Archive for January, 2012

For Therap user in New York, we are very excited to be moving into the next phase of IRMA implementation.

You should have received the following email from OPWDD.

If you didn’t be sure to get in touch.

I am the OPWDD project manager for the IRMA Voluntary File upload project and have been given your contact info from Therap Services. OPWDD has been working with Therap on developing a process to upload the incident data recorded in your system and share it with the Incident Report and Management Application (IRMA). This will alleviate the need to perform duplicate entries of incidents in both systems.

We are now entering the user testing phase of the project and will need your assistance. Each agency has to designate a tester to test the file upload functionality. Here is the plan going forward for the initial round of testing:

1) Please email me the IRMA user name and email address of the person who will be responsible for testing the file upload process. This user should already have access to IRMA and I will assign them the ‘File Upload’ functionality from TBSW. Please do not submit a new user who does not currently have IRMA access.

2) Once the individual has been indentified and the file upload functionality applied from TBSW, I will email the user that they can begin testing once the testing window opens. Currently, we are looking at the agency test window to begin in mid/late February 2012.

3) Testing will have the user upload incident data in the form of an XML document with add/mod/delete actions which allows the Therap incident data to interact with the master IRMA database. The data being transferred over is not permanent in the testing phase. IMS has a process in place that allows the uploaded data to interact with IRMA data, but at 7:00 each night, the test transactions will be rolled back and removed from the system. This will cause the ‘Summary of Incidents’ page to display erroneous totals as it accounts for the test data being uploaded.

o Incidents uploaded through the file upload process cannot be modified through IRMA during the testing phase. During the testing phase all data uploaded through the file upload will be removed daily at 7:00 pm. If uploaded incident data is modified using IRMA during the testing phase, this will create discrepancies between the agencies incident data and IRMA data as they will not be synchronized.

This is a general overview of the process and a more detailed presentation of the user testing phase will be provided before the test window becomes live. IMS is currently developing training overview sessions that will be presented with a WebEx connection to walk the testers through the testing process for mid February. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Scott Grabicki
OPWDD-IMS

:: Justin ::

If there is one thing we have a lot of here at Therap, it’s data. Whenever possible and appropriate we try and make decisions based on it.

One of these choices that we have been working on recently is when to take the system down for updates.

If you don’t work third shift and you don’t work weekends, you may think that Therap basically never goes down. Unfortunately life isn’t that simple. There are a range of reasons that we may need to take the system down (usually for 15 minutes to half an hour) to post an update to the application or bring up new equipment.  Thankfully the list of reasons that we might have to do this is actually shriking as we develop new tools that allow us to do rolling updates which require no downtime.

If you think about our last major release, (Therap 2012.0) which we released on January 15th.  Well, we din’t have to release 2012.0.1 until yesterday!  If you go back and look at our previous releases (please don’t look too hard at Therap 9.0) you will see that in the days and weeks following there we numerous releases.

Despite this significant progress and all the steps we are continuing to make to improve things, it doesn’t make it much fun if you are the one who is working when we take the system down.  In particular, if you are regularly scheduled to be working around 4:25am eastern on Sundays each week, the chances of you being impacted by downtime increase enormously.

There is no perfect time to bring the system down as people are always logged in.  Add in the complications of Time Zones (from Eastern, to Pacific, to Alaska, to Hawaii, and even adding Europe) and picking the right time is not easy.  Interestingly the peak times for data entry and data retreival are different, peaks (and troughs) are also different for different modules.  We have looked at all of this (on a minute to minute level) and tried to come up with the best timing we can.

There are also going to be times where we can’t use the optimal slot for a number of reasons, but whenever we do take the system down, we do it knowing that we are causing invonvenience, but also that we are doing something to make the system better and more stable.   

Whenever it is possible we try to give ample notice of this downtime, but when something goes wrong we don’t always get much notice ourselves.

So, if you are one of those folks who works weekend night shifts, please accept my apologies and know that we are always doing our best to get you back to work as soon as we can.

:: Justin ::

Allison has just published the latest list of Certified Trainer Wedinars.

This is your chance to listen in to experienced users from around the country talk about how they use Therap.

Here’s a sample of what’s on offer:

Just click on a link to sign up

You can also find out more about becoming a Therap Certified Trainer here.

We have a list of all of our trainers here.

:: Justin ::

We’re now moving into the next phase of Calum’s journey to college.

Having applied to to 8 colleges, he now has auditions at five of them over the next month.  It’s all new to me having only done this with an engineer who fell in love with the first school she visited.

Today we were at Western Connecticut State University.  I was very impressed, by the atmosphere, the faculty, and the fact that a professor recognised by Hearts shirt!

They are also in the process of building a very impressive new facility:

Tomorrow we’re off to do the same at The Hartt School of Music.

Does one tell a trumpeter to “break a finger”?

:: Justin ::

We have published an update to the National Conference schedule.

This one has quite a few changes in it, so be sure to take a look.  One thing to be sure that you remember is that we have so many sessions they don’t all fit on one page.  Be sure to check out the full schedule.

There will be a few more minor changes, I hope to get them out over the weekend.

It’s looking like we will have more than 300 people attending the conference representing more than 100 agencies from more than 35 states.

It’s going to be a great time, if you haven’t signed up yet, get on with it!

:: Justin ::

8:55pm Eastern

We are experiencing some systems just now.

We are working hard on it as I write.

I’ll update things as soon as I know more.

:: Justin ::

9:05pm Eastern

One of our many application servers is experiencing issues.  If you get an error on logging in, you should log out and try again.  We are working to get that server up and running again

9:15pm Eastern

Everything should be back to normal.  Thanks for hanging with us

I am delighted to welcome Jordan Mar as the latest Therap team member. She will be working primarily with our Mid-West team, but as is the case with all of us, you never kknow where she will show up. Obviously your first chance to say hi will be at the National Conference in a week or two.

Jordan has been involved with supporting people with disabilities from her high school days. While she was studying at the Lincoln Northeast High School, she used to support an elementary school student requiring extra support during her lunchtime, twice a week. She moved to Utah after graduating from high school and stated working for a school for kids with special needs called Dan Peterson where she worked in a classroom with some teenage students who had communication barriers. During that time she also worked for Rise doing in home support for children and adults with special needs who were in a family setting. She also helped run a summer program for Rise and did respite care on the weekends.

During her college days, Jordan worked in public schools as an early childhood special education paraprofessional working mainly with 3-5 year olds who had autism or other developmental disabilities. After working back in the schools for a year and a half she participated in a Management Training Program through Developmental Services of Nebraska. She also assisted with two group homes in Nebraska; one was a home for young boys with autism and the other was a home for men who were considered to be high risk to the community. After completion of the program, Jordan moved to Kansas City, Missouri where she was the Residential Supervisor for five homes in the Kansas City area.

Jordan went to the University of Nebraska to pursue a degree in education and is currently working on completing her degree in Early Childhood Education through the distance education program provided by the University of Nebraska.

:: Justin ::

As a sign of how much people are looking forward to our National Conference, the conference hotel (the Ramada in East Hanover, NJ) is now full.

We have arranged to have the same rate available at the Holiday Inn in Parsippany, NJ ( 973-263-2000) and there will be a shuttle running between the two in the morning and afternoon.

If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, what are you waiting for?

Any Questions,  get in touch!

:: Justin ::

To celebrate the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland’s bard, here’s a bit of poetry.

If you’ve never been to a Burns Supper, get it on your bucket list

ODE TO A HAGGIS

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
You pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’need
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead

His knife see Rustic-labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reeking, rich!

Then, horn for horn they stretch an’ strive,
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive
Bethankit hums

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash
His spindle-shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs, an’ arms an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle

Ye pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
An’ dish them out their bill o’fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ pray’r,
Gie her a Haggis!

:: Justin ::

Therap’s National Conference is taking place in two weeks, from February 7-9, 2012. If you are thinking about attending and haven’t registered yet, this would be the time to do it.

Like the previous national conferences, our sales and support teams, along with executive members and software engineers will be there to closely interact with administrators – people managing the Therap’s electronic documentation and reporting system for care providers all across the United States.

The three-day event will give us an opportunity to see where we are, what we have achieved, and what more we can do for the future.

Event highlights will include:

• Hands-on training on Therap modules including Individual Service Plans, Health Tracking and Billing
• Sessions for advanced level users and certified trainers
• User presentations on implementation and usage
• Focused sessions for States, counties and multi-state providers
• Brainstorming and requirement analysis for future upgrades
• Presentations by other vendors

Please check back on our website for more information. You may also follow our event page on .