Choosing the right electronic medical record (EMR) system isn’t just about compliance—it’s about creating a foundation for better care, smoother workflows, and more sustainable practice management. For psychiatrists and behavioral health professionals, the stakes are even higher. You need an EMR that not only handles clinical documentation, but also supports your therapeutic process, protects sensitive data, and respects the nuanced needs of your patient population.
What Makes Psychiatry EMRs Different?
While psychiatric clinics have some overlap with primary care clinics - after all, they also need HIPAA-compliant and robust EMR with patient reminders, telehealth, and prescribing - they also have unique needs, particularly when it comes to leveraging robust intakes and psychiatry-specific scales. [For those clinics incorporating therapy, notes are also likely to be more heavily narrative-based too]. A psychiatry EMR should support:
- Customizable templates for psychiatric evaluations and progress notes
- Secure patient communications
- Integrated telehealth
- Medication management and ePrescribing (including controlled substances)
- Coordination across multiple providers or therapists
A general-purpose EMR might meet the minimum requirements—but it likely won’t help you deliver the highest quality care or streamline your day-to-day operations.
11 Features Every Psychiatric EMR Should Have
1. Flexible Documentation and Progress Notes
Psychiatric care isn’t one-size-fits-all, and your EMR shouldn’t be either. OptiMantra’s charting is customizable - and, whether you're conducting an intake, performing a mental status exam, or tracking medication effects, you can easily adapt your documentation to reflect your clinical style.
2. Secure Telehealth Capabilities
Virtual care is a cornerstone of modern mental health treatment. Look for an EMR with HIPAA-compliant, built-in telehealth tools that don’t require third-party software. OptiMantra includes fully integrated video visits, along with the ability to schedule, document, and bill—all in one place. OptiMantra also integrates with Zoom!
3. ePrescribing (eRx) including Controlled Substances
For psychiatrists, easily being able to prescribe, especially controlled substances, is a must. OptiMantra has integrated eprescribing with EPCS (Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances) as well as integration with most state PDMP (Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs), helping you streamline med management and simplify refills, while staying compliant with DEA and state-level regulations.
4. Custom Treatment Plans and Assessments
A high-quality EMR should support evidence-based treatment planning and progress tracking. OptiMantra allows you to create personalized care plans and embed standardized assessments directly into patient records. Choose from a robust library of validated mental health tools—including GAD-7, PHQ-9, AIMS, ASRS, Vanderbilt ADHD, BEDS-7, ACE, Beck, Edinburgh, and many more.
Need a custom scale? No problem—send it to the OptiMantra team and they’ll build it for you at no additional cost. Assessments automatically tally numeric scores and display trends on a graph over time, helping you track patient outcomes at a glance. Whether you're working with adults, teens, or specialized populations, you can build and adjust scales that fit your exact clinical approach.
5. Seamless Scheduling and Client Self-Booking
Psychiatry practices often involve recurring visits over weeks or months. OptiMantra’s scheduling system makes it easy to manage recurring appointments, group sessions, and telehealth bookings. Clients can even self-schedule based on your availability—cutting down on administrative time.
6. Insurance and Private Pay Flexibility
Many psychiatric practices operate with a mix of insurance and self-pay patients. Your EMR should make it easy to manage both. OptiMantra handles real-time eligibility checks, claims submission, and invoicing—plus you can accept credit cards, offer superbills, or customize payment plans for private pay clients.
7. Multi-Provider and Multi-Modality Support
If your clinic includes psychiatrists, therapists, social workers, or coaches, you need an EMR that can support multiple roles under one roof. OptiMantra is built for collaborative care, with role-based access, internal messaging, and shared documentation—all while maintaining clear boundaries and privacy controls.
8. Client Portal and Secure Messaging
Mental health clients value discretion, autonomy, and trust. With OptiMantra’s client portal, patients can securely message you, complete intake forms, review treatment plans, and access invoices—all from one encrypted hub. This not only protects sensitive data but also strengthens the therapeutic relationship.
9. Customizable Communications and Patient Messaging
Effective communication is key to patient engagement and retention—especially in mental health care. OptiMantra offers fully customizable email and text templates, so you can align messages with your practice’s branding, services, and unique workflows. Whether you're coordinating with platforms like Headway or Alma, working with self-pay or insurance clients, or providing screening and support services, you can tailor outreach to match your model of care.
Plus, OptiMantra’s patient portal centralizes communication with built-in controls that help manage message frequency and length—keeping your inbox from getting overwhelmed while still maintaining an open line of support. From appointment reminders to treatment updates, every message can be personal, professional, and practice-specific.
10. Directly Integrated Labs with Horizontal Mapping
For practices that incorporate lab work—having labs integrated into your EMR is a major advantage. OptiMantra offers direct lab ordering and result retrieval within the patient’s chart, with integrations across hundreds of labs including Labcorp, Quest, Rupa, Access, AEL, and more.
What sets it apart? Horizontal mapping and longitudinal result visualization. This lets you easily track changes over time, identify trends, and correlate lab values with treatment milestones—all in a clean, visual format embedded in your workflow.
11. Responsive and Knowledgeable Support
Tech issues or billing questions shouldn’t derail your day. Look for an EMR with a support team that understands behavioral health. OptiMantra offers responsive live support, onboarding assistance, and a team that truly listens—so you can focus on patient care, not tech troubleshooting.
Why More Psychiatrists Are Choosing OptiMantra
OptiMantra was built with integrative, behavioral, and psychiatric care in mind. It’s not a one-size-fits-all system—it’s a platform designed to support the unique rhythms of mental health work. From customizable documentation and virtual care tools to secure messaging and ePrescribing, everything is connected to help you deliver excellent care with less administrative friction.
Whether you’re a solo psychiatrist, part of a group practice, or managing a multidisciplinary team, OptiMantra gives you the flexibility and support to thrive.
Try OptiMantra for FREE here.
Choosing Your Psychiatry EMR
Psychiatric care is deeply personal—and your EMR should reflect that. Instead of forcing your practice into the mold of a generic system, choose an EMR that aligns with the way you deliver care. When you have the right tools in place, you’ll spend less time on paperwork and more time making a real difference in your patients’ lives.
Just listen to what Aleksandra B., an NP in the mental health space and OptiMantra customer, has to say about our EMR,
“What I like most about OptiMantra is its ability to integrate multiple aspects of practice management into one seamless platform. The ease of scheduling, telehealth functionality, and customizable documentation templates make it incredibly user-friendly. It’s efficient and helps streamline both patient care and administrative tasks, which is essential for my practice. Additionally, their excellent customer service and support have made it easy to resolve any issues quickly.”
With OptiMantra, behavioral health providers can finally have an EMR that feels like a natural extension of their practice—not a daily obstacle.
