their business’s health effectively. If your EHR does not allow you to generate these reports, it may be time to look for a better solution.

1.    Client Load

Client load is a fundamental business metric that determines the number of individuals seeking treatment at your practice within a specific time period. Tracking client load helps measure the demand for your services and identifies trends in client intake. Analyzing client load data can guide resource allocation, appointment scheduling, and identify opportunities for expansion. Don’t forget that in addition to therapy, every client comes with administrative duties such as billing and documentation. When looking at client load, it’s essential to look at the total time investment for each client to prevent overloading your caseload.

2.    Appointments Per Clinician

Clinicians’ productivity is a crucial aspect of any mental and behavioral health practice. Monitoring the number of appointments each clinician conducts per day, week, or month helps determine individual productivity levels. This metric is beneficial for workload distribution, identifying potential burnout, and optimizing clinician schedules. Once again, make sure to keep the administrative side of client care in mind when looking at this metric.

3.    No-Show and Cancellation Rates

No-show and cancellation rates are significant indicators of client engagement and practice efficiency. By tracking these business metrics, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your appointment reminder system and appointment scheduling protocols. High no-show or cancellation rates might indicate missed revenue opportunities or inefficient resource management. Implementing strategies like automated appointment reminders to reduce these rates can positively impact your practice’s profitability. TheraNest’s no-show reports allow you to choose a date range, and you can see the client’s name, service type, and date of no-show. You can also generate a retention rate report to quickly view if you or your staff struggle with keeping clients.

4.    Revenue and Reimbursement

Tracking revenue and reimbursement is vital for understanding your practice’s financial health. Monitor the total revenue generated, payer mix, and average reimbursement per client to determine the overall financial stability of your practice. Additionally, tracking denied claims, reimbursement times, and payment trends allows for improved cash flow management. Your EHR should allow you to quickly generate financial reports with clear information regarding amounts billed versus amounts collected.       Most EHRs allow users to export these reports into Excel for additional data analysis and record-keeping.

5.    Occupancy Rate

The occupancy rate measures your practice’s capacity utilization and showcases how effectively you are using your physical space. Calculate the occupancy rate by dividing the total hours of therapy offered by the available hours. Monitoring this metric helps optimize appointment scheduling, identifies underutilized resources, and ensures efficient use of your practice’s space. This is particularly helpful for organizations with multiple rooms or facilities, where managing occupancy can become challenging because of the distance. If you’re a telehealth-only practitioner, don’t discount this metric; while you may not have physical rooms, it can help you set appropriate case loads and see if you’re managing your time well.

6.    Client Satisfaction and Outcomes

Keeping track of client satisfaction and clinical outcomes is crucial for gauging your services’ effectiveness and identifying improvement areas. Implement client satisfaction surveys or feedback mechanisms to assess clients’ experiences. Additionally, measuring clinical outcomes, such as symptom reduction, improvement in functionality, or treatment goals achieved, helps determine the overall effectiveness of your treatment interventions. This is especially important as the industry shifts to value-based care models, where reimbursement is often dictated by measurable outcomes.

These aren’t the only business metrics you should track; they’re the ones you should start with if you have no clue where to begin or are new to reporting. If you’re not measuring it, you can’t improve it. Don’t forget that collecting metrics is just the beginning: these reports should spur you into appropriate action.

As mental and behavioral health providers, tracking key business metrics to monitor your practice’s health effectively is essential. You can evaluate and optimize various aspects of your practice’s operations by tracking these key metrics. These metrics provide insights into the financial, operational, and clinical aspects, ultimately helping you provide the best care to your clients while running a successful business. Regularly analyzing data collected by your EHR and taking appropriate actions based on the results will ensure the long-term success and sustainability of your mental and behavioral health practice.

TheraNest offers a wide variety of reports to keep an eye on your business and take fast, data-driven action to grow and thrive. See them for yourself during a free 21-day trial (and don’t worry, we don’t ask for your credit card info).