Johnson County Mental Health seeks authority to buy Netsmart AI tools including virtual scribe and KPI dashboard

Johnson County Mental Health staff briefed commissioners June 5 on a requested exception to competition to contract with Netsmart Technologies for three integrated tools—Bell’s Quality Coach, Bell’s Virtual Scribe, and a KPI dashboard—at a cost not to exceed $171,000 annually plus a one-time $3,000 setup fee.

"It has parameters that allows them to read it and provide suggestions with what documentation they need to substantiate the service they're providing," Tanner Fortney said of the AI tools, describing quality‑assurance and billing‑coding suggestions the system can make. Fortney said Bell’s Virtual Scribe uses ambient listening to create verbatim transcripts and summaries that clinicians must review and cannot simply copy and paste into official records; he described controls that limit direct copying.

Fortney said Quality Coach would allow the department to review 100% of clinical notes (rather than roughly 10% currently reviewed manually) and assign scores so staff can prioritize remediation. The KPI dashboard integrates with the county's electronic health record to provide clinical metrics more seamlessly than third‑party tools.

Fortney noted the county has a vacant APRN position budgeted at about $210,000 annually; staff said they plan to hold that position for a year to see whether AI tools deliver savings sufficient to avoid hiring. "If...we find we're not getting the benefit...then we may have to do away with this particular program in AI, and we may have to go back to filling the position," Fortney said.

No final procurement action occurred during the agenda review; staff said they will present the formal request next week. Commissioners expressed general support and asked for outcome tracking after implementation.