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The Value of Clinical Collaboration

By Stephen C. Schultz
Collaboration:  to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor
I just wanted to share a quick note and let you know that RedCliff Ascent, Discovery Ranch for Girls, Discovery Ranch for Boys, Oxbow Academy and Discovery Academy had their Administration teams come together for an Inter-departmental workshop. This is simply a deliberate way to have our Clinical, Academic, Residential, Human Resources, Accounting and Admissions departments all share experiences and best practices. It allows our people to get to know each other better and develop meaningful relationships. We’ve been doing this now for a few years. What a great group of folks we have!!!
As you may be aware, each of the above listed programs has achieved the status through NATSAP as a Research Designated Program (RDP). Through our research efforts, we have been able to measure student health and wellness, staff burnout and satisfaction, academic achievement as well as the standard outcome measures that many other NATSAP programs are involved in.
One unique measure I thought you might find particularly interesting has to do with the transition of students within our particular group of programs. Over the last two years, only 11% of total student enrollments actually transitioned from a higher level of care to a lower level of care, or vice versa, within our group of programs. This means 89% of students referred to one of our programs, transitioned to some other program outside our system upon completion of our program.
You might be asking, “Why do I care?”
As an allied health professional, you can be assured that our programs work hand in hand with you to make sure the students and families you refer are appropriately prepared for whatever that next step is. You can feel confident we will support your recommendations, collaborate with you and provide a united message to the family.
The elephant in the room is the fact that many allied and clinical professionals lived through a tumultuous time years ago when certain programs closed unannounced. A time when referrals went into programs that were a part of a large corporation and it seemed like the proverbial “Black Hole”. Often, the referring professionals were not kept in the loop and students were transitioned from one program to another within a particular system of programs strictly for financial reasons.

We are very aware of this dynamic. As we have grown, we have deliberately discussed this situation and have worked to provide a menu of specialty programs to meet the personal needs of the families and the allied professionals who refer them. Each of our programs addresses the clinical needs of the student who finds them-self at a particular place on the continuum of care.
The nice thing about research is that it is simply data. Our commitment to you, as the referring professional, is born out by the numbers.

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