As more people today seek out mental health services, facilities that cater to these patients find themselves tasked with keeping more and more records. The records must be kept secure and confidential to protect the privacy of patients. They also must be kept physically out of the way so the facility has more room in which to operate.
Rather than keep an extensive paper file system on hand, you could save your facility room and inconvenience by using CARF standards for behavioral health record keeping. The electronic method of storing records can make keeping your patients’ files more secure and also easily accessible to authorized parties.
Before you implement CARF standards for behavioral health in your facility, you may want to know more about the system and how it can benefit you as a facilities manager. To start, keeping an electronic system of files literally frees up space in your facility. If you use an outdated paper filing system, you have to make room on shelves and closets for storing the files. The amount of room you use could be otherwise used for other purpose of treating your patients.
Likewise, paper files are not secure and can be easily breached by people who should not have access to them. Anyone who can gets into your building could go into the file storage area and browse around in the paperwork. Your patients’ private information could be sold or misused.
With an electronic system, the records are kept in a virtual cloud that is password protected. Only you and the people you authorize can get into the cloud. No one who does not know the password can breach the files and get into that information. You can buy cloud storage that will accommodate the number of files you need to store online.
