Wednesday, April 2, 2025
4/2/2025
Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Non-Construction - As the largest non-governmental provider of behavioral health services in Alaska, Alaska Behavioral Health provides more than 120,000 services per year to over 6,000 clients with complicated physical and mental health needs. People who experience mental illness also experience other health problems and negative outcomes including early death from chronic illness at higher rates than the general population. Typically, our clients have had difficulty accessing primary healthcare, or their concerns are too easily dismissed as symptoms of their mental illness when there is another problem that needs to be addressed. As a Certified Community Behavioral Health Center, Alaska Behavioral Health is working hard to address this challenge. Implementing an electronic health record that fully integrates behavioral and physical health will remove a barrier to achieving better overall outcomes for the patients we serve. With assistance from an EHR implementation consultant, we will thoroughly analyze available options with a focus on EHR’s that handle both behavioral health and primary care safely and efficiently, then begin the contracting and implementation process. This essential replacement our behavioral health focused EHR will result in improved safety for our clients, streamlined processes for our providers, and improved care coordination with other entities. Initial review indicates that a top contender could be Epic, the leading EHR used by hospitals in the nation. Epic is not usually available to small providers, but through an agreement with Providence Health System’s Community Connections program, we may be able to access this EHR, if it is selected.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).