Helping Hands Family, a provider of quality ABA therapy on the East Coast, recently implemented CR NoteGuardAI. Their goal was to deepen their documentation oversight and support clinical consistency across their growing, multi-location practice. With a foundation of strong compliance practices already in place, Helping Hands Family used NoteGuardAI to improve visibility, streamline internal quality assurance, and proactively address areas for optimization.
NoteGuardAI has delivered measurable value for the team at Helping Hands, leading to:
- Refined note templates
- Actionable insights for staff development
- Stronger alignment between session notes and treatment goals
“It’s honestly the best add-on I’ve gotten from CentralReach ever.”
VP of Regulatory Affairs
Helping Hands Family
The Opportunity for Enhancement: Building on a Strong Foundation
With a strong focus on compliance, Helping Hands Family already had an effective documentation workflow in place. However, the leadership team recognized the need for more efficient, consistent, and scalable processes. As they grew, so did the need to strengthen quality assurance.
To meet this need, the team aimed to standardize quality checks across locations. They explored NoteGuardAI, which offered the perfect opportunity to better visualize trends and address documentation compliance risks quickly and effectively before they became an issue. “It’s given us the opportunity to identify documentation and compliance trends in a timely manner, improving our team’s compliance practices.” Sarah Vega, VP of Regulatory Affairs, explains.”
The Solution: CR NoteGuardAI
Initial Implementation Strategy
When Helping Hands Family first implemented CR NoteGuardAI, they took a strategic approach to addressing documentation issues. They started with a small set of high-impact rules, such as completing all required fields, to gain actionable data without overwhelming their team. “We kept it small with less than 15 rules,” Vega shared. “You’re going to get a lot of feedback initially. Start manageable and expand.”
They were able to quickly identify issues within their session notes that they wouldn’t have otherwise noticed. For example, when setting rules for narrative length and required fields, they realized their templates had fields that should have been set to “required,” but weren’t. This insight led them to revise their template to ensure staff completed all note requirements before they were able to sign and submit them.
The Impact: More Confident Compliance Oversight
Early Detection, Lower Risk
With automated flagging of errors, the leadership team was able to easily identify and correct documentation discrepancies before submission, reducing payor exposure.
“NoteGuardAI creates a validation and compliance queue to review timesheet exceptions. This allows us to correct any mistakes before we send our claims to our payors.” shares Vega.
Strategic Workflow Enhancements
As patterns in the data emerged with NoteGuardAI, Helping Hands Family used these insights to make strategic enhancements to their workflows. From modifying note templates and permissions to training adjustments, they implemented targeted improvements that supported both efficiency and documentation quality across the practice.
“Some techs were using shortcuts to create efficient, but less effective, session notes. We wouldn’t have found this without NoteGuardAI. We updated permissions, so they can’t do that anymore.”
VP of Regulatory Affairs
Helping Hands Family
Documentation Quality & Clinical Alignment
Improving Clinical Intent in Notes
CR NoteGuardAI helped clarify for staff the importance of connecting session details in notes with specific treatment goals.
“We don’t need to just write that Johnny picked up a toy. We need to connect that behavior to a goal: what was prompted, what skill was demonstrated, how it relates to the plan.”
Operational Insights & Staff Development
HR, Compliance, and QA Integration
NoteGuardAI’s insights have become a key component of internal investigations. When concerns arise with specific staff, their notes are run through NoteGuardAI to generate detailed information on their session note compliance, which can be used to support staff coaching.
“I run every provider through NoteGuardAI during any compliance case. We pull their errors, and use it in feedback to the provider.”
Time Savings for Clinical Directors
By replacing time-consuming manual audits with automated note auditing, our clinical directors save a substantial amount of time.
“I’m teaching my CDs how to use the tool. They won’t have to manually audit anymore; they can just review the exceptions served up in their queue.”
VP of Regulatory Affairs
Helping Hands Family
Helping Hands Family sees CR NoteGuardAI as a strategic asset. This tool helps them bolster their quality assurance practices, thereby increasing compliance and reducing audit and recoupment risks. It’s also enabled better staff training workflows and identification of staff who require additional coaching. The operational clarity has been unmatched. NoteGuardAI didn’t replace their compliance processes; it made them smarter and more scalable.
“All ABA Providers need to be using something like NoteGuardAI, especially when many ABA sessions are delivered by paraprofessionals who may not have exhaustive experience with best practices in healthcare documentation. This protects everyone.”
Posted in Billing, Customer Story
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