Electronic Record Keeping and Psychotherapy Alliance

Computer use in mental health treatment: Understanding collaborative documentation and its effect on the therapeutic alliance.

“…CD refers to the practice of using EHRs to deliberately complete progress notes jointly with clients during psychotherapeutic encounters (Stanhope, Ingoglia, Schmelter, & Marcus, 2013). CD is framed as a mechanism to promote a client-centered approach to care (DiCarlo & Garcia, 2016); by deliberately including clients in the documentation process, it is expected that clients are given the opportunity to provide input about their treatment progress, thereby facilitating a mutual understanding of important psychotherapeutic issues and goals. In doing so, it is also anticipated that CD will enhance the therapeutic alliance by increasing client engagement and participation in treatment (Hirsch, 2012; Schmelter, 2012).…”

“…Though CD intends to use the EHR as a tool to enhance the therapeutic alliance, this practice has yet to be empirically tested for effectiveness and has not undergone systematic implementation or fidelity trials that illustrate how CD is being deployed by providers (DiCarlo & Garcia, 2016). Stanhope and colleagues (2013) have conducted the only study to explicitly examine CD.…”