Features
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Samples of automatic and semi-automatic clinical reports

If you have Adobe's (R) Acrobat Reader(R) installed, then you'll be able to see examples of the output of GoalMinder if you press here to see examples . If you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can get it for free at Acrobat Reader 4.0(R)

Appointment and event scheduler

GoalMinder has a comprehensive appointment scheduler. The scheduler shows daily lists of patients to be seen, month-at-a-glance schedules of practitioners, and appointment histories of every patient. It schedules events as well as billable hours of clinicians. The scheduler has a joint meeting function that identifies common open times among any number of therapists specified to facilitate the organization of meetings, co-therapy needs, etc. and it allows for predefind "holds" to be indicated and scheduled, such as holds for intakes, for emergency availability coverage, etc. Users can search across all therapists for the first available intake opening, for example. It keeps track of each therapist's  schedule of availability and easily resets hours when vacations, therapist illness or other absences occur. Rooms and equipment can be scheduled as well as clients. GoalMinder can handle from 1 to 100 clinicians or more, depending on the capacity of the server and whether the client-server option of the program has been purchased.
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see screenshot of scheduler

Patient Registration Information

GoalMinder keeps track of patient information such as personal and business addresses, telephone numbers, marital status,  employment, job category, referral source, insurance companies, responsible party, social security identification, and family members. GoalMinder automatically includes relevant registration information into automatically generated intake reports. Moreover, all information in the registration section of the program become part of a searchable database.
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see registration form>

Confidentiality and data security

Much effort has been put into making GoalMinder secure and confidential. To access the program in any way, a password is needed. GoalMinder provides ten levels of clearance, making it extremely flexible and secure for your patients' confidentiality. Areas of the program containing therapy information (notes, symptom ratings, etc.) require special login and password procedures to insure a patient's right to priviledged communication with his/her therapist. The therapist will only have access to information from his/her own patients. For a therapist to see a record of a client who is not his/her patient, the therapist must use an over-ride procedure in which he/she must specify a reason for the security breach. A written report of such over-rides becomes part of the log record for the program and a clinic manager will receive a report of all such events. Once notes are written, they can be electronically signed and converted to read-only files so that the record cannot be changed. This feature anticipates requirements of electronic medical record keeping.
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Computer-assisted Intakes and Treatment Plans

A confidential Treatment Records area of the program contains an integrated set of panels, labeled as follows:
From these several panels and their several pop-down list boxes, virtually every clinical note, intake, progress record, and termination report can be constructed. See treatment area When preparing an intake report, the therapist or support staff personnel need only select items from pop-down lists for such categories as presenting problem, mental status, family of origin history, etc. and type or dicatate additional information regarding other aspects of the case not covered by these lists. With a little practice, a completely comprehensive intake report can be generated in 10 minutes or less! GoalMinder constructs a comprehensive intake report, complete with demographic information, mental status information,  an analysis of the rating scales used, and a treatment plan, since the program gathers information from different areas and generates full sentences or bulleted lists from information obtained from list box selections. The data are always available for review and editing at later times. A separate panel on this therapy screen holds all treatment notes for the patient, and a handy date window gives an appointment time and date history. In addition, the date/time window identifies which sessions still need notes entered. Therapists can review the information from the therapy area prior to a patient's appointment, which quickly prepares them for the patient's session. Used remotely by on-call staff, the information is invaluable in helping patients who would otherwise not be known to the on-call practitioner.
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Session Notes

We've designed GoalMinder so that your notes will be "state-of-the-art", containing all features recommended by risk management experts. Here's how it works:
The scheduler "communicates" to the session notes panel to list all appointment times and dates for a given client. Clicking on a date entry brings up the notes for that session. Dates that are asterisked signify that no note ha been entered, thus allowing the therapist to instantly review whether the chart is curent or not. Pop-down lists help the therapist format the report for the type of service provided (CPT expalnations) and the therapy modality utilized that session (cognitive-behavioral, etc.)An outline of the note sections including headings such as Observations, Mental Status, and Plan are also provided, and of course, are all user modifiable. All the therapist needs to do is type the actual note, either using the outline format or not. When used in conjunction with the newer dictation programs such as IBM's ViaVoice (tm) or Dragon Dictate (tm), all the therapist need do is dictate his/her notes. Many therapsts prefer using a laptop computer during sessions for this task, however, so that the session is recorded as therapy is conducted.When the note is printed, GoalMinder automatically fetches the name of the patient, name of the therapist, focal diagnosis, original treatment plan list, and includes any laboratory or medication data that has changed between the current session and the last session. An electronic signature function is included to "lock" the note when the therapist is satisfied with the record. From that point on, the note cannot be changed. To see what it all looks like,

5-axis Diagnoses

GoalMinder records complete five-axis diagnoses plus indicates the "focal" diagnosis, that is, the diagnosis receiving current therapeutic assistance. ICD/DSM codes are instantly available for review. If a diagnosis changes, the original and current diagnoses are maintained and date stamped. A diagnostic history is included in automatically generated intake and termination reports. GoalMinder makes no attempt to diagnose a condition for you, but does provide lists of current ICD-x diagnoses, and standard categories of axis IV and axis V criteria in convenient pop-up lists.
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Medications

GoalMinder uses a button-click entry system to track medications. A comprehensive database of drug names is included for instant consultation. The medication manager logs dosage, refill and count indicators, and instructions for use and provides a dictation-aware notes field for each patient where side effects, rationale for prescription, or any other information about the patient and his/her medications can be recorded. An automatic medication report is obtained with a single button click. Medication information for a patient is included automatically in intake and termination reports. A prescribing clinician can generate the prescription directly from this panel.

There is big news for the medications area of GoalMinder. We've added the database provided by Gold Standard Multimedia, Inc. Read all about this major improvement:

Keeping Laboratory Data:

Biological and psychological data can be be recorded for your patients here, e.g. lithium levels, hematology profiles, summaries of MMPI results, etc. The program maintains a database of laboratory-specific references, typically giving age-sex values for low, high, and toxic ranges. Tests not included or laboratory values not listed can be entered by the user. GoalMinder comes with default values based General Medical Laboratories of Madison, WI.
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Termination Reports and Treatment series:

There is a termination panel in the treatment area of the program. When a case is complete, a button is pressed on this panel and two dictate/type fields are filled out: Reason for termination and disposition of case, and Additional termination information. The program then uses this typed/dictated information and compiles a termination report which includes the above information and date of termination, therapists involved in the case, referral information, date range treated, initial and termination diagnosis, all therapy modalities used, a narrative paragraph for each set of repeated measures ratings administered, comparing values to control values, when known, giving rate of recovery information and relative amount of variability seen through treatment. The program then increments a treatment sequence count for this patient, so if s/he returns to therapy at a later time, the program will "know" that the patient is in the next treatment sequence and will prompt you for an update of intake information and treatment goals and plans. All accomplished with one button click!
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Which outcome measures to use? Your Choice!

GoalMinder's basic strategy is to use disorder-specific outcome measures, based closely on DSM definitions of symptom characteristics. GoalMinder's flexibility allows the user to choose any other Likert-style outcomes instrument, however, or to develop your own set of outcomes measures. You have to see this to get a sense of just how powerful and useful this program can be for you!

GoalMinder provides a standard set of symptom lists (8-15 items) which allows the patient to rate precisely the intensity of detailed complaints with simple, structured interviews conducted by the therapist or filled out before the session by the client. The program draws colored stacked bar graphs to illustrate for client and therapist how things are progressing. GoalMinder also runs linear regressions on the data and uses both the slope of the regression line and an estimate of the variability of the data around the slope to give a quantitative estimate of progress being made. Our rating forms, called Problem clusters cover the following clinical issues:  Addictions (adult); ADHD (adult, child & parent); Anxiety (adult and child); Child Externalization (parent and child­this is a problem cluster designed to measure problems for oppositional and conduct disordered children and teens); Depression (adult and child); OCD (adult); Relationship Issues; Sexual Dysfunctions; and  Sexual Offenders (patient and therapist ratings).  The clusters are for treatment use rather than for diagnostic purposes. It is assumed that the practitioner makes a competent diagnosis and, when necessary, relies on standard psychological testing to clarify the diagnosis before choosing a problem cluster to use with the patient. 

Most clusters follow DSM diagnostic criteria very closely (Depression, Anxiety, OCD). Others are organized to reflect effective treatment goals to resolve a problem area. Each problem cluster consists of a list of 8-18 questions which are rated by the patient (or the patient's parent or the therapist, depending on the situation) using a 0-4 scale of intensity for each item. The symptom lists have been constructed by committees of practicing therapists. Registered users regularly contribute information regarding their findings, so that the averages of initial and ending ratings for both control groups and clinical groups and the recovery slopes and their variance are regularly upgraded and reported to clinics where GoalMinder is in use. This is a new concept in psychological testing which will result in users knowing just how other clinics are doing with similar problems. In addition, by using regularly updated information from users, we hope to continually refine basic information about the measures that can be derived from this system of practice. In our most recent releases (version 1.6 and later) users may enter their own rating systems using any rating range of their choice and they can code items as reverse scored.
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Symptom tracking: Progress Graphs & Recovery Slopes

GoalMinder makes color-coded bar graphs of a patient's progress (based on symptom reduction and/or progress towards goals, see outcome measures which can be printed and included in reports or given to the patient. The graphs have informational and motivational qualities, similar to self-monitoring strategies or even to biofeedback. Patients become involved and interested in seeing results. Users of the program are in strong agreement that the graphs enhance therapy outcomes significantly. Individual symptoms as well as the total symptom cluster can be graphed and printed for the patient.

For the therapist's use, a linear regression slope and its associated "goodness of fit"  (R squared), based on symptom ratings, provides an index of patient improvement. Expected slopes of progress are provided, when known.  Slopes and deviations from linear progress are calculated and interpreted in progress and termination reports. They are available at any time for review or treatment planning.
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Notes to chart besides session notes

If you've attended a risk-management training seminar lately, you are probably familiar with this phrase: If you didn't write it down, you didn't do it! GoalMinder makes it a snap to chart all kinds of activities you might otherwise miss. Telephone contacts, collateral contacts, supervision meetings, voicemail messages and more. It's all time stamped and logged in the Notes to chart area. Moreover, when you want to print it for your chart, GoalMinder formats it for you and gives you the option of electronically signing it, so that it becomes part of the permanent record. Notes to chart is an indespensible feature of the program, working to help you keep better records and improving your risk management strategies.
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Analysis of therapy effectiveness: the Aggregate Analyzer

Using the program's "Aggregate Analyzer", the clinic administrator can ask almost any conceivable question of the data collected with GoalMinder, including:

1. Are we as effective as other clinics in treating depressed patients with anger problems?

2. Do Medicare patients have more intense symptoms than do matched patients with private insurance coverage?

3. How many "yellow page" referrals did we have last year compared to this year?

4. Do individuals with personality disorders have rates of recovery from depression or anxiety which differ from non-personality-disordered patients?

Answers to each of those questions can guide the planning, assist in marketing, and improve the effectiveness of clinical practice. Results can be focused on very specific questions, such as a particular diagnosis or a particular medication question, or they can be more inclusive, as the analyzer has "wildcard" features for diagnoses, for example, find all cases in which axis I diagnoses starting with 296 were assigned and where an SSRI has been given. The result is presented as an analysis per therapist, per clinic, or per set of clinics. Using simple pop-up menus, the Analyzer allows patients to be selected from combinations of mental status descriptors, keywords, sex, diagnoses (axis I,II,& V), medications, age ranges, insurance companies, and therapy modalities. The Analyzer conducts data searches, counts, mail merges, and regression analyses of patients meeting the specified parameters. There is also an "export" button which allows the data from all clients meeting the search specification to be gathered and formatted into a tab delimited text file that can then be read by spread sheets or statistical programs for further, more rigorous analysis.  There has never been an easier way to analyze a practice or a problem area. The Aggregate Analyzer makes every practicing clinic into a research facility.

Exporting reports and data

All reports are formatted in rich text files, meaning that Word ® and other programs can read them. You can send them by email, store them in other systems, etc.

Regarding data analysis, GoalMinder has a very powerful export function which is run from the aggregate analyzer. You do this:

A comma-delimited text file is then written which is formatted in "pivot table" form. A spread sheet such as Excel® can directly read the data, as can Statistica® or other analytical programs. All problem cluster data is exported for each session in which it was recorded. This means with just a few searches, you can set up very sophisticated statistical comparisons utilizing this export feature.
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Automatic Reports:

Administrative/Clinic management reports:

  1. Access log: Includes login/logout activity, override occurrences, failed access attempts.
  2. Daily activity sheet: prints out by date and by therapist the time, holds, clients, events scheduled, client id, CPT service anticipated, diagnosis, minutes scheduled, and visit #. Used as the hard copy record of a therapists billing activity for a given day. Signed by the therapist and returned to billing personnel. Used also by support staff to pull charts and for the therapist to have a hard-copy list of his/her day's activities.
  3. Daily Schedule. (two choices) This is a printout by either client listed alphabetically or by therapist, listing time, holds, clients or events, start time, end time, and home and work numbers of clients to be seen for this date. Used by front desk staff as handy look up at check in.
  4. Facesheet. This is a clearly labeled information page to be placed in the client's file which gives all demographic, insurance, and referral information obtained at registration. Can print client-by-client or can batch print for any given registration date.
  5. Inactive clients report. This report is able to identify all clients last seen x days ago counting from today or within any date range specified. Output can be in form of lists or mailmerge. Used to alert therapist for need to contact or close cases, or for patient contact to send satisfaction surveys.

Clinical Reports:

  1. Intake report: See Intake report
  2. Session notes: See Session notes
  3. Termination report: See Terminations
  4. Progress report: This is a computer-generated narrative interpretation that can be run at any time during therapy which analyzes the progress slope and R-squared values of an individual's repeated measures personal goal ratings and problem cluster ratings. Includes modalities used, headers, diagnosis. Serves as an excellent summary of the status of the case. A progress report is not a session note.
  5. Medication report: Tabular form presentation of medication history.
  6. Prescription printing. Formatted to standard size and appearance of a prescription pad. Makes two copies with every print, one for patient, one for chart. Must be signed by prescriber.
  7. Laboratory report. Tabular form presentation of laboratory findings
  8. Progress and goal graphs. Full color, full page stacked bar graphs of patient's responses to repeated measures problem clusters.
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    Billing and Claims (to be completed)

    Look for these updates in late Fall, 1999: As an option for those who need a completely integrated billings and claims system, GoalMinder will soon have a "seamless" interface to do the job. GoalMinder's scheduler, patient registration information and billing/claims modules will all "talk" to one another simplify the task of billing and claims submission. In addition to billing, GoalMinder can generate reports for the financial manager and practitioner. The system is so user-friendly that clinicians will be able to look up their own accounts and track their own collections with a click of a button (and a password).

    Data Sharing & Rating Scale Additions

    A GoalMinder Website area exclusively for registered users is under development to allow them to communicate with one another and to obtain the national and regional norms for rating scales (initial values, termination values, progress slopes, robustness index, values from clinical and nonclinical populations).

    GoalMinder personnel will assist registered users in the development of additional rating scales. Users are encouraged to share their new problem clusters with other participating clinics so that a broader database can be obtained.

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