Kara's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘North Dakota’

Today, Deb and I are in Devils Lake, ND training more Program Managers and Primary Early Intervention Professionals on their new state system, set to go live on November 1st. I learned quite a bit yesterday so have started tag-teaming the training with Deb
Yesterday, we drove here, and it must have been my first time in this area, because I found the vastness of the lake intriguing and beautiful, as well as all the construction (well, not so beautiful on the construction bit). At points, I thought for sure we were under lake level on the road. I only wish I could have driven and taken a picture, but I fear I would have ended up easily in the lake.
This evening, we’re off to Grand Forks for more training in the morning.

Yesterday I arrived in North Dakota to meet up with Deb who is on her 3rd week in the state, and her umpteenth week travelling in general.  She’s been here training state employees on the new system we’re rolling out for them.  It’s pretty cool and completely different than the Therap system that most people are familiar with.  It’s pretty amazing how quickly the team has developed this new system to meet the state’s needs for adults and children services.

Deb’s pretty much a pro at it by now, so I’m just absorbing all the information I can right now.  We start in Jamestown, then each day we move to a new location. Next it’s Devils Lake, then Grand Forks, and finally back to Fargo.

To find out more about what’s being done there, take a look here.

Did you miss our last ND user group meeting?  You can catch it here.  We went over a few specific questions users had and some tips w/ GERs, and also covered one of our newest features, The Med. Administration Records.  If you’d like to try it out or use it at your agency after reviewing, just let us know.  Also, please feel free to email us with any suggested topics for the next meeting in a couple of months.

Thanks!

Hi all,
We will be offering user group meetings via webinar for many states across the nation, so keep your eyes peeled for postings. As for me, I’ll be hosting the North Dakota and South Dakota groups. These user groups are a great place to discuss state specific topics, or just to meet other users in your state, share ideas and ask questions. We will also demonstrate modules that you may not be using yet, and may want to learn more about. To sign up, click below:

North Dakota User Group- 11/19 12p CENTRAL

South Dakota User Group- 11/19 1:30p CENTRAL

Therap is thrilled to be working with the State of North Dakota for their Incident Reporting needs.  Check out more info here !

Today ended the NDACF conference for me, as I will be heading out tomorrow morning around 3:45a to catch a flight back home… I’m still trying to decide if I should just stay awake, or if I should try to get some shut eye…  The conference was nice and got to hear that a couple agencies are really interested in using us.  It was also great seeing some of the great folks from Red River again… Thanks again to Tom, Jana, Melissa, and Kristi, for speaking out about going paperless— will be seeing some of you very soon, and Pam too!

Another highlight of my trip was seeing the L.I.S.T.E.N. Performing Arts group, from Grand Forks, perform some selections of ‘Grease’ during the luncheon.  There was singing, dancing, acting– the whole package!  It is so wonderful to see programs that are really based around the interests and talents of the people attending.

Tomorrow it’s off to school, which I hopefully will stay awake for after my flight, and then off to Delaware on Sunday..

Kara

During my drives, I’ve been wondering how any one on a motorcycle deals w/ bugs landing in their face, up their nose, and so on, because I’ve had a hard enough time just keeping my windshield clear of bug “debris”, as I’ve been driving through the Dakotas– and let me tell you, that stuff just doesn’t wash off .

Anyway, today we met with a potential customer in Bismarck, ND from about 11a-3:30p. We presented in front of about 30 people of mixed positions, and were able to answer a lot of good questions. They seemed very interested and even asked us to come back after lunch to meet with some people individually and answer some of their questions and concerns. I met with their 2 nurses, Kay and Susan, who were very nice and really liked all of the health tracking features and reports. Kay, like me, is also a big Johnny Depp fan, as we found out after chit chatting. Since they have about 300 clients that they split between the 2 of them, it was great seeing how they lit up when knowing they could access any of those clients’ info, from any of their sites. I then met with Karen, who was just floored about our Training Management System, as she had tried another company in the past, that didn’t even come close to meeting all her needs, as we did. She was very excited– and when that happens, it really is the best part of this job.

Ishita and I braving the wind!

It was a pretty rainy and very windy day today, after severe thunderstorm and flood warnings last night into today (and yes, with the chance of tornadoes! Didn’t sleep too well after hearing that ) After our meeting, we drove to our next destination: Dickinson, ND, where we will meet with another potential customer tomorrow morning.

Signing off,

Kara

This morning, we met with a potential set of users, here in Fargo, ND. We met for about 2 hours and did an overview of our many services. Ishita also highlighted the various training materials that we have available which make the transition to using Therap very easy. The women we met with seemed very happy about how Therap could help them, so hopefully they’ll join our paperless brigade.

After a somewhat yucky lunch back at the hotel, we then were off to meet with Tom, Pam, and others from Red River Human Services. They are current users, and what was cool, was that we were able to run a web conference with an additional 30 people in another town, as well. We were able to give a Therap review and answer questions, as well as receive valuable feedback, as well. Tomorrow, we will meet again and review some PA stuff and then are off to meet with some folks a little further north, and face a bit of a drive to our next town in the evening. All we need now is a Dakotas Therap Tour tee and a bus.

To all, a good night,

Kara and Ishita

Ishita and I arrived late last night in South Dakota for our 2 week trip around the Dakotas, meeting with current and potential users. The weather is absolutely beautiful here, and is much different from the snow and ice storms I faced the last time around. Today we had some time before driving from Sioux Falls to Fargo, so we got to see Falls Park and visited the Great Plains Zoo. It was a great time, but a long drive here, so off to bed before we meet with folks around Fargo tomorrow.

Today was the last day of the ARRM conference. I met with some folks from an agency we have here in Minnesota for most of the day, going over ISP’s and Provider Admin. stuff. This was nice because it was about an hour drive from the conference and I got to see the beautiful country side, where there were plenty of farms, rolling fields, and the smell of fresh cut grass everywhere. After getting lunch at the only restaurant I saw– a Dairy Queen, I definitely had a productive meeting and got to answer questions and get feedback from a nice bunch of our users.

Tomorrow I leave on a crack of dawn flight back to CT. I’ll have the weekend and then I’m off to Maryland on Monday. Looking forward to meeting some more great nurses, and of course, some Maryland crab cakes.

–Kara