OpenBeds, an Appriss Health company providing technology that identifies, unifies and tracks behavioral health resources to facilitate rapid digital treatment referrals, today announced it has partnered with the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Division of Behavioral Health to launch the Alaska Behavioral Health Referral Network. The Alaska Behavioral Health Referral Network fosters collaboration between healthcare providers with available inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services to improve patient access to treatment for crisis, substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health.

"Today, one of the major barriers to addressing mental health and the ongoing opioid epidemic is access to treatment. Having timely and true information about treatment availability is critical in helping healthcare providers make the best decisions about the care of their patients," said Nishi Rawat, M.D., co-founder of OpenBeds, and senior vice president of Appriss Health. As a critical care physician, Dr. Rawat experienced first-hand the frustrations of using inefficient manual processes to try to locate the proper behavioral healthcare for patients.

As the opioid epidemic, addiction and mental health challenges continue to plague the nation, state governments—and specifically behavioral health and substance abuse departments—are working diligently to develop and implement strategies to combat these problems in their communities. One of the proven strategies making an impact on these problems is increasing access to care by leveraging technology to improve the quality and timeliness of patient care.

With the OpenBeds platform, the behavioral health system in Alaska and other states can become more responsive for the people it serves. Social workers, case managers and other care team members no longer need to spend hours on the phone or faxing providers to try to find available treatment options for their patients. Additionally, available services are less likely to be underutilized while providers are actively seeking treatment for patients in their time of need.

In addition to Alaska, Indiana, Delaware, New Mexico and several other states have deployed, or are deploying, the OpenBeds platform to help identify gaps in care delivery and ensure patients have the opportunity to get appropriate and timely care.

As an integral part of the progression of all OpenBeds statewide networks, Treatment Connection (www.treatmentconnection.com), an online portal, has also launched in Alaska. The portal enables people seeking mental health and SUD treatment for themselves or others in the state to anonymously search for nearby providers, evaluate the type of care needed and submit confidential online referral inquiries to appropriate treatment providers vetted by the state.

With Treatment Connection, Alaskans needing help for mental health and SUD challenges have self-service access to:

• A decision support self-assessment tool to help them determine the most appropriate level of treatment
• A searchable list of trusted treatment services and providers by zip code and distance
• Resources and educational materials
• Contact information for providers with current treatment capacity
• A means to communicate with treatment providers anonymously about next steps using a confidential numeric identifier.

About OpenBeds

OpenBeds offers a cloud-based platform that provides real-time behavioral health treatment facility and program availability, digital referrals, two-way digital provider communication, data aggregation and analytics, and clinical decision support resources. OpenBeds' trusted and comprehensive treatment access and referral networks improve the timeliness of quality mental health care and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. All OpenBeds statewide networks have the ability to develop and deploy Treatment Connection, an online portal that enables those seeking mental health and SUD treatment for themselves or others to anonymously search for nearby providers, evaluate the type of care needed and submit confidential online referral inquiries to appropriate treatment providers vetted by the state. OpenBeds is an Appriss Health company. For more information, please visit www.openbeds.net and follow OpenBeds on Twitter.

About Appriss Health 

Appriss Health provides trusted technology solutions to federal and state governments, payers, health systems, clinicians, pharmacies and health information exchanges working to improve public health. In collaboration with state governments, we built the nation's most comprehensive, standards-driven data integration platform to combat the nation's opioid epidemic. Our platform connects nearly all U.S. states, close to 1 million prescribers and half a million care team members, more than 30,000 pharmacies, and thousands of hospitals, managing more than 400 million daily transactions. It enables seamless in-workflow visibility to patients' prescription drug history and a comprehensive solution that improves access to needed care for people with behavioral health conditions and social determinants of health challenges. Our real-time clinical decision support and data-driven insights are integrated into the workflows of more than 130 electronic health records and every national pharmacy chain. Combined, our data analytics solutions and bi-directional communication capabilities support whole-person care and rehabilitation for physical and behavioral health conditions and substance use disorders, improving health outcomes and reducing overall healthcare spending. For more information, please visit www.apprisshealth.com and follow Appriss Health on Twitter and LinkedIn