Reminder: Changes Coming Aug. 5 to Psych/Medical Note Template

Counties should remind their providers to complete any outstanding notes by Aug. 4 at 11:59 p.m.; otherwise, they will lose access to the old “Psychiatric Note” template and any accompanying data, with the conversion to the new “Psych/Medical Note” template. 

Access will remain available for those services and/or any scheduled services after Aug. 5, but the old drafts will not be available and will be replaced with the new template. The SmartCare system may be down anytime between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Aug. 5 while this change is made in your production systems. During these hours, we recommend implementing downtime procedures (paper documentation) to ensure current work is not lost. 

Instructions for completing the new Psych/Medical Note template can be found here. County staff who were unable to attend one of the trainings may review via recording; use passcode 4FP7Hp3@. In addition, a slide deck for the recording, which also covers the medical staff workflow (including Keyphrases, Medical Facesheet, Culmulative Lab Results Flowsheet, etc.) includes direct article links to associated tools that can support chart reviews and documentation.  

 As of July 26, per previous notification, a procedure code name change has been implemented into counties’ production systems (see list of impacted procedure codes). In addition, these same procedure codes will convert to the new Psych/Medical Note template being deployed on Aug. 5.  

Questions can be directed to [email protected]. 

Release of Information Log Now Under CDAG Rules 

Within the Client Information screen, the tab labeled Release of Information Log now adheres to CDAG rules. As a result, counties may not see some ROIs that were previously visible because they are associated with a program that isn’t included in their CDAG. 
 

As with all documents in SmartCare, there is an author and a program associated with each ROI, and seeing a document associated with a known SUD provider or program can be considered a breach of information. Placing the tab under CDAG rules is a change made on the recommendation of outside counsel. The change has been in counties’ production systems since July 29. 

Special Population Improvements

Recent improvements to the use of Special Populations include a “my office” version of the list pages that displays a list of clients with a special population. CalMHSA has also added widgets on the client dashboard that show which special population records are associated with a client; this widget links directly into the Details screen for simpler editing of a special population record. 

Verbiage Change for Medication Consent 

The medication consent verbiage within Rx has now been changed in counties’ production environments to allow for more flexibility to the modality. The verbiage has been changed from “patient has consented by phone” to “Verbal Consent Obtained.” 

Completing a Medication Reconciliation 

CalMHSA has created a Medication Reconciliation List Page to allow users to record whether a patient is adhering to medication instructions. This can be used for Inpatient/CSU and Outpatient settings. 

The screen will pull only Rx Module medications that are active and/or have an end date that is no greater than 90 days. Anyone with access to the Rx module will be able to view all client medications. Please these detailed instructions for more details.  

This Week’s Production Updates 

New functionality in the EHR – and what you need to know about it – is available here. 

Upcoming Initiatives 

See the EHR Product Team’s ambitious upcoming initiatives in this list, updated weekly as products and priorities evolve — and sortable by topics like medical, clinical billing and more. 

CalMHSA EHR Initiative Report 8-1-24