Beta Release Notes of Version 7.1
Dear Users,
We would like to inform our users that the Beta release of Therap version 7.1 is available for you to try out with its new and enhanced features. Please contact Therap Customer Support to enable your access to the beta version. You may then use your regular login name, password and provider code to log in.
Please feel free to try out the various modules as the database used in the beta version is a snapshot of production taken on Aug 27, 2007. This is a copy of the database and operates individually, so any changes you make in the beta version will not affect your real data. All changes will be lost, and this copy of the database deleted when we upgrade to 7.1 in the production system.
Here is an outline of what is new in Version 7.1:
The Individualized Plan of Protective Oversight and Safeguards
- The IPOP consists of General and Residential information that is usually referenced in the Safeguards section of an Individual Plan (IP). Safeguards are also required to be included with ISPs to ensure that when risks are taken they are done so consciously and with a view to considering the person's best interests. You will now be able to include safeguards such as Day Program, Supported Employment, Work Center and Individualized Services with your ISPs.
- In New York, PCSS (Plan of Care Support Services) requires the IPOP as an attachment for consumers who live in an IRA (Individualized Residential Alternative).
- The Therap IPOP takes a questionnaire based approach to record and update both general and residential information needs. Residential information documents daily living skills, assistance required in an emergency evacuation, money management, skills regarding personal hygiene, etc. General information describes the individual's communication abilities, healthcare needs, behavioral needs, etc. It also records guidelines/recommendations regarding nutrition, dental care and medications.
Health Tracking - Quarterly Nursing Reports
- This new Health Tracking report summarizes a particular individual's approved data from their Individual Data Form (IDF), General Event Reports (GER) and also from Health Tracking (HT) material such as medication history, appointments, lab test results, seizure and height/weight.
- The General Event Report summary contains all documented event types such as:
- Injury: Injury Type, Body Part(s), Injury Cause
- Medication Error : Medication Error Type, Cause Of Error
- Restraint Related to Behavior : Begin Time, End Time
- Restraint Other : Restraint Type
- Death : Cause of Death
- Other : Event Type
- This report will be available to users with the HT Nursing Report role. Please note that a user with this role is individual based. That is, if a user has access to the individual through their caseload, he/she will be able to get all of the individual’s data across all programs. We recommend that Provider Administrators assign this role to caseloads with just individuals and not caseloads with programs or program-individual designations.
- Once a report is generated, you can save the report within the system and comments may be added to this report by any user who has access to the individual’s Nursing Reports.
T – Tasks
- The T-Task module functions as a quick and simple to-do list for users to list down day to day tasks. You will find this module on the right hand panel of your FirstPage.
- User can enter a task and mark it as being complete by clicking a check box. Once they have checked or marked a task as complete, it is displayed on the list with a strike through it.
- To view more information or details such as who entered a task and when, you may click on the 'i' icon. Due date, due time and priority may be entered for new tasks. A program or individual can also be specified for tasks and only users with access to the program or individual will see the task. If no program or individual is specified, the task will be private to the user.
Therap Enhanced Live Chat
- Therap has developed its own secure online chat module. You can now chat securely with Therap Customer Support representatives on Live chat.
- This enhanced live chat is integrated with the Therap system and so, if you are logged into the application and request for Live Help, you will be taken directly to the chat window and will not have to reenter your identity details. Also your basic account information will immediately be available to the chat agent.
- As the chat is secure and you may discuss Protected Health Information (PHI), the functionality to have a copy of your chat transcript sent to your unsecured email has been turned off. We hope to have the option to allow you to send the transcripts to your SComm Inbox in the future.
Billing
- Automatic Billing unit calculation from Time in/out - Users can now specify a unit of measure, rounding algorithm and smallest allowed increment to be used for automatic billing unit calculation for a particular service. The system will then automatically calculate the billable units using that information and user's Time in/time Out input.
- Cost Center – Provider Administrators can now setup different Cost Center Types for the agency. Each Cost Center Type can have one or more cost centers under it. Authorized users will be able to specify a cost center type, to be used for a particular service, in an individual's Service Authorization. Once billing data is entered users can then select the cost center for which the billing units will be deducted.
- Billing Preference Section in Provider Preference – Provider Administrators will be able to specify the default settings for generation of notifications for Service Authorizations. Based on those settings, notifications will be sent to authorized users when a Service Authorization is going to expire or runs low.
- Billing Notification Profile – Users with the Service Authorization Approve or Service Authorization Update role will now be able to setup their notification profile to receive notifications on low Service Authorization(s) amount and Service Authorization(s) expiration.
- For Provider Administrators, a Vendor ID field has been added to the Funding Source page, and NPI Number and Additional Provider Number fields have been added to the Billing Provider page.
Billing - Attendance
- Customized Claim Invoice (PDF) – Provider Administrators can customize billing invoices with a chosen header, title and footer. The customized PDF Invoice can then be printed out for submission to different funding sources.
- Attendance Report (PDF) – A printable monthly Attendance Report (PDF) can be generated from the Attendance Record. Any comments added to an attendance data can be printed from the Attendance - Extra Information (PDF).
- Attendance Record – Attendance data for 31 days can be viewed at a time in the Attendance Record.
- Attendance Type – Attendance Options have been limited to a maximum of 8 characters for an Attendance Type. Attendance Option Code can be 2 characters long.
Billing - Service Authorization
- Service Authorization Copy – Approved Service Authorizations can be copied to create new Service Authorizations for the individual.
- Service Authorization – New fields for Service Coordinator’s phone and extension have been added to the Service Authorization page.
- Service Authorization Notification – Authorized users will be able to change the default notification settings for individual Service Authorizations.
- Service Authorization Search – Service Coordinator Agency has been added as a search criterion in the Service Authorization Search page.
Billing - Billing Data Input and Billing Record
- Users with no Service Authorization roles will not see the Service Authorization amount and Unit Cost in Billing Data Input and Billing Record pages.
- Billing Data is now sorted by Date of Service in the Billing Record page.
- Total Amount Billed is now shown on the Billing Record page.
Billing - Billing Summary Report
- Service Coordinator Agency and Cost Center have been added as new search criteria to the Billing Summary Search page.
- New Output Columns, Service Coordinator Agency, Primary Diagnosis Code and Cost Center have been added as new output columns to the Billing Summary Search page.
Billing – Electronic Billing
- PDF links to Claim Invoice will be available on the Done Page once a claim has been generated or updated.
- Transaction Record – A new Transaction Record has been added, using which users will be able to search for claims that have been sent in a particular transaction along with their current status.
General Event Reports (GER)
- The Therap GER PDF now supports the Delaware state requirements.
- The Initial Incident Report form and the Incident Follow-Up Report from New Jersey’s Department of Human Services have been added to Therap’s GER for our NJ users.
- In the CT 255M form, a section for review comments has been added for three titles: Primary Care Nurse, Staff Supervisor and RN Supervisor. Users with the GER Submit and GER Approve role will have privileges to enter comments in this section.
- The Provider Logo will appear on all pages of the pdf version of GERs. Provider Administrators of an agency will be able to upload their logo under the Provider Preference section of their Administrator account.
- When the content of any text area on a PDF form gets transferred to the attachment due to its large size, a 'See Attached' message will be shown referring to the PDF page where the comments will appear.
Individual Service Plan (ISP/IPP)
- The ISP Acknowledgement Report shows when and who acknowledged, approved, updated or discontinued an ISP. The report can be generated on one or multiple ISPs by users with the ISP Approve role.
- Scoring Methods that are no longer required can be discontinued from the list by Provider Administrators.
- The ISP Program and ISP Data search screen now allows you to search by the ISP name.
- Scoring methods can now be defined from within the ISP template library.
ISP Program and Template
- You can now add as many file and image attachments as needed to ISP Programs and Templates.
- A new interface to create multiple tasks and teaching methods make the process easier and faster in ISP Programs and ISP Templates.
- When defining a new ISP program, you can now choose whether the start time, end time and comment fields in ISP Data should be required fields or not.
ISP Data
- Any changes made to ISP Data are now archived so that you can keep track of all the changes.
- The ISP Data grid has been enhanced so as to allow faster data entry.
- Duration of the reports can now be customized and you can define your own quarter.
- Follow up comments can now be added to Programmatic and Clinician reports.
- The Clinician Report now includes calculation in minutes, which can be used to produce billing information.
Staff Scheduling
In both the Master Program and Weekly Program schedules, you can now do the following:
- You can now add multiple slots at a time in the Slot Definition page and thus create the same slot for multiple days in a week in one go.
- You can specify Unpaid Time duration for each time slot to denote regular breaks like lunch hour. In the Program Schedule reports, there are separate columns for paid time, unpaid time and total time (which is the summation of paid and unpaid time).
- Informative error and warning messages in the Slot definition page and Select Staff page will give you details such as slots that are overlapping, users who have crossed the 40 work hour limit and so on.
- A Show Recent 20 Staff button on the Select Staff to Add page gives you quick access to the staff members whose schedules you are working on.
- A 200 character note field is available for each slot and these notes will be displayed on the Calendar. 'Comments' area is thus removed from the slot definition page.
- Work Hour List has been added to Schedule definition page.
- Tabular view of the schedule upon pressing the button titled "View by Staff"
- Tabular view of the View Schedule feature, where schedules can be viewed by Program or by Staff (only for Weekly Program Schedule.
Individual Data Forms (IDF)
- The Medical Contact section of the IDF module has been redesigned so that you are no longer restricted to one of each type ( i.e., Physician, Dentist, Hospital and Pharmacy). It is now called Shared Contacts. You can now add as many Shared Contacts as you want
- The filter feature on the 'Shared Contact' pop-up page now searches all the non-numeric fields of shared contacts. This will help you to avoid creating duplicate records for the same contact.
- More contact types have been added and the contact type of a shared contact can now be changed.
- The 'Adaptive Level' field has been removed and its existing values, if any, have been migrated to the Developmental Disability field.
- Blood type has been added as a new field to the medical section of the IDF.
- Provider Administrators can now generate individual contact reports containing details of all individuals’ contacts. This will be helpful for mass mailings.
Provider Admin (PA)
- Data Archiving has been introduced for the security/access elements including when Provider Administrators make changes to Provider Preference, Caseload, Super Role, Notification Profile, User Privilege or Program-Individual Enrollment, the old version will be archived and available from the Archived Data Section on the right-hand panel of FirstPage.
- All lists including User, Individual, Caseload, Super Role, Behavior, Intervention, Restrain, Title, Program, Site, Custom Field and so on are now exportable to Excel.
- A Password Strength Meter has been added that will tell users how secure their password is when they are creating new passwords. Please note that this is independent of the provider's Password Policy settings.
- If you are adding a batch of new individuals and you have their IDF details in an Excel file, you can enter them into the Therap system in one step using the Import IDF From Excel feature.
- You can now add your Provider Logo to the Provider Preference page. This logo will now appear on your GER printed forms and in future on other printable forms as well.
- Provider Administrators will now be able to view user actions on the ISP Grid using Activity Tracking.
Therap Conferences
Following the success of the DSP conference held last year, Therap is arranging two more conferences at the end of this year. This year’s events will involve professionals using Therap with an opportunity to improve their skills. Users will also have the opportunity to work closely with the usability team to enhance the system and to contribute to the Therap interface design. Attending these conferences also gives Therap users a chance to share valuable information with professionals working in the same field from different parts of the country.
Putting the “P” in DSP (2nd Therap Conference for Direct Support Professionals)December 5-7, 2007, Southbury, Connecticut
Therap will host its 2nd DSP conference from December 5-7, 2007 and it is aimed at enhancing the skills of DSPs who are daily users of Therap as well as providing an open dialogue between Therap’s users and its developers and support staff.
Provider Administrator Conference
November 28-30, 2007, Southbury, Connecticut
The conference will be an opportunity for Provider Administrators to receive hands-on training on different provider administrative options as well as get to participate in coming up with further enhancements for the system.
For more information about Therap conferences and registrations details, please visit: http://www.therapservices.net/thconferences.php.
Send us your feedback
We hope you find our new modules easy to use and that they are beneficial for your agency.
Many of these enhancements have been based on your feedback. So please continue to send us your suggestions and ideas for improvements.
To contact us, use the << Feedback >> link on the footer of every application page or send SComm messages of type Therap Customer Support. You can also email us directly at support@therapservices.net or call us at 203-596-7553.
We have added a number of Training Sessions to help familiarize you with the new features of Version 7.0. To sign up for the free online classes, please visit the Events page on the Therap web site.
As usual our goal is to provide you with the best possible services. Feel free to contact us to learn more about the additions and enhancements in Therap 7.1.
Thank you.
Justin M. Brockie
Director of Customer Support and Training
Therap Services, LLC.
Tel: (203) 596 7553
Fax: (203) 757-5116
Cell: (203) 910 3947
justin@therapservices.net
www.TherapServices.net