A Welcoming Haven for Mental Health Crisis Support
Initial Open House and Community Need
Munson Healthcare held an open house for their new center in Traverse City. The identified gap in the community was the lack of a specific place for people in crisis to go. This has placed a strain on emergency departments. The center aims to fill this void and provide a welcoming and free space for anyone in need.Laura Glenn, Munson Healthcare's Chief Operating Officer, emphasized the importance of such a facility. "The gap that was identified was not really having a place to go when someone’s in crisis. So, in our community, that has a lot of strain on our emergency departments. What we’re trying to create in the center is really a place to go."
Specialization in Mental Health Care
Terri Kelty, Munson Healthcare's Behavioral Health Director, highlighted the significance of mental health care within whole-person healthcare. "Mental health care is a significant part of whole-person health care. We’re going to specialize in the mental health care piece of overall health care. So, the staff here is highly trained, trauma informed. The place itself is set up for mental health care."The center is designed to offer a unique environment. As Glenn said, "We designed this to not necessarily feel like a clinical setting. We have living room models and really large open spaces with windows really looking out over wooded areas. It really is intended to be a very soothing calming physical location."
Funding and Collaboration
Munson received $5 million of ARPA funds from Grand Traverse County and a $5 million grant from Michigan Hospital Association to make the center possible. Glenn stated, "This effort was truly a collaboration with a number of organizations and individuals in the community. I think it really makes it so special and it really is such a special resource for our community."Opening Phases and Services
The center is set to open in phases. It will open to the public on January 5 operating Sunday through Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., offering behavioral health assessments and crisis services. On July 1, it will begin operating on a 24-7 schedule. In the summer, a nine-bed adult crisis residential unit will open, and in the fall, a six-bed pediatric crisis residential unit will follow.Kelty emphasized the importance of having this service available. "When you have that really great piece of crisis service in your community, you can really help people avoid needing in-patient psychiatric care. You can help them stop maybe a cycle of crisis."
The center is welcoming and free for anyone who needs it. As Kelty said, "If they’re in a crisis and come here, they’re welcomed. Doesn’t matter their age, doesn’t matter their insurance. What matters is that we’re here to help them."
Why This Matters
The non-profit nationwide health IT interoperability organization's DUWG is dedicated to providing specific and practical implementation guidance on clinical content. Didi Davis, the vice president of informatics, conformance, and interoperability and DUWG lead, emphasizes that the additions in the updated guide are crucial for advancing data usability. The revised resource covers seven key topics, such as data provenance and traceability of changes, effective use of codes in shared information, and reducing the impact of duplicates. These efforts are aimed at facilitating seamless health information exchange among HIE vendors, implementers, networks, governance frameworks, and testing programs.As Davis stated in a statement, "After feedback from the industry, many key changes were made to this version of the Implementation Guide, including added guidance for receiving systems, advanced baseline requirements from USCDI V1, and more." These changes include adding guidance for receiving systems in addition to sending systems, advancing the baseline requirements from USCDI V1 (problem, allergy, medications, immunizations only) to all data classes within USCDI V3, and expanding the guidance to be technology agnostic with added requirements for HL7® FHIR®, HL7 v2.x, and HL7 C-CDA across the topic categories. Additionally, an atopic category for laboratory has been added.
Dr. Adam Davis, the physician informaticist at Sutter Health and DUWG co-chair, highlights the significant amount of hard work and collaboration that went into the revision. The workgroup, which started working on the Implementation Guide Version 2.0 last year and released the draft revision in July, also established a team to collect laboratory guidance from industry subject matter experts and incorporate that feedback into the final version.
The Larger Trend
The DUWG was launched in October 2020 with the focus on data usability requirements for provider-to-provider, provider-to-public health agency, and healthcare entity-to-consumer information exchanges. With approximately 360 members, the workgroup published its Implementation Guide Version 1.0 in 2022. Davis emphasized that this data usability implementation guide can enable semantic interoperability between sending and receiving systems, allowing for more direct incorporation of shared data into the clinician's workflow and paving the way for accurate and reliable communication. Through a collaboration with the American Health Information Management Association, The Sequoia Project is providing technical assistance, testing support, and facilitation to make data exchanged among organizations more computable and actionable through a data usability initiative. The Data Usability Taking Root initiative, which launched last year, focuses on improving the quality and actionability of health information received by end users within their workflows. Initial members include Azuba, Civitas Networks for Health, Epic, Foothold Technologies, HCA, Health Gorilla, HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association, Kno2, MedAllies, New York eHealth Collaborative, and Optum.On the Record
Dr. William Gregg, the vice president of clinical data and interoperability at HCA Healthcare and DUWG co-chair, expressed enthusiasm for continuing to identify and solve barriers to improving data usability. He stated, "We look forward to working together to make significant strides in this area and ensure that health information is used to its fullest potential."