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Scaling Community Behavioral Health at GRAND Mental Health with Carl Hoopes · Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health

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  Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
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  I'm Ryan Muhammad, writer and moderator with Becker's
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  Healthcare. I'm thrilled to have with me today
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  Carl Hoopes, executive vice president and chief operating
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  officer of Grants Mental Health. Carl, welcome to
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  the podcast. We're very excited to have you
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  join us today. To get us started, would
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  you mind please introducing yourself and telling us
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  a bit about your background?
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  Hi, Mariah. Thank you so much for having
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  me. It's my pleasure to be on today.
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  Yeah. So I'd love to tell you a
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  little bit about myself. So I'm originally from
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  Colorado.
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  I've been in health care my entire career.
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  I started out in community mental health with
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  addiction recovery services,
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  working in acute care inpatient behavioral health,
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  and really just was drawn to the mission
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  and the purpose, helping people in the community
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  get better, in a high needs area.
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  I progressed through my career
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  on the operational side going into large health
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  care systems.
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  I've, worked at Stanford Health Care, Ascension,
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  UCS Health.
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  Really enjoyed my my time at these different
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  organizations
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  and really embraced the challenge of turning mission
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  into execution
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  at scale.
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  For me, that's, you know, we we have
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  a great mission. We wanna serve a lot
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  of people, but oftentimes,
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  the bigger mission that we have gets,
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  kind of lost in translation with the operation
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  of how we'll execute on that. And so
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  I've, through my career, learned, a lot about
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  lean principles
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  and work to develop those lean principles
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  so that we could execute efficiently
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  and deliver on the mission that we promise.
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  My current role is now at Grand
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  Mental Health. I really enjoy it. I'm in
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  Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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  We serve about 18,000
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  Oklahomans.
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  We have inpatient addiction recovery services. We have
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  a very strong telepsych presence.
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  We do crisis services,
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  outreach services. We really have a large
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  impact in the Tulsa community
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  and beyond.
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  So very proud of the work that we
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  do here. I was really drawn to the
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  mission driven nature of the people who work
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  here. A lot of our employees were actually
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  served by Grand and then ended up coming
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  to work for Grand because of the transformative
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  nature of the care that they received. And
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  so, I've just loved my time here and
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  and very excited to be at Grand.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you so much for giving
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  that background.
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  For you, we're still at the at the
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  beginning of the year. What opportunities and headwinds
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  do you kinda have your eye on right
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  now?
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  Yeah. So, you know, one of the big
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  opportunities we have is,
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  elevating the client experience.
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  And so we're seeing a lot of opportunity
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  to
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  strengthen our community partnerships.
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  There is so much need that we're not
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  able to meet it as a single entity,
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  so we partner with people across the community
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  to be able to re meet these needs.
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  And so part of it is if someone
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  is coming in and being assessed and our
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  services are a match, then we want to
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  be able to get them in to be
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  seen quickly,
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  have appointments available,
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  and get them in to get that care
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  that they they eagerly need. But,
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  aligning those resources so that we have appointments
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  available so that it's a smooth and seamless
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  process,
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  things that we continue to work on, I
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  think we're making a a lot of leeway
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  into,
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  improving our customer experience.
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  I think we're developing really strong partnerships,
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  and so that's going really well.
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  Funding is another headwind that we have right
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  now. We're seeing some strides being made in
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  our local government to help fund a lot
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  of the programs that we need. So I
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  think we're definitely headed in the right direction
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  despite some of these headwinds.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And how are you thinking
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  about growth and, I guess, adding value to
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  your organization
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  this year or or within the next, few
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  years?
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  Yeah. So part of that is to
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  work on some of the standardization.
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  So I talked about my lean background,
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  and then a lot of that is making
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  sure that we have a product,
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  especially for our clients, that when they get
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  in, they have a pretty seamless experience
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  and that no matter which site they go
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  to or which service they use, that they
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  get that that same service over time. And
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  so we're working to streamline a lot of
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  their processes
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  and get real time feedback from our clients
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  where perhaps there was a delay or something
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  didn't go the way that we want. But
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  I think as we continue to improve that
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  client experience,
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  that's really gonna help us as we scale.
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  We're gonna grow, and we are growing into
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  more more areas currently. And so we wanna
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  grow the right way in a sustainable manner
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  and,
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  continue to improve our access and continue to
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  provide great high quality services. So that's a
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  that's a big area of focus.
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  I think we're also looking at diversification.
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  So we have a core group of services
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  that we provided,
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  and we're going to expand that.
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  We're gonna look at going beyond just where
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  we have provided services in Tulsa, but could
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  we do that in different counties? Can we
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  do that in different states? And we believe
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  we can, and we will continue
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  to move and expand and grow there and
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  may even be looking at different,
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  branches of the business that we haven't ventured
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  into before. So very excited about the future
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  here.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And then
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  it sounds very hopeful. Is there any risk
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  or investment,
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  you think others should be making this year
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  or that you hope to make this year
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  within your organization?
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  Yeah. I think one of the big investments
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  that,
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  is paying off for us and, you know,
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  could be seen as a risk is,
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  AI is a investment worth making. We have
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  a partnership with Ilios,
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  and so they're helping on, many fronts. One
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  of them is with transcribing
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  for our clinicians.
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  It's really been transformational
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  to have that data captured, to have real
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  time chart monitoring,
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  to have,
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  a a lot of different processes in place
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  that give us more time to devote to
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  our clients.
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  I think that is definitely worth looking into
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  different tools that can augment and improve efficiency
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  in a clinical setting.
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  I think another one is EHR,
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  so we are looking to move to a
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  new EHR platform.
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  Many people have gone through that, and that
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  takes it takes a lot of work. It's
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  a heavy lift, but we really believe that
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  the tools that can come with that, the
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  ease of,
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  operating in a new environment
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  can really provide
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  a streamlined process,
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  ease for our clinicians,
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  better outcomes for our clients. So I think
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  putting some money into technology and tools and
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  taking the risk to have some bumps in
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  the road along the way is really worth
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  it.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. AI is definitely a a
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  hot topic right now, so I completely agree
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  with you there. And then,
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  before I let you go, I wanted to
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  ask, where do you see the best opportunities
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  for growth in the future?
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  Yeah. I think it's continuing to meet our
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  clients
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  where they are at.
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  We have developed some new technology
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  solutions
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  that make engaging with our clients remotely
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  even more seamless than it's been in the
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  past.
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  I believe, you know, we had mentioned that
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  we're, seeing about 18,000 clients now. I think
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  that that is completely scalable
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  in a high quality way,
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  using our tools and technologies that we've developed
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  so that we can at least get that
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  first interaction with our clients maybe in a
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  virtual way because that's easier for them. Maybe
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  they're in a crisis situation,
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  in an emergency room. We've expanded
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  and offer our services there virtually, and then
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  we're able to also use our infrastructure
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  to pick clients up, bring them to us,
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  help them stabilize where it's needed, get them
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  connected to our outpatient services.
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  We're looking to expand and grow
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  our outpatient services, our integration,
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  where we either embed some of our therapists
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  or embed our technology
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  and local community health providers
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  sites or in EDs. We've just expanded
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  to multiple EDs throughout the region.
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  So I think,
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  there's really a lot of opportunity to embed
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  in emergency environments, hospital environments, and telehealth and
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  beyond.
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  Yeah. That sounds absolutely wonderful, and thank you
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  so much for those final thoughts. It's definitely
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  been a very informative discussion. So, again, I
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  wanna thank you so much for coming on
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  Becker's HealthCare, especially for the first time, and
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  I look forward to connecting with you again
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  soon.
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  Thank you so much, Mariah. It truly was
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  a pleasure.