Kevin Lightle's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Lightle’

If you haven’t seen all of the news regarding the news for reporting abuse to law enforcement then I have attached link to the press release. I especially like how Commissioner Burke continually stresses the need to change the culture of the past.

Here is a link to the press release. http://www.opwdd.ny.gov/news/abuse_reporting_reform.jsp

Tuesday July 19th was our first meeting on implementation for People Inc.  It was quite a show with about twenty staff of People Inc. and from Therap; Justin, Maureen, Stephen and myself. Stephen guided us through the various modules being considered for priority while Maureen and I cheered him on. Justin went off to view their current system and afterwards we all got together to plan next steps.

The most interesting part of our meeting was where we met.  We met at the Museum of disABILITY History, and after our meeting was given a guided tour of the display and events they provide locally and nationally. Here is a link to their site, Museum of disABILITY History

What was interesting was how my travels and profession have been influenced by this history. It is worth your time to review where we have been and yet have so far to go.

Last Thursday over twenty people representing 4 agencies came together to discuss the inner workings of Therap. We have pages of ideas that we will compile with other user groups in order to submit to our programmers for future consideration. Over the past year we have held monthly user group meetings and using the information gleaned from these meetings has resulted in a better product for New York. For instance we now have an audit system that can forecast all items needed for being in compliance with OPWDD and OMIG requirements.

Our host for this latest event was The Resource Center located in Jamestown NY. Thanks to everyone there and I look forward to seeing more of the Therap family next month at Allegany ARC in Wellsville, NY.

I believe it is safe to say we all can appreciate the purpose and value of external audits and oversight, only if both parties are working off the same tools and expectations. For the longest time the word OMIG conjured up images of uncertain destruction. This is why Therap worked so hard to integrate all of the necessary components of documentation to ensure an agency is in full compliance to OPWDD and OMIG expectations.

As usual I like to share bits of information when I run across them, or one of our providers sends me links. Here is a link that you may find of interest. http://omig.ny.gov/data/ This is the link for OMIG home page. You can find a lot of information that can be of use. Also, while there you can subscribe to the e-mail and receive timely alerts. Making this information available to everyone helps us all to work for better outcomes.

New York is strengthening their current reporting system of incidents. A new form has been released and here are a few notes regarding the changes made. These will be incorporated into the Therap reporting system soon. Here is a link to the new form 147.  Revised 147

1) A note was added that the form only contains the information that was available at the time of its completion.

2) The item requesting information about referral to Protective Services for Adults/Adult Protective Services was removed. (This was changed to reflect that referrals to PSA/APS are no longer made for most individuals receiving services in the OPWDD system.)

3) A new item #21 was added to request information about notification to law enforcement.

4) Item #22 (Referral to Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment) was changed to require additional information about the referral.

5) A new item #29 requires information about various notifications.

6) A new Item #30 requests any additional steps taken to ensure the individual’s safety.

7) A new Item #31 requests information about the party completing item 30.

Finally, a new Item #32 requests the name of the assigned investigator.

ADA GETS ITS FIRST MAJOR OVERHAUL IN TWENTY YEARS; NEW RULES TOOK EFFECT MARCH 15, 2011
From distinguishing between a wheelchair and other power-driven mobility devices such as the Segway® to clarifying what qualifies as a service animal, a new set of ADA rules went into effect on March 15, 2011. The rules affect how 80,000 government entities and more than seven million public spaces in the United States operate. The rules were signed by Attorney General Eric Holder on July 23, 2010, and the official text was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010.

Read “Revised ADA Regulations “Implementing Title II and Title III”.

Read “ADA Update: A Primer for Small Business”, a guide for small businesses to understand the new and updated accessibility requirements.

Visit the ADA home page.

We are looking forward to our second Therap Services user group meeting of 2011. Our next meeting will be held at Community Services for the Disabled starting at 10:00am. The address is 1845 Kenmore Avenue, Kenmore NY. The site phone number in case it is needed is:  (716) 447-9999. There is plenty of off street parking and a big enough room to comfortably accommodate everyone attending. We are expecting between 30 – 40 participants. Please plan to bring your own sustenance as we have a tight agenda in a short amount of time and there is only a pizza place within walking distance but it is not eat in, take out only. We are very fortunate to have Sazzad and Justin joining us and we will be reviewing and discussing many new features that are soon to be out for New York.

If the time and location is not convenient for you to attend this meeting please review the following schedule for a time and place that will work for you. You can then go to our website and sign up for a future meeting.

Many of us started supporting people with developmental disabilities in residential settings. These were known as ICF/MR and a specific set of regulations and interpretive guidelines were the guidelines for active treatment and quality of life. The interpretative guidelines have not been updated since 1996. CMS started the update process two years ago and it is taking longer than expected. Since several items (such as the Compliance Principles and probes) are being moved to Appendix J – ICF/MR Survey Process, it will also need to be updated before the guidelines can be released.

On March 22, 2011, CMS posted the first two letters for official release:

• Clarification of Self-Administration of Medications at 42 CFR §483.460(k)(4) – Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICFs/MR)
  Click Here to download the letter
  

Clarification of Reporting Mistreatment, Neglect and Abuse and Injuries of Unknown Source at 42 CFR § 483.420(d)(2) – Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICFs/MR) Click here to download the letter

I believe it is prudent to be aware of these changes as these Federal interpretations may find there way into State wiaver rules. More to come.

One of the great things about using Therap Services is being able to access information easily and quickly. Getting real time information improves communication and decreases confusion or delay in actions. When you can simply hit several selections and then you have the information can tell you instantly your level of compliance or the health of an individual you support. Data and access is a necessary method of  business for now and most importantly, in the future.

A friend of Therap sent me the following information. I hope you try it out.

New Interactive Data Base on Status and Trends in Residential and Medicaid Services for Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

For more than 25 years the University of Minnesota’s Residential Information System Program (RISP)*  has partnered with states to gather and report annual statistics on public and private residential and Medicaid-funded services for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD).  These statistics have been reported in an annual data book as well as brief reports on specific topics.   Frequently individuals from state and federal agencies, the media, advocacy organizations and others have requested analyses and reports from the RISP staff.  Based on the topics of these requests the RISP staff has structured a new “Build a Report” feature to allow independent analyses of the RISP data.

The Build a Report feature allows users to select among 34 menu-driven analyses for self-selected years and for one or more selected states or for all states to examine trends and/or to compare individual with national totals or with other states.  Currently data are available for Fiscal years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.  RISP staff will continue to add data to the Build a Report going back in time as well as adding the new annual data as each year’s data collection is completed and verified.

Among the 34 data topics now available are:  Residents of Public Institutions for People with ID/DD; Total Residents of All Institutions for People with ID/DD; Persons Receiving Services While Living with One or More Family Members; Persons Living Their Own Homes (Owned or Rented); Percentage of All Residential Service Recipients Living in Public Institutions for People with ID/DD; Percentage of All Residents in Places of 6 or Fewer Residents; Percentage of All Residents in Places of 3 or Fewer Residents; Percentage  of All Service Recipients Living Their Own Homes Out of All Residential Service Recipients; Residents of All Institutions Per 100,000 of the State Population; Persons Receiving Services While Living with Family Members Per 100,000 of the State General Population; Residents of Medicaid ICFs/MR; Persons Receiving Medicaid Home and Community-Based service (HCBS); Percentage of HCBS Recipients Among Combined ICF/MR and HCBS Recipients; Residents of Medicaid ICFs/MR Per 100,000; Persons Receiving Medicaid HCBS Per 100,000 of the State General Population; Total ICF/MR Expenditures; Total HCBS expenditures; ICF/MR Expenditures Per Service Recipient; HCBS Expenditures Per Service Recipient; ICF/MR Expenditures Per State Resident; HCBS Expenditures Per State Resident; Total ICF/MR and HCBS Expenditures Per Recipient; and Number of People with ID/DD Waiting for Residential Services.

We hope you’ll visit the RISP site:  http://rtc.umn.edu/risp to try out the new Build a Report data set.  To success the data set, please click on “Build a Report” on the upper left of the RISP home page.  If you have questions, there is an e-mail link to the RISP webmaster at the bottom of the home page.  He will answer your question or refer it to someone who can.  Thank you very much.  The RISP Project Staff

*The Residential Information System Program is funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, US Department of Health and Human Services with supplemental funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, US Department of Education.

I am back from our first User group meeting for the year. I want to recognize and thank Jason and the rest of the staff of the ARC of Schuyler for hosting this event.  Karen from the Ontario ARC also joined us and I also want to recognize my partner for this event, Stephen Flannigan. He is very knowledgeable and a great resource.

We reviewed and discussed almost of the modules starting with T-notes and going through staff scheduler. It was great to share ideas of how people implement Therap and how agencies adjust policies in order to accommodate the changes of going from paper to electronic documentation. We also came away with several ideas to enhance specific sections as well as copies of forms that would be useful for everyone in New York, such as Nursing Care Plans. Following is a schedule for the rest of the year. I am looking forward to seeing everyone throughout the year. Also these meetings are useful for potential new customers so I invite people to bring a fellow sister agency. For more information and to sign up for an event please follow the following link.     http://support.therapservices.net/display/events/Users+Meetings+in+New+York,+March+to+November,+2011

User Group Meetings  – Date and hosting agency

04/05/2011        Community Services for the Developmentally Disabled 180 Oak Street, Buffalo, NY 14203            www.csdd.info

05/17/2011        Sullivan County ARC       162 East Broadway, Monticello 12701               www.sullivanarc.org

06/14/2011        The Arc Otsego                35 Academy Street P.O. Box 490 Oneonta               www.arcotsego.org

07/14/2011        The Resource Center     200 Dunham Avenue, Jamestown, NY 14701   www.resourcecenter.org

08/02/2011        Allegany Arc      240 O’Connor Street Wellsville, NY 14895               www.alleganyarc.org

09/13/2011        Lexington Center (Fulton City)    127 East State St. Gloversville, NY               www.lexingtoncenter.org

10/13/2011        Baker Victory Services   780 Ridge Road Lackawanna, NY 14218               www.bakervictoryservices.org

11/02/2011        Madison Cortland ARC 701 Lenox Ave. Oneida, NY 13421               madisoncortlandarc.org/-mcarc/