BHL Concept as Applied to the VISN Additional Administrative Issues

Staffing:

• Regionally - The BHL would consist of a Clinical Director, Nurse/Social Worker, Coordinator and 4 Health Technicians.
• Locally - Sites would have BHS staff based on size of the primary care clinic (some CBOCs might get their own BHS depending on size).

Workload credit:

Each step in the Behavioral Health Lab process generates either a telephone or in-person encounter. These notes generated by the regional and local facilities can be put on CPRS by the local staff, providing local workload credit that meets EPRP standards.

Evaluation:

A random subset of patients initially evaluated by the regional centers would be contacted after 9 months for a second evaluation.

Some Expected Outcomes:

• Patient:
  • Improved care with better monitoring consistent with the IOM report and VA behavioral health strategic plan.
  • A care system for subsyndromal patients, including evidence-based brief alcohol interventions. For depression cases this can lead to fewer medication prescriptions.
• Clinic level:
  • Reduced wait times to specialty care.
  • Increased show rates to specialty care.
• System
  • Improvements in several EPRP measures.

In addition, increased patient and provider satisfaction will occur.

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