Background
Cedar Recovery, founded in 2015, is a trusted leader in addiction treatment across Tennessee and Virginia. The organization operates 14 locations and employs over 100 professionals, serving more than 3,500 patients. Cedar Recovery emphasizes compassionate and personalized care, with providers handling approximately 15 patients daily through both in-person and telehealth appointments. The organization holds CARF accreditation, underscoring its commitment to the highest standards of care.
Despite the organization's success, providers struggled with the time-consuming nature of documentation. This often detracted from patient interactions and caused work-life balance issues, as providers found themselves finishing paperwork outside of clinic hours.
Challenges
Challenge 1: Time-consuming documentation
- “It saves me a ton [of time].”
- Cedar Recovery’s providers were spending 36 hours each week on documentation, affecting their personal time and increasing burnout.
Challenge 2: Disconnection from patients during appointments
- The need to focus on notes during appointments created a barrier between providers and patients, diminishing the quality of interactions.
Challenge 3: Work-life imbalance
- “The providers were taking their documentation home - they are not now.”
- The burden of documentation outside of working hours led to higher stress and lower overall satisfaction among providers.
In the past, Cedar Recovery had attempted to streamline this process with various solutions but struggled to find a solution that met their needs until they discovered Heidi.
Solution
Cedar Recovery discovered Heidi through one of their providers who began using it independently and was impressed by its impact. Heidi’s ability to create accurate and compliant notes while enabling more face-to-face interaction with patients caught the attention of the management team, leading to its adoption across the organization.
Heidi was integrated into Cedar Recovery’s workflow, reducing documentation time from 36 hours to 12 hours per week. This significant reduction in administrative burden allowed providers to complete their work during their shifts, improving their work-life balance.
One of the standout features of Heidi is its ability to capture essential details, including compliance-specific statements for Medicaid and Medicare. This ensures that providers can focus more on patient care while still maintaining high standards of documentation.
Impact
The impact of Heidi on Cedar Recovery has been transformative.
- 75% of providers have saved at least 7.5 minutes per consult on note-taking.
- Providers now see an average of 15.4 patients daily, up from 14.
- $35,000 in clinical time has been saved over 13 weeks.
- 5x return on investment.
- 75% of providers have reported a reduction in burnout.
- 4,400 notes/documents were generated within the 13-week period.
What’s next
With Heidi, Cedar Recovery has freed up valuable time for providers to engage more meaningfully with patients. Providers no longer need to take work home, and the quality of their interactions with patients has significantly improved.
Cedar Recovery is committed to continuing its use of Heidi to further improve both provider well-being and patient care, with plans to extend its use across more locations.
