Conversation With Shane Brune, assistant behavioral health director, MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley
In just three months, the MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley used XFERALL to facilitate rapid transfer of 325 clients with diagnoses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and PTSD to inpatient behavioral health treatment.
Using XFERALL has significantly reduced the amount of time the agency’s clients have to wait for admission to a psychiatric facility. Time from assessment to admissions is now under an hour, when it used to take upwards of three hours, according to Shane Brune, assistant behavioral health director for the MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley.
“The entire process with XFERALL is so much more efficient, and it has capabilities that our electronic medical record doesn’t have,” said Brune. “We can see on the mobile app the status of the transfer request in real time and the data showing us how long a patient has been waiting and if the receiving hospital has a question or additional need for information. We know the outcomes for our clients are better when they don’t have to wait for needed treatment.”
The MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley’s partnership with XFERALL began in July 2021. Located in Bryan, Texas, just east of Houston, the MHMR Authority is responsible for providing mental health and intellectual and developmental disability services to children and adults in a seven-county area. Each year it provides services to more than 9,000 people.
The MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley is one of the more than 66 percent of Texas’ local mental health authorities using the XFERALL platform to locate clinically appropriate behavioral health treatment for their clients more quickly.
XFERALL replaces laborious, manual processes -- such as searching for a phone number, making phone calls to behavioral health hospitals, waiting for messages to be returned, and faxing clinical paperwork --with a single-click, automated process where both the MHMR agency and the receiving hospital(s) communicate in real-time to more seamlessly facilitate clients getting into treatment. “Our crisis teams can assess someone and locate available, clinically appropriate behavioral health care directly from the XFERALL app,” said Brune.
With the fourth COVID-19 surge during summer 2021, Brune and her team were even more grateful to be using XFERALL so they could do their part to keep people out of acute hospital emergency departments. “During the summer of 2021, our local hospitals were filled to beyond capacity because of the COVID-19 surge,” said Brune. “Our teams’ use of XFERALL helped us avoid having our clients wait in hospital emergency departments for the behavioral health treatment they needed. We are proud to be part of the solution to free up ED beds and increase hospitals’ capacity to care for patients with COVID-19 and other serious medical conditions.”
With the XFERALL partnership underway, the MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley is looking at next steps with the XFERALL platform. “We are looking forward to taking advantage of XFERALL’s other features to further enhance our services for our clients,” said Brune. “With XFERALL, we’ll have the ability to schedule and coordinate post-discharge follow-up outpatient care so inpatient treatment gains aren’t lost.”
To schedule a demo of XFERALL and see how it can help your hospital, mobile crisis team, or community mental health agency, click here.