Tackling Social Determinants of Health and Suicidal Ideation via Integrated Care and Rovicare’s Technology

By Evan Sakrison

People aren’t entirely products of their environment, but many factors do impact our overall health. In addition to race, gender, sexual orientation, and other individual factors, where we live, work, and play have influence, too.

These are called social determinants of health (SDOH), and they can greatly impact one’s mental health – for better or worse. In fact, SDOH such as poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, social isolation, and lack of access to critical services cause many mental health challenges, and are associated with an increased risk of suicide and suicidal behaviors.

What Can Primary Care Leaders Do to Address SDOH and Prevent Suicide?

It's well established that integrating behavioral health services in primary care increases access to care and can address mental health crises like suicide. evolvedMD’s unique approach takes this to the next level with an in-house Care Coordination team to specifically improve SDOH outreach and drive improved patient outcomes.

Understanding social determinants’ role in overall access and effectiveness of care, we partnered with Rovicare, a leading care management company, to leverage their innovative cloud-based medical software to enhance support and improve SDOH outreach. During Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and beyond, we can tackle mental health crises, like suicide, together.

The Role of evolvedMD’s Care Coordination Team in Preventing Suicide

In traditional settings, the responsibility is on mental health therapists to manage heightened caseloads and provide care coordination services. This leads to burnout, increases turnover, and decreases patient satisfaction. This is unacceptable, especially if patients are experiencing suicidal ideation and don’t know who to turn to for help.

To combat burnout, turnover, and poor patient satisfaction, our unique model employs an in-house Care Coordination team to assist our Behavioral Health Managers (mental health therapists embedded at the practices we serve) with their patients’ care plans. Maintaining close communication with Behavioral Health Managers, Care Coordinators:

• Conduct phone-based outreach to patients
• Provide patients with community resources relating to housing, food insecurity, and other SDOH
• Offer external support services and compassionate patient advocacy

If a severe crisis like suicide is apparent, Care Coordinators can connect patients to inpatient and outpatient services, transport to behavioral health hospitals, and much more.

How Rovicare’s Innovative Technology Enhances evolvedMD’s Suicide Prevention Efforts

As part of our mission to reimagine behavioral health, we partnered with Rovicare to leverage its software to streamline processes, communication between providers, and care plans. All three are critical to address mental health crises like suicide, making Rovicare’s platform integral to collaboratively reimagining the healthcare experience for all.

How does Rovicare’s platform work? It connects our in-house Care Coordinators with external healthcare professionals and community partners across the care continuum, so that care is managed in a single place while increasing access to a diverse set of providers allowing us to connect patients to specific needs, quickly. In traditional settings, the same professionals rely on fax machines, phone, and email – often using multiple systems – to coordinate care for each patient. This can lead to inefficiencies, errors, and oversights, which can potentially lead to loss of life.

Example screenshot of the Rovicare platform,
using filters to find services related to SDOH and suicide prevention.

An all-in-one platform, Rovicare grants our Care Coordinators access to a suite of tools including:

• An extensive network of providers – allowing for easy search and selection of necessary care
• A digital referral tool – enabling simple referrals to medical and behavioral providers rather than making endless phone calls
• A patient’s electronic medical records – enabling Care Coordinators to share pertinent information with external support
• And much more

If a Behavioral Health Manager’s patient is a victim of domestic violence and recognizes warning signs of suicide, such as drastic changes in behavior or talking about dying by suicide, the Behavioral Health Manager can inform their assigned Care Coordinator that the patient needs external services.

Within the Rovicare platform, the Care Coordinator can search for an inpatient behavioral health hospital (see screenshot above) and arrange care for the patient, including transport to the hospital – all within Rovicare’s platform. The Care Coordinator has the option to send the referral directly to the provider or send it to the patient via text. This sequence of events is done quickly and efficiently, resulting in increased patient outcomes and saved lives compared to traditional settings.

“My team leverages Rovicare’s innovative platform daily to drive improved patient outcomes. From its extensive filtering options to its intuitive, user-friendly tools and up-to-date provider details, Rovicare enhances our ability to address our patients’ needs quickly and effectively. This is especially critical in crisis situations like suicide, and Rovicare’s platform empowers my Care Coordinators to save lives.”

– Joy Simon, evolvedMD’s Care Coordination Manager

Our Care Coordination team is a unique component of our enhanced Psychiatric Collaborative Care Model. Playing a critical role in driving improved patient outcomes, Rovicare’s platform enhances their ability to deliver best-in-class care and save lives for patients in primary care. If you’re a practice manager, a primary care provider, or a leader wanting to help patients experiencing suicidal ideation, we can work together to normalize care and provide access to life-saving services for your patients.

Integrate behavioral health at your primary care practice today.