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ACU center of campus
Case Study

Abilene Christian University
Integrating Student Well-Being

ACU is a small, private university in western Texas. Their health and counseling clinics are co-located and work together closely. However, issues surfaced when each clinic’s EHR system could not communicate with the other, impeding operations and care quality. When Medicat One Counseling became available, ACU took the opportunity to integrate with the Health Center (which already leveraged Medicat) to improve the student experience.

Abilene Christian University
  • School
    Abilene Christian University
  • Number of Students
    3,800
  • Implementation
    August 2022
  • Solution
    Medicat One Counseling
  • Location
    Abilene, TX
  • Website
    https://acu.edu/

The Problem

Although ACU believed in a holistic approach, their EHR systems prevented them from true integration of the patient experience. Each day, manual exports of paper records ate up precious administrative resources and were prone to human error. Additional administrative burdens weighed on both clinics, placing a strain on operations.

“Our front office staff were doing a lot of redundant work. For example, we have a psychiatrist who works for our Counseling Center, but we scheduled his appointments within the Health Clinic’s EHR. Our admins had to run over to the Medical Clinic, print out files, then scan records into our old EHR software.

Plus, redundancies in billing and other processes were putting our staff under a significant amount of stress. Frankly, we needed to address these issues as quickly as possible.”

Tyson Alexander – Director of the Medical and Counseling Care Center

The Solution

Medicat One Counseling: “We were looking for a web-based solution that could integrate with the Health Center, so that was a huge selling point. With some staff on Macs and others on PCs, using a web-based application made things so much easier.”

Under the leadership of Director Tyson Alexander, ACU’s Counseling Center now shares some student data with the Health Center using a role-based permissions structure. This has transformed the shared goal of caring for the “whole student” a reality.

Additionally, features like automated messaging allow staff to send key communications, just like the Health Center. This eliminated the tedious task of manually sending reminders and resources to each student, allowing providers to stay on schedule.

ACU also integrated Medicat One Counseling with CCAPS. Instead of having students fill out forms on an iPad before their session, forms are automatically emailed. ACU expected there to be a learning curve with students completing these forms. However, because students were used to completing forms online before any Health Center appointment, adoption of this new process was painless.

The Result

A single platform that helps staff care for student mental and physical health

Staff are now able to point students, parents, faculty, and other campus partners to a single online portal that empowers students to take care of their physical and mental health.

This has improved the referral process and allowed more students to be seen at the clinic. In fact, the Counseling Clinic saw 20% more students last year, more individuals than ever before. This figure makes up almost 25% of the student body!

Finally, the efficiency gained by automating appointment reminders allowed the clinic to reduce their “no show” rate by 12% last year. Students even remarked that they loved receiving the reminders via text message, citing a better student experience.

“Now that we’re about one year out from implementation, I can say that everyone has gotten settled and is so happy with Medicat One Counseling. I can see it’s reduced the burden on their plate, and that makes me feel great as the leader of the clinic.”

Tyson Alexander – Director of the Medical and Counseling Care Center