The ABA field has undergone major shifts in recent years. One such shift is the adoption of the multidisciplinary care model. More often than ever before, ABA providers are leaning towards a more holistic approach that addresses their clients’ vastly unique needs. CR CanaryBI data shared in the 2025 Autism & IDD Care Market Report reveals a 26% growth in multidisciplinary services in 2024 alone. Since 2020, this model of care has maintained a steady 30% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) with strong projections to continue over the coming years.
While multidisciplinary services come with many benefits, they also bring about new operational challenges, as the team navigates how best to collaborate care and manage administrative responsibilities. Integrating all services under one roof is a step in the right direction–but true collaboration only happens when the entire team operates within a unified EMR.
Benefits of Multidisciplinary Care
When considering the benefits of multidisciplinary services, it’s clear that the growth in this model of care is for good reason. Integrating multiple disciplines into a single practice offers many benefits, including:
- Comprehensive care across behavioral, communication, sensory-motor, and other needs
- Greater convenience for families with streamlined scheduling and reduced drive time
- Cohesive coordination across disciplines
- Higher-quality care through interdisciplinary collaboration and shared expertise
- Improved outcomes with more personalized support
Navigating Disconnected Systems
Many multidisciplinary organizations operate out of disconnected systems due to the challenge of finding a comprehensive solution that meets the needs of each discipline. Each therapy team–ABA, speech, and OT–often use different practice management and data collection platforms that are tailored to their specific practices. This fragmented approach in a multidisciplinary organization causes administrative inefficiencies, communication siloes, and hinders effective collaboration.
It becomes tremendously more difficult to collaborate when each therapy team can’t see the others’ schedules, can’t view client goals across disciplines, or easily share updates in a HIPAA-compliant shared location. It’s also difficult for the leadership team to monitor key metrics when each team is operating within separate systems.
A Unified EMR: The Foundation for Collaborative, Multidisciplinary Care
True multidisciplinary care thrives on connection and communication. A unified EMR brings providers together on one platform, making it easier to share insights, coordinate treatment plans, and work as a team. With everyone aligned in one system, clinicians can spend less time navigating logistics and more time focusing on what matters most—delivering high-quality, coordinated care.
Organizations experience many advantages when they not only house multiple disciplines under one roof but also integrate documentation, data, schedules, communication, and more into a single system. Some of the main benefits include:
- Elimination of siloes through more seamless communication
- Bolstered efficiency by reducing administrative burdens and barriers to cohesive cooperation
- Shared and streamlined documentation, with treatment plans, assessments, and progress notes visible to other providers
- Improved continuity of care
- Reduction in scheduling conflicts
- Greater parent and client satisfaction with a shared parent portal for all services
- Increased visibility into key metrics for the leadership team
- Efficiency in payroll processing
Real Results of a Unified Platform
With a mission to holistically support as many families as possible, Arizona Autism United, a leader of interdisciplinary care, recognized how critical it was to have a platform that could integrate each discipline.
"One of our biggest accomplishments has been successfully adding new disciplines like OT, counseling, and clinical psychology—areas we initially knew very little about. A critical factor in achieving this was ensuring we had the right technology platform in place from the beginning. CentralReach has been pivotal in this journey. Having everything in one system has streamlined processes across the board—notes, templates, sessions, cancellations, and even payroll—making training consistent and operations more efficient.
One standout benefit has been the ability to customize interdisciplinary dashboards, like those for ABA, and seamlessly adapt them for speech and OT with just a few adjustments. This consistency and flexibility have been invaluable from both a management and operational perspective, enabling us to support growth while maintaining efficiency and alignment across all disciplines."
–Aaron Blocher-Rubin, PhD, BCBA, President & CEO of Arizona Autism United
![](/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Aaron_Blocher-Rubin_06-2023.jpg")
Managing Multidisciplinary Teams
Managing multidisciplinary teams requires a unique leadership focus. As Mike Cairnes, CEO of JoyBridge Kids, highlights, “It starts at the top in building a cohesive senior leadership team–A team that is intellectually and emotionally connected.” To foster true interdisciplinary collaboration, leaders must be given the tools needed to work with diverse teams. A unified system enables leadership to effectively oversee multiple disciplines through centralized data access, integrated reporting dashboards, and streamlined communication channels.
Posted in Clinical, Customer Story, Multidisciplinary, Practice Management
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