Note: This feature is available only for enterprise organizations using HEP Standard. If you or your organization is interested in upgrading from HEP Lite to HEP Standard, please contact our Sales team at sales@medbridge.com.
More complex care plans require support across disciplines throughout the continuum of care, and keeping these care plans both consistent and distinct is vital to optimal patient outcomes. This is particularly important for patients with complex care plans that involve multiple care settings.
With Multiple Episodes of Care, you can categorize and name each distinct episode of care for your patients. This allows you to build HEPs more efficiently and ease care coordination while also improving the patient experience by segmenting concurrent care plans.
Below we walk you through how to utilize its features to create and manage multiple or concurrent episodes of care.
Table of Contents
- Multiple Episodes of Care Update to the Patient Profile
- Creating a New Episode on the Patient Profile
- Selecting an Episode on the HEP Builder
- Patient Experience
- Ending an Episode
- How Can I Access Multiple Episodes of Care?
Multiple Episodes of Care Update to the Patient Profile
When Multiple Episodes of Care is enabled at your organization, there are a few key details to note on the patient profile.
- Use the menu on the left-hand side to select an episode.
- Select Add new episode to create a new episode for your patient.
- Find details about the currently selected episode in the Episode Details card, including treatment categories, episode creator, and more. Edit details about the episode by selecting Edit details.
- End the current episode by selecting End Episode. The exercises and education you assigned will still be available to your patients, but the episode will move to the Archived Episodes section on the left.
- Select Update Program to edit the home program for the currently selected episode.
Creating a New Episode on the Patient Profile
When you select Add New Episode, a pop-up window will prompt the user to fill in the patient’s episode details prior to navigating to the builder.
This will require three pieces of information:
- Treatment Category
- Discipline
- Episode Name
- Care Team
Select a Treatment Category
Start typing to see available treatment categories for the episode. A drop-down field will suggest categories based on your query.
Categorization for the episode of care can be as broad as a body region, such as Shoulder, or as specific as a condition, such as Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen Shoulder).
Add Multiple Treatment Categories
Each episode can have up to 5 treatment categories. Continuing searching and selecting to add as many categories as you need.
As each category is added, they will be displayed below the Treatment Category search field. The episode name will also be updated to reflect the categories added. You can remove a category by selecting the "X" next to it.
View All Treatment Categories
If the treatment category you search for does not have any matches, you can select View all categories. A list of all treatment categories organized into subcategories will be displayed.
Multiple treatment categories can be selected using the checkboxes on the left. When you're done, select Apply categories. in a list with an option to select multiple categories, which have been organized into subcategories to allow for easier browsing
If you still cannot find the treatment category you are looking for, you can choose a general body region or select the “Not Specified” option and suggest a category using the Suggest a Treatment Category link at the top of the page.
Selecting an Episode on the HEP Builder
You a create a new episode from the patient’s profile, you will be brought to the HEP Builder. In the upper right, you'll find the episode selection menu. Users can select any active episode of care or create a new episode by clicking on Create New Episode.
When creating a new episode from the HEP Builder, you'll be prompted to enter the Episode Details when you save or share the program.
Multiple Episodes of Care—The Patient Experience
After you have created a new episode in the patient’s profile and added the relevant treatment categories, your patient will be able to engage with the episode on their Patient Portal or on the Medbridge GO Mobile App.
Multiple Episodes of Care on the Patient Portal
When a patient has more than one episode that was created for them, a new episode selector menu will display at the top of the Resources page.
The episode selector menu will display the Active Episodes at the top and list the Archived Episodes (episodes that have ended) at the bottom. Selecting the episode will modify what is displayed on the remainder of the page.
Multiple Episodes of Care on the Medbridge GO Mobile App
Medbridge GO patients will have a floating action button that displays if there is more than one episode of care assigned to them (for both active or archived episodes).
Users can tap on the button to select the episode they want, and the app will refresh to display that episode's content. A red icon will display to show newly added episodes that have not been viewed yet.
Ending an Episode
Having many active episodes can make it difficult to manage reporting or find the relevant patient episode. To help manage your episodes, you can end an episode when the patient has been discharged or the episode is no longer relevant. Simply select "End Episode" from the patient profile.
When you end an episode, your patient will still have access to their exercise content in the Medbridge GO app or Patient Portal so they can continue to reference the information as needed.
Once an episode has ended, you can also choose to hide the episode by selecting the archived episode and then selecting Hide Episode. This removes the episode from your sidebar navigation and removes the exercises from the patient's Medbridge GO app and Patient Portal.
If you end all a patient's episodes, they will no longer appear on your patient list when it's filtered to "Active Patients." You can still find these patients by changing the Patient List filter to "Inactive Patients."
How Can I Access Multiple Episodes of Care?
This feature is available to organizations with an HEP license at no extra cost beginning June 28, 2021. If you have any additional questions or would like to upgrade to HEP to gain access to this new feature, contact Medbridge Support or your Account Manager.
Please note: this feature is not yet available to HEP Lite, NPS-enabled clients, or NetHealth Therapy and Raintree clients.