Article

System Integration Council

History

Each of the six-state psychiatric hospitals have served for many decades as the “facilities of last resort” for the long-term care of the most treatment-resistant and severely mentally ill citizens of our state. Over the years, each hospital had developed areas of clinical specialty and expertise, as well as individual policies and operating procedures. Functioning in their own “silos,” the hospitals had become inefficient, costly, and slow to respond to the changing needs of the state’s mentally ill populations.

In 2015, the System Integration Council was created to overhaul components of the hospitals in order to effectively position the facilities to respond to the state’s public mental health demands with improved access and experience of care. Since the inception of SIC, these initiatives have collectively improved the health outcomes of our fellow Hoosiers receiving mental health services by focusing on the four targeted areas of technology, standardizing policies, administration/operations, and business development.

By creating a culture of continuity and consistency, the SPHs have begun to function as a single point of entry and exit for our system. By eliminating the silos, the facilities are more agile and thereby able to respond more effectively to the changing needs of the state’s mentally ill population.

The original goals of the System Integration Council were to bring together the SPH’s and other elements of the public mental health system into a comprehensive mental health network while leveraging each hospital’s capacity to address critical shortages of psychiatric beds across the state.

The goals were designed to eliminate administrative hurdles while aligning the work of the facilities to support consistent operations across the hospital system while allowing staff to focus on the direct clinical care they provide to their patients.

Some successes as a result of the System Integration Council are outlined below:

• Standardized accounting practices with the use of a Centralized Business Office
• Adoption of Policy Stat as a standardized policy platform
• Implementation of Cerner at all six hospitals (Electronic Medical Record)

Mission Statement

Align the work of all the SPH’s to support consistent operations across the network to improve the patient experience, clinical decision-making, and health outcomes. By improving outcomes for patients and families, the SPH’s will focus on compassionately treating Indiana citizens with challenging neuropsychiatric illnesses and preparing them for reintegration into their communities.

2020 SIC GOALS

• Re-establish System Integration Council membership and subcommittee assignments within the SPH Network to continue working towards an integrated system to meet the needs of Indiana citizens suffering from severe mental illness and substance use disorders
• Build a culture of continuity and consistency within the SPH Network.

Continued SIC Projects

• Community-based collaborations with community and jail-based competency Restoration Services
• Technology improvements such as standardizing the IOT network, key management, and badge systems

WORKGROUPS & OBJECTIVES

Administration/operations workgroup

• Establish consistency across all hospitals
  • Streamlining Admissions/Discharges Processes
  • Governing body reporting
  • Capturing revenue streams
• Increase throughput
  • Increasing admissions and discharges throughout the network
  • Decreasing length of stay
  • Enhance SPH bed utilization

Business development workgroup

• Improve patient and community experience with the SPH system
• Provide needed psychiatric services for mentally ill Hoosiers with mental illnesses currently in Indiana’s Department of Correction, within the SPH network, and with community partners
• Provide evidence-based substance abuse services for the people of Indiana
• Provide state of the art neurodiagnostics for Indiana's most challenging cases
  • NDI Advanced Treatment Center

Policy workgroup

• Identify and standardize best practices/policies for identified areas across all SPH's
  • Staff development
  • Active treatment scheduling
  • Referral and admission processes
  • Forensic reporting

Staff development workgroup

• Design and implement a comprehensive ELM training catalog for the SPH network
• Consistent CPR/First Aid training throughout the SPH network