By Bruno Silva, Nurse Practitioner
BHS nurse practitioners understand that skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities require an enormous amount of contribution from third parties. Accordingly, BHS nurse practitioners emphasize excellent communication internally and with skilled nursing and assisted living partners. Our approach includes:
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Checking in and out with key decision makers at our partner facilities.
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This practice allows nursing directors, social services, and others to know when the psychiatric provider is physically in the building. This practice increases collaboration between the facility and the rounding provider.
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Clear clinical recommendations through written and verbal communication.
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BHS nurse practitioners understand the heavy administrative burden of facility leaders. With this knowledge, the providers emphasize simple and succinct communication with key decision makers when clinical changes are necessary. BHS nurse practitioners are also aware of the financial limitations in the skilled nursing setting and account for this with clinical recommendations.
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Frequent collaboration with each state’s regional psychiatrist.
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Each BHS state is overseen by a board-certified psychiatrist. The nurse practitioners in each state frequently collaborate with these psychiatrists, bringing expertise and experience to every resident BHS oversees.
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A collaborative approach to complicated scenarios such as clozapine use, or injectable antipsychotics give both the nurse practitioner and facility security and assurance with more aggressive clinical implementations.
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Frequent rounding to increase provider exposure to patients and facility exposure to the provider.
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Frequent rounding also decreases the rate of patient discharge for costly visits to the emergency department. As a result of frequent rounding, psychiatric providers become familiar with a patient’s baseline as well as deviations from that baseline. The provider is then better equipped to catch deviations from the behavioral baseline early with small behavioral adjustments or medication adjustments. Catching these changes early allows for the clinical team to avoid further development of behavioral issues and an inevitable costly visit to the emergency department.
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These implementations allow for the facility to provide first-class psychiatric care to their residents without increasing the administrative burden of facility leadership and staff.
BHS also fosters a healthy internal culture and structure. Provider training, clinical support, and team collaboration enhance the nurse practitioner’s experience. The environment ultimately reduces turnover and increases the nurse practitioner’s experience with the company. This translates to a stable rounding provider experience for many of our facilities – ultimately improving the patient experience and outcomes.
Together, these factors allow for a symphony of effective communication and patient care. The BHS nurse practitioner tactfully delivers these services every day throughout several states and will continue to progress the work of a superior psychiatric experience in the skilled nurse and assisted living environment.