The Drug Rehab Admissions Process for Facility Owners

Streamlining Your Admits for Consistency and Effective Care

One of the most important parts of the addiction treatment process – for staff and clients – is the admissions process. During this critical period, potential clients are often making their first meaningful interaction with the staff, and your team is getting their first real feel for each client’s needs, concerns, and thoughts.

While it’s important to streamline each admission to rehab for the sake of time, it’s also vital that you make each client feel as if you’re attentive to their needs, adding a personal touch to each interview to demonstrate your empathy and compassion for their recovery journey.

So, what’s the secret to a successful alcohol and drug rehab admissions process? At Ads Up Marketing, we’ve helped countless clients streamline their intake process, leading to a more efficient effort overall, and a consistent, welcoming experience for each client.

In this article, we look over some of the most significant challenges with the admissions process and address what you can do to mitigate these issues, leading to a more professional outcome and tending to the most important concerns of each client.

Keep reading to get an overview along with actionable tips from Ads Up Marketing on auditing and improving the admit process at your treatment center!

The Addiction Treatment Admissions Process: Outlining the Typical Client Intake

As you can imagine, there are several ways an addiction treatment center can structure the way its clients begin treatment. Although deploying the most effective plan of action is critical to the function and morale of your business and team members, the most important part is easing any concerns and addressing the needs of those seeking addiction treatment.

In the following section, we’ll outline the steps, from the initial call to the final placement of a client into your program.

1. Outreach and Easing Concerns

Any recovery process that takes place at rehab facilities begins with the initial outreach. This is important for your facility and the client, as it’s your first real interaction with one another. During this initial exchange, the client is likely to have a substantial number of questions and may be somewhat nervous – especially if it’s their first time contacting a treatment provider.

At this point, your staff should be non-judgmental, making the phone call all about the client. After allowing them to present you with all of their inquiries, there are a few simple questions you should have prepared for them.

1. Ask about their insurance coverage. They may have already presented you with this information. If not, make sure you find out who their provider is.
2. Be sure to review any additional financial costs they might incur.
3. Ask them about their transportation plans. If they are attending from out of state, make sure they have transportation arrangements from the airport. Most facilities extend some type of pickup service for clients flying in. If this isn’t something that you offer, you may want to consider adding this for client convenience or outsourcing to a local provider who is very reliable.
4. Share examples of what your services look like. What programs and levels of care do you provide? If they haven’t given you enough intel regarding their situation, give them the rundown so you can match them up with the most appropriate treatment plan.

2. Client Arrival and Welcome

Assuming that they’ve opted for your facility as opposed to other treatment centers, preparation for client arrival is the next step. As we stated above, those who seek treatment from out of state will likely need a ride from the airport to begin the recovery process.

After arriving at your substance abuse treatment center, the client should provide you with their insurance coverage information. Depending on your state, your treatment center has a list of regulations they must abide by regarding the admissions process.

Yours may differ slightly from other clinics, depending on the treatment center guidelines and regulations in your state. The most important part here is conducting a thorough medical screening.

Effectively Assessing New Clients According to ASAM Criteria

An initial medical screening is required to ensure no major medical complications pose a potential threat moving forward. During the substance abuse recovery process, many of your clients are likely to receive strong prescription medications that can interact with certain medical conditions.

All of the information regarding these screenings, along with privacy regulations – as you know – should all be included in the paperwork your clients must sign during the admissions process. Another important element to consider is properly transcribing the ASAM criteria for each client, as insurance companies will often reimburse (or decline reimbursement) based on this framework.

After the medical screening, most clients move forward with a urine screening before being given a tour and shown their room. In the upcoming sections, we’ll provide a list of tips that can help you optimize each of these steps.

3. Initial Days and Setting Up a Treatment Plan

During the first and second days, you’ll allow the clients to familiarize themselves with the layout of the facility and give them a description of what each day looks like during substance abuse treatment. Each client will meet with their main counselor, along with other mental and behavioral health specialists to craft their personalized treatment plan.

After going through this process, a final medical screening may be conducted (after the client receives information regarding prescriptions and other medication) before officially starting their first full day of substance abuse recovery.

In the next section, we’ll give you information regarding treatment options for clients and how you can streamline the admissions process, making things much simpler for your facility and less stressful for your clients.

Optimizing the Initial Elements of Your Admit Process

There are a fair amount of small changes you can make that will help you develop a much smoother admissions process for your staff and your clients.

Consider each of these tips while analyzing your current process, and think of ways you can fit some of them into your daily routine to manifest immediate change in your program.

How to Improve Your Initial Contact With Each Client

Ensuring your initial client contact process is as smooth as possible is one of the greatest services you can do for your facility – and your clients.

Consider the following items and determine whether you’re making the most of this time with your future admissions.

1. Do you have a uniform process for each incoming client call? This is vital for ushering in calls smoothly and obtaining all the information you need without the client feeling rushed. You still want this initial call to be as personable as possible – you don’t want to sound robotic. That said, constructing some type of script or outline for your call center to use makes your process more uniform. Staying within the parameters of this outline will also help your call center staff if they get hung up with certain questions or concerns. Creating some type of packet or informational video that helps them understand these potential questions before they are posed can save a significant amount of time.
2. During the call, you’re naturally going to obtain information regarding health insurance and treatment coverage. Get as much information as possible about other topics as well. This can help you decipher whether to move forward with the inpatient admissions process, or potentially direct them toward your outpatient services.
3. You don’t want to craft a personalized treatment plan over the phone, but discuss all potential treatment options on the phone. Be as descriptive as possible so the client is armed with the information they need to make an informed decision. Understanding the treatment options in detail will save additional time during the actual in-person admissions process. The more the client can decide before arrival, the smoother things will go.

It’s never a bad idea to remind them about the differences between inpatient and residential programs. If you offer step-down services after the inpatient treatment process, make it known. This will give them time to think about a potential stay at a sober living home after treatment.

• Get any details you can regarding mental health history and physical challenges. After a long battle with drug abuse or alcohol use disorder, clients will likely have to contend with significant physical issues. Finding out pre-existing ailments can help you save the doctors some time and prepare for any serious interactions with medication they may receive.
• Does their insurance cover treatment? Obtaining the information is only half the battle. If they’re not fully covered, discuss potential mitigation plans and remind them of ways they can potentially obtain funding to pay out of pocket. Any decisions you can help the client make before physically arriving will drastically reduce your lead times.
• At the end, be sure to leave the floor open for any additional questions. “How long will treatment last?” “Do you offer mental health treatment?” “Do you have medical detox available?” These are all commonly posed during the initial phone call, and the more thorough your answers, the better prepared everyone will be.

The In-Person Admission Interview

During the physical admissions process, the client is likely to be somewhat stressed. First and foremost, ensure you’re talking them through the process, ensuring you’re placing the right attention on mental health and their state of mind.

Be positive, and assure the client that they are making the right decision.

Preparation

Prepare all client information arranged in order of arrival before they show up for admissions. Using the information obtained on the phone call to fill in anything beforehand will cut out large chunks of time during the interview process. In addition, it’s never a bad idea to make a list for yourself of all the tasks at hand during the interview and initial meeting.

1. Take vitals
2. Obtain insurance card
3. Complete breathalyzer and blood work
4. Urine screening
5. etc.

Playbook

Prepare an outline for the teams you have conducting the physical admissions process, just as you crafted one for your call center team. Giving them a playbook to abide by will help streamline the admissions portion and prepare your team for any hangups or objections during the meeting.

Client Packet and Welcoming Materials

Prepare a packet for each client that answers most of the important questions you encounter during admissions. Send these out in the mail, allowing clients to peruse them in the days before arriving at your facility. Any papers you can legally send and have them filled out beforehand is another excellent way to cut down on your admissions time.

Screening Questionnaire

Include a questionnaire or some type of free online tool that allows clients to answer questions about their tailored treatment programs. These can be questions about their history of substance use disorder. This will go a long way in establishing personalized treatment programs, as you’re already able to classify certain clients and gain an understanding of which substance use disorder therapies and care levels will benefit them the most.

Remember to contact insurance providers early enough in case you encounter challenges (prior authorization forms, etc.) Remember, the behavioral health industry is loaded with regulatory compliance matters. Streamlining your process is all about prep work and addressing topics and concerns before you encounter them. Anticipating these things will move things along that much quicker, lowering everyone’s stress levels.

Let Us Help: Auditing and Improving Your Admissions Process

At Ads Up Marketing, we’ve been helping clients refine and perfect treatment center operations for over six years. We can help you streamline your admissions process, improve reimbursement, relieve demands on staff, and give your potential and incoming clients peace of mind.

For more information, contact us, and let’s set up a call so we confidentially audit your process, all during our initial complimentary consultation!