Right Track’s Commitment to Quality Patient Outcomes
Billy Young, CEO, Right Track Medical Group
The number of people struggling with their mental health continues to increase — especially during the coronavirus pandemic. According to The State of Mental Health in 2020 by Mental Health Alliance (MHA), more than 45 million adults in the United States are currently experiencing a mental illness. That’s a nearly 1 million person increase over 2019.
These eye-opening statistics underscore the importance of Right Track’s mission to provide quality, physician-led mental healthcare, specifically in the Southeast where more than 5 million adults have to go without. In the last year alone, we have opened clinics in Hattiesburg, Madison, and Biloxi, Miss. These locations provide access to experienced psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and therapists who support patients with the individualized treatment plans and medication management they need.
The work does not end there, however. We are also committed to delivering quality patient outcomes by affecting change and improving patient symptoms. Our ability to drive these quality outcomes is because of three fundamentals that are core to Right Track’s approach to care:
Convenient Access: It is not unusual for patients to wait weeks or even months for their first appointment. In most cases, however, this delay can be detrimental to the patient who may lose their motivation to seek treatment or who may be at such a crisis point that the need for care is urgent. At Right Track, we are committed to scheduling initial appointments within 24 to 48 hours of that first phone call.
Early Intervention: At Right Track our goal is to create a custom treatment plan that moves patients into a maintenance state of care. That means we don’t wait weeks between appointments. Instead, the first eight patient appointments are scheduled over a period of 90 to 120 days for both therapy and medication management.
Intensive Follow Up: Patient drop-off is a significant problem in mental healthcare, with 20% to 30% of patients drop off during the course of their care and never making it to their second, third or fourth appointment. At Right Track, our drop off rate is just 12%. That’s because we work with patients to eliminate those barriers that cause drop off. For example, when patients miss an appointment, it’s their therapist, not a receptionist, who follows up. And because we are set up to do telehealth, our physicians and therapists will even conduct an appointment via phone if the patient is more comfortable that way.
These fundamentals are coupled with Right Track’s physician-led approach to care, which ensures there is collaboration amongst our experienced team of physicians, therapists, and nurse practitioners and a system of procedures and protocols that all clinic staff must follow. This reduces the possibility of misdiagnosis or mistreatment.
This rigorous level of care means outcomes become sustainable — and patients can get the help they need before their mental health reaches a crisis level.