Uplift Comprehensive Services, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, USA
Founded in 2002, Uplift Comprehensive Services works closely with The Uplift Foundation to provide community-based assistance for children, adolescents and adults, including substance abuse prevention and mental health treatment. The organization currently supports 15 counties across the state of North Carolina.
Aimed at providing nurturing, well-rounded treatment, Uplift hosts a number of options for those in need including day treatment, outpatient therapy, medication management, community support, and residential living, among others. All of the mental health professionals in the organization are dedicated to helping children and adults become valuable assets to their community and overcome the social and economic challenges that may be a threat to their personal success.
One of the treatment options that Uplift provides is home healthcare, in which individuals who are in need of mental health or substance abuse resources can live in their private residence and visit with their caregivers in the comfort of their own home.
Because the program operates in 15 counties across the state, Uplift physicians have a large geographic area to cover, making travel extremely time-consuming and expensive to provide the kind of personal care that the organization aims to achieve. The treatment center calculated that it would cost $500 per trip to send a physician to each person’s home for in-person care. However, the cost would be far less expensive to send a nurse practitioner to the patient’s home and connect with the doctor remotely, wherever he or she may be located. That way, the patient could receive the benefits of individualized, in-person care and can still work directly with their physician.
For this treatment model to work, Uplift needed a dependable, HD-quality video communications solution. Additionally, Uplift wanted a solution that would work with both desktop and mobile devices so collaboration with the doctors could be as convenient as possible.
Uplift turned to LifeSize ClearSea, an enterprise-class client/server solution, as the communications model of choice. Not only does LifeSize ClearSea work as a state-of-the-art PC and Mac desktop client, it also runs on almost any Android or iOS smartphone or tablet, in crystal clear HD quality. Because LifeSize ClearSea supports single number reach, doctors can take video calls at home, at the office or on-the-go since they can be logged on to their account from multiple devices simultaneously. More importantly, the solution’s AES encryption meets HIPPA’s rigid privacy requirements aimed to protect patient confidentiality.
In order to get the program up and running, a certified LifeSize channel partner hosted the LifeSize ClearSea server on its own premises while funding sources were secured by Uplift. During this time, the partner also provided comprehensive training and technical support to the staff members so they could use the solution to its fullest potential.
After implementing the solution, doctors, nurse practitioners and patients were able to connect instantly, on almost any device, in sharp, high-definition video quality (1080p).
The results of using the LifeSize ClearSea solution for home-bound residents have been outstanding. Primarily, the solution is extremely cost-effective and saves the treatment center $500 on each physician trip, amounting to thousands of dollars each year. This money is then used for grant-funding opportunities, which ultimately leads to better patient care.
By attending home visits via HD video conferencing, doctors are able to provide the comprehensive treatment patients expect from Uplift, while patients are more comfortable in their own environment. An added benefit is that work/life balance has improved for doctors due to lessened travel, resulting in more enjoyable and fulfilling work experiences and an overall better quality of life.
Finally, productivity has increased throughout the practice. Instead of wasting hours on unnecessary travel, physicians are able to visit more patient homes and focus on what is truly important: enhancing patients’ well-being and empowering them to flourish as individuals.
Uplift is committed to providing all of the resources one needs to overcome mental health and substance abuse issues. LifeSize ClearSea enables the practice to offer more options to patients, including telemedicine, without neglecting the quality of treatment. With these powerful tools in hand, Uplift is now better equipped to assist every individual who is in need of care.
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