The challenges you're dealing with every day
We built Sherpa Care for these exact pressures — not adapted from hospital software that doesn't fit your world.
General-purpose EHRs don't respect 42 CFR Part 2
Substance use treatment records carry confidentiality protections far stricter than HIPAA. Most EHRs handle this with a bolt-on consent form — not the granular, disclosure-aware record architecture that Part 2 actually requires.
Clinical narrative matters more than structured fields
A psychotherapy progress note isn't a SOAP note. Forcing a behavioral health session into templates designed for primary care strips the clinical nuance that makes the documentation meaningful — both for continuity of care and for defensibility.
Measurement-based care is becoming the standard
Payers, accreditors, and clinical best practice now expect validated instruments — PHQ-9, GAD-7, AUDIT, PCL-5, and others — captured, scored, and trended over time. EHRs that don't support this inline turn it into a second job.
Treatment planning needs to be more than a checkbox
Diagnostic criteria, measurable objectives, interventions, and progress reviews — all tied to DSM-5 / ICD-10 and the client's actual trajectory. Most EHRs treat the treatment plan as a static PDF. It should be a living clinical document.
Group and individual sessions need different workflows
Group therapy documentation, attendance tracking, and billing are fundamentally different from 1:1 sessions. An EHR that only supports individual encounters forces duplicate work for every group practice.
Utilization review and authorization never stops
Levels of care, authorization cycles, continued-stay reviews, and medical-necessity documentation are a constant operational load for behavioral health organizations — and generic EHRs don't help with any of it.