Kevin's Blog

Do yourself a favor and more importantly help individuals needing assistance with their medications get exactly what they need to maintain or improve their health.  Therap’s MAR (Medication Administration Record) is proven to reduce the number of medication errors and the number of documentation errors commonly occurring in our hectic work environment.

1. Therap’s MAR is linked to a National Drug Data bank continually updated with prescription and over the counter medications.  Avoid inputting errors because they system will only show you the medications and dosages that are available.

2. Schedule the times for each medication and then pull up due or overdue medications before they become an Incident Report and jeopardize someone’s health.

3.Get alerts for missed or refused medications.

4. Lock the MAR for entry and alert the appropriate staff person so changes can be reviewed by two sets of eyes.

5. In addition to Scheduled and PRN Medications you can also track Scheduled and PRN Treatments, such as repositioning, Range of Motion, etc.

6.  View a picture of the individual and a picture of the medication when administering medication, and see clearly color coded options and history.

7. Add comments right within the entry to explain unusual circumstances, and even print out paper copies for travel.

Therap’s MAR will save you a lot of time, but even more importantly to us here at Therap, it will help the people you serve stay healthy and avoid unnecessary complications to their lives.

I managed to get up on top of the cliffs behind my house this weekend.  What a rush!  The Windward Side is such a beautiful place.  Looking forward to seeing the East Side of our country very soon at the Therap National Conference.  Of you have never been I can assure you there is nothing like it in our field.  Take every major challenge your agency deals with about your day to day operations.  At the National Conference you will find the people who have already solved it, and you will get a step by step walk through of how to do it yourself.  I believe I saw that over 35 different States will be represented. Can’t wait to get more knowledge!

I have been tracking the weather and it looks like highs in the 40′s are projected.  Good thing most of the action is in the Hotel!  Hope to see you there.  If not this year then make sure you plan for next year.

Ever have a day where you wish you could just be a volunteer in your own agency, get to hang out and work with all the great people you support without having to deal with all the administrative headaches. 

An interesting and challenging part of our field is that most of us who became passionate about our work by the time we spent providing direct care services and just living life with some amazing individuals with disabilities.   When your responsibilities increase you often lose out on the many small moments that are so amazing and powerful in the lives of people we serve and the profound impact they have on our own lives.

Therap is helping Mark, Director of Community Services at  Toolworks in San Francisco regain this connection by being able to keep up with things in real time.

“I call Therap T-log’s my window into the world of client services here at Toolworks” -Mark

Kung Hei Fat Choi translates as “may prosperity be with you”.  This is the Year of the Water Dragon and is predicted to bring transformation and prosperity.  The Water aspect of this Year’s Dragon tempers the fiery nature of the Dragon and brings more patience and understanding.  Seems like change is in the air.

Here’s wishes of prosperity for Therap users everywhere and all the people who’s lives they touch directly and indirectly.

Are you scrambling and struggling to meet 5010 billing requirements?  Don’t you wish you had someone on your team who would just stay on top of every minutia of these constantly changing regulations, and solve your problems for you.  While we on the subject how about a fancy shiny set of buttons that do many wonderful things for you.  Those of you who use Therap know where I’m going with this….:)

Effective January 1, 2012, providers of developmental disability services are required by a federal mandate to use the HIPAA Version 5010 standard for electronic claim transactions. We are pleased to announce that Therap’s Electronic Billing system has been successfully upgraded to support Version 5010 compliance requirements.

We didn’t stop with mere compliance, in addition we added lots of features that will make it easier to get the information you need in and out.  Including the ability to automatically make ISP Data (Service Notes) that you specify billable  something some of you have been asking for.

We can even point you in the right direction to find your 9 digit zip code, just because we’re helpful like that.  If your not already using Therap’s Billing tools, let me know and I will be happy to show you what we can do to integrate this into the rest of your documentation, no need to enter notes twice.

Well I have gotten the full dose of winter weather I was hoping for, and seems like I am getting a little extra for my send off.  Here is what it looked like this morning:

Even better though I got a full dose of time with the people in Alaska that make Therap awesome.  As always this leaves me even more energized and passionate about helping do great things for people with disabilities and the people that support them.

Here at the airport I am very glad I got here early as it seems to be getting thicker and thicker.  Soon I will be in 80 degree weather, but for now it looks like this:

Looking forward to seeing lots of our Alaska agencies represented at the National Conference next month. FYI – The Alaska folks will be the ones wearing shorts and sunning them selves as they warm up in the New Jersey winter. 

See you soon friends.  Feel free to bring me anything from my favorite restaurant.    10 Therap points for the first person to email me the connection between this restaurant and a hit TV show filmed in Hawaii.

So much exciting things are happening here in Alaska, we continue to experience the same growth we saw last year, which means lots of new agencies getting started.  Our current agencies are getting sharper and sharper with their use and we have more agencies using our Billing features that help manage Prior Authorizations, make sure agencies bill for every service that is documented, and alerts them well ahead of time before a PA expires or get 100% used up.  And these are just the basics, add in lots of bells and whistles like Utilization Reports,   linking billing to daily Services Notes, tracking multiple funding sources including grants, Cost Center reports, and other things that agencies dream up once they have access to the Therap tools.

Despite the cold, it is beautiful and a lot of fun here.  Take a look at this clear day and the ice sculpture garden in Anchorage.  Despite being right on the ocean one of the things you constantly see are mountains surrounding the city.  Beautiful!

We’re like the Post Office only in Orange…..Check out Allison and Brent in Action with the awesome folks at Arc of Anchorage, who are getting even awesomer. 1st T-logs, 1st GER’s, 1st of many more good things!

This is what it looks like outside when the sun finally gets up, it is still below freezing!

Happy New year friends!

I had a nice green and bright christmas at home and I enjoyed every minute of it. Not that I mind a little snow from time to time. So I think I am getting my snow fix by spending some time in Anchorage. 2degrees right now but it is expected to get up to a sunny 26 today. Will be spending some time with Allison and Brent doing what we do best….Helping awesome agencies become more awesomer.  Here’s what I got off the plane to:

This is around 7am, and it hurts to breathe.  But it sure is beautiful.

I am enjoying my week in Los Angeles, headed over a little closer to the coast to meet with some more great people.  There is just so much going on in LA it is always interesting, and there is always a crowd especially on the freeways.    Got stuck in some light rain yesterday, great for keeping things cool but definitely slowed things down a little.

I had a little time to look around some old familiar haunts here’s one, let me know if this looks familiar to anyone:

I also had some time to check out one of the most interesting beaches in the world even on a cloudy day, definitely some unique characters can be found here:

Venice California (not Italy).  Looking forward to meeting with lots more folks while I’m here.  See you soon.