Using Salesforce Clouds to Improve Access to Psychiatric Care

The Virginia Mental Health Access Program (VMAP) helps health care practitioners support pediatric patients’ mental health care needs. Their network of providers spans the state, and they have established a system to provide ongoing education to ensure a high standard of mental health care for their patients.

Given the current pediatric mental health crisis coupled with a nationwide behavioral health provider shortage, VMAP has secured government funding to offer additional training to pediatric care providers.

Through the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program (PMHCA), VMAP has an annual budget for training. Providers can call VMAP directly to easily find the training programs they’re looking for to better address the needs of their young patients.

VMAP receives 6.8 million dollars in state funds to facilitate this program, equipping primary care providers that treat children with the tools, training, and resources needed to better manage pediatric mental health.

The program has been very successful, growing from a $1M project to nearly a $7M project in the span of just two years. This rapid growth made it critical to have a reliable, robust data management and workflow system in place.

A Solution Based on Service Cloud

To facilitate access to pertinent training programs, Customertimes partnered with VMAP to build a custom Salesforce solution based on Service Cloud running within the Government Cloud security and compliance environment. Built on the state of Virginia’s Salesforce infrastructure, it’s a product that can work for any similar use case.

Here’s how it works.

VMAP needed a robust solution that could integrate multiple aspects of the provider/training program with their Salesforce instance, including:

• A 3rd party event management system that shows providers which trainings are available
• A call line to track providers as they call in to ask about trainings
• A training calendar that could be managed within Salesforce

VMAP previously had no workflow automation solution, using a combination of REDcap, Excel files, and email to manually support their business processes. Information was stored in disparate systems with no relationship between records or historical tracking data. All processes were manual, and there were multiple data cleanse and validation concerns.

A Single Source of Truth 

VMAP made the decision to implement Salesforce with the goal of leveraging a system that could store all their data in one user-friendly location and automate their previously labor-intensive manual processes.  

The Salesforce-based solution that Customertimes created included:  

• Customized reporting and dashboards to track things like cases closed, case resolution time, and case resolution trends 
• Forms for online CAP/LMHP consultations 
• A Care Navigation tool that links providers, patients, and families to improve care outcomes 
• An easy-to-use, centralized case management hub 
• Custom email templates to connect providers with relevant training programs 
• A mobile app to link providers to their patients, cases, reports, and trainings 

A Successful Implementation  

Ally Singer Wright, Program Director at VMAP, is thrilled with the progress so far.  

“VMAP has been working with Customertimes for the better part of the year to do a complete overhaul of the data tracking and management system for our unique and nuanced program,” she says. “Despite the enormity of the project and the complexities of our program, the team has been persistent, patient, and hardworking throughout the project. 

“When there were issues to work through, the CT team worked long hours to remedy them. I’ve been consistently impressed with Oleg’s [Arganistov, Salesforce Project Manager and Business Analyst at CT] work ethic and determination to find solutions that best meet our program’s needs. Very rarely did we encounter a problem he couldn’t find a solution for. His understanding of our work has been critical to the success of the project.” 

A Foundation for the Future 

Now that Phase 1 is in place, Wright and her team have seen a remarkable difference in productivity, and they have access to a level of data insight that was previously unheard of.  

“Phase 1 has so far transformed our work process and data tracking ability in ways we never imagined,” says Ally Singer Wright, Program Director at VMAP. “Not only is our executive and implementation team able to see real life data on our services as they’re occurring, but we can easily show data of any kind to all of our state partners (including the Governor).  

“We can see trends, needs, and circumstances within our data that we were unable to see before. Our process has been streamlined to free up time and staff to do other, more important tasks.  This is invaluable.” 

The VMAP team can also easily track provider participation over time: who’s calling in, who went to which training events, etc. They use that information within the platform to recommend relevant programs, making it easier for physicians to find training programs, and ultimately leading to improved mental health care for their patients. 

“I can’t imagine our program growing to the point it’s at without Salesforce and the CT team,” says Wright. “They have enabled us to build a strong, programmatic foundation that will support our rapid growth, and we are grateful for that.” 

“This is one of the best projects I’ve worked on,” says Denny Gracey, VP Public Sector Sales at Customertimes. “As a government funded organization, VMAP needed to work with a team in the US. Our US team is powerful and effective, and we were able to build a solution that will work for any similar organization in any state.  

“We handled a very similar project for the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and we quickly realized the major impact this can have on increasing access to mental health care.” 

This Salesforce-based solution can be easily replicated for any similar organization in the private or public sector and often meets grant funding requirements. For more information, contact experts@customertimes.com.