President Spotlight. Neal Ryan, M.D. Heads New Leadership Team at Askesis Development Group

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1 Page 1 President Spotlight Neal Ryan, M.D. Heads New Leadership Team at Askesis Development Group Askesis Development Group and its EHR, PsychConsult Provider, have long been major players in the specialized world of electronic health records serving the behavioral health market segment. And, under its recently appointed President, Neal D. Ryan, M.D., Askesis continues to chart a course toward market leadership. A noted child and adolescent psychiatrist and long time Askesis board member, Dr. Ryan brings extensive experience to his role, having served as director of informatics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center s (UPMC) Western Psychiatric Institute, director of education for the University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry, and most recently, as director of UPMC s Center for Integrative Medicine. Before earning his M.D. from Yale and completing his psychiatry training at Columbia, he earned a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Ryan stated that PsychConsult Provider continues to play a vital role supporting providers who deliver specialty behavioral health care in settings that include psychiatric hospitals, outpatient clinics, community mental health centers, and substance abuse treatment programs. The specialty of behavioral health is different enough from medical/surgical health care that for many users, a specialized EHR is essential to meet their needs, said Dr. Ryan, noting that Askesis parent company, UPMC, remains strongly committed to the behavioral health industry. Dr. Ryan said that under his leadership, Askesis plans a series of product enhancements that will keep PsychConsult and its users at the forefront of the industry and technology. Support Update Author: Joseph M. Fello Manager, Technical Customer Support As we gathered information and feedback regarding our Customer Support Portal that was launched in February of this year, we have been working diligently to enhance the overall customer experience. As discussed at the Annual User Conference in May, we have upgraded our current version of the Service Now platform to their most recent release, known as Fuji. We have been testing the Fuji release for the past couple of months. While the overall functionality with the newest release is largely similar, there are some user interface improvements. In addition, the layout and organization of both the Knowledgebase and User Group pages have been enhanced significantly. The design and layout of the Knowledgebase is much more intuitive and driven by logical menus. The user interface for the User Group section is more refined and offers a cleaner approach to the content. In addition, we encourage and promote the use of the User Group functionality going forward. These changes and updates are our efforts to work towards continual service improvement for our customers.

2 Page 2 Patient Portal Implementation Experiences Authors: Justin Sheetz Systems Analyst and Elizabeth Brant Technical Writer At the Askesis 2015 User Group, staff from Wheeler Clinic in Connecticut, CPC Behavioral Healthcare in New Jersey, and Rockbridge Area Community Services in Virginia shared their experiences implementing the Patient Portal. Meeting your Meaningful Use goals Some of the best practices and lessons learned from these clients include: Have a marketing and communications plan in place before you go live Give handouts to your staff so they have speaking points when talking to clients about using the portal. Designate one staff member to be responsible for handing out PIN numbers. Provide incentives to front office staff, like gift cards, when they register a client or hold a contest where the staff member who registers the most users wins a prize. Clearly define user roles at the beginning of the implementation planning stage. The implementation takes from four to six weeks working with Askesis staff assisting in the various phases of: Designing and executing your implementation plan Training Super Users and staff who will train other users Planning and implementing marketing strategies to get the word out to your clients Selecting how you will put the portal into production As we continue to develop more features for the portal, we ll communicate to you through Service Now and our Website. Askesis staff can provide valuable advice, for your implementation based on their experiences with organizations that are live and successfully utilizing the Patient Portal. ICD 10 Update Author: Jeffrey D. Sivek, MEd, LSW Director, Product Management Our experience with ICD 10 implementation in October, 2015, began with it s adoption by the World Health Organization (WHO) in During the 21 years that passed; we saw HIPAA, then the ACA, and finally, delays initiated by both the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Acts of Congress. Providers in the US are now using an expanded diagnostic system to record the diseases that are being treated and the procedures for which people are provided care. The effort required to respond to this challenge was marshalled through an Askesis community wide collaboration to understand the impact, identify the change points, examine alternate solutions, respond to unanticipated results and carefully attend to the issues that were encountered. Askesis first offered an ICD 10 compliant product in February of This was primarily a two fold initiative: Support the introduction of an expanded diagnostic system, and Convert uniquely matched codes from ICD 9 to ICD 10 to minimize claim submission delay.

3 Page 3 Askesis customers were required to upgrade PsychConsult Provider and EDI x to be ICD 10 compliant. This activity was compressed in the months prior to October 1, Askesis prepared to respond to unanticipated results by forming a task force to investigate incidents and develop responses. A number of patches were released to improve the quality of the code conversion process and remediate conditions which had limited access to the complete ICD 10 code set. The cooperation, patience and creativity of the persons involved made the experience of success a recurring theme throughout late September and into October. The collective response reinforced that encountering a challenge head on with mutual respect will lead to success. As the experience of ICD 10 permeates all aspects of the healthcare delivery system, I am certain unforeseen needs will emerge. Already, adjustments to state reporting requirements are being presented, each with a unique set of requirements. As we all know, the DSM 5 is intermingled with the support for clinical diagnosis and the translation into appropriate diagnosis codes for claims. These are opportunities we have to work together and continue the experience of success along the way. My thanks to all Askesis customers and staff who worked together on this transition and continue toward the successful completion of the ICD 10 implementation. Our Company is Growing! Please Join Us in Welcoming New Staff to Askesis: Jerry Sabuda Lead Programmer Development Joanna Tekulve Systems Analyst Associate Support John Kroboth Sales Manager Charan Teja Systems Programmer Development Justin Schneider Systems Analyst IT Support Mark Piccolo Systems Analyst Professional Services Michael Carberry Director of Software Development Nelson Asport Astacion Systems Analyst Intermediate Development Ranjith Gaddam Systems Programmer Development Tony Harris Systems Analyst Intermediate Support

4 Page 4 Annual Askesis User Conference Thank you for attending this year s 12 th Annual User Conference in Pittsburgh! We had a great turnout and appreciate all the responses from the post event survey. We hope you found the conference informative and worthwhile. Check out a few photos below from the conference!

5 Page 5 Save The Date! 13th Annual Askesis User Conference Tuesday, October 4, 2016 Thursday, October 6, 2016 We are excited to share that the 13th Annual Askesis User Conference will be held in Pittsburgh at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown near the Point State Park. Stay tuned for updates on next year s conference! Upcoming Events Askesis is sponsoring the Open Minds Performance Management Institute in Clearwater, Florida next February 11 12, If you would like to attend, we have a limited number of complimentary registrations available. If interested, please your information to marketing@askesis.com. More Upcoming Events: October 27 28, 2015 * Premier Sponsor The 2015 Open Minds Technology & Informatics Institute Washington, D.C November 3 6, 2015 MHCA Fall Conference New Orleans, LA December 3, 2015 Connecticut Community Providers Association Hartford, CT inc.org December 14 15, 2015 Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois Schaumburg, IL

6 Page 6 Welcome, New Clients! Please join Askesis in welcoming the following organizations to the PsychConsult User Community. Carroll County Youth Services Bureau Westminster, MD Children s Home of Reading Reading, PA Children s Home of York York, PA Fred Finch Youth Center Oakland, CA Minnesota Mental Health Clinics Eagan, MN Northlake Behavioral Health (Renaissance) Mandeville, LA Prairie View, Inc. Newton, KS