Certified Trainers Blog

 Archive for the ‘Bonnie Scott’s Posts’ Category

I appreciate being reminded about capabilities within  Therap.  It is also easy to get into my routine and not take time to do some browsing within Therap to keep up on the most recent updates.

So my intent with this blog is to remind everyone about the “List of Reports” that are available within Therap.   You can find the list of reports by simply going to the “Agency” tab on the Dashboard and click on “List of Reports”.

Here are a few that I’ve found helpful:

Diagnosis report – all active Individual (without program)

This report is handy for when you have to provide information for upcoming reviews or reports required for funding entities.

GER Report – Management summary

This is the one I use consistently for implementation of our Incident Management System at LifeQuest.  This exports tons of information from the GERs and you export it to excel and use the multiple cool features within that program to sort, filter and analyze your data.  Super cool for analytical nerds!

IDF Detail – All Individuals

IDF Detail – By Individual

These two reports are very helpful for a variety of reasons.  The one that generates information for all individuals within your system is handy to check on how complete your IDFs are and if there is critical information missing.  Another way to track for trends within your organization as the consistency of information being provided.  For example if you have outlined specific guidelines for how  to explain the level of supervision required – you can review that easily with this report option.

IDF Contact – All Active Individual

Great tool for mailings!

User Access by Caseloads

User Access by Individual

User Access by Program

User Access on Abuse/Neglect GER

User Access on All Individuals

As many of us can relate to – managing the permissions is an ongoing process.  These reports are very helpful with that task.  Considering how important it is to ensure we are compliant with HIPAA requirements it is not just handy – it is
essential.

User Detailed Information

This information pertains to the users (employees) within the system.  Again, can be used for a variety of different tasks.

I only highlighted a handful of reports available within Therap.  I want to thank Therap for listening to our requests for these capabilities and making them available.  Take a few minutes and do some surfing in the reports – could find  something that saves you a bunch of time!

On more than one occasion I’ve noticed I’m not “typical” in my response to change.  For many people it is stressful or tolerated perhaps, but not fun.  Change is something I appreciate and even enjoy when it is for a good reason and results in better lives for people. Perhaps it is, because included in my 5 top strengths identified by Gallup Strengths Finder assessment, is “Learner”.   It is defined as “People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve.”

However, we can sometimes get caught up in the day to day busyness of making changes and don’t take time to remember.   During a recent Therap training with “new” employees I was reminded about how important “remembering” is. At LifeQuest we are often fortunate in having former employees return to work for us again. First of all, it is great having someone return who already knows people we support and secondly it is affirming that people feel good enough about working here they want to return.

During this training a former employee that has not been here since we started using Therap nearly 6 years ago shared her impressions with me.  She talked about all the positive changes there have been at LifeQuest since she was last employed.  It was nice to hear about that and to be able to share stories of how things have gotten better for the people we support.   Therap has been one aspect of changes made at LifeQuest that have contributed to those positive changes.

Regardless of how long you have worked at your agency – find someone who is “veteran” – notice I did not say an old timer – and just ask them to share some stories.  Ask them about specific people you are working with and how their lives have changed.

It is important that we know where we come from in order to not lose sight of where we want to go.

We have found the GERs helpful for recording falls and monitoring for trends.  We are interested in hearing about how other agencies record the assessment for injury within Therap.

Appreciate any feedback!

GREETINGS FROM WINDY SOUTH DAKOTA!

Today is one of those that make you grateful for a nice warm house as you listen to the wind howling outside.  It is tempting to complain about the weather but considering what a mild winter we’ve had this year – I had better not!

Today I’m thinking about SS#’s and find it is helpful we are able to select whether or not the SS# appears on PDFs we create.   That is a nice security measure.

To further enhance security as it pertains to the SS# it would be nice to have the option of having the SS# appear on the IDF as *** in all but the last 4 digits. The IDF contains information that is helpful for most employees that work with the person routinely.   However many of those employees do not need access to the SS#.

Since the EDF is more limited in scope of use it could have the entire SS# appear on it. In most emergency situations the SS# is needed.  You can also limit the audience of who can view and print the EDF.

Perhaps this could be a Provider Preference option in case there are situations where agencies would want the IDF to have the SS# available.   Other examples where this could be helpful would be medicaid #, insurance #, etc.

I am interested in other people’s thoughts regarding the use of SS# within Therap.

Thanks for submitting your comments!

I just reviewed the list of user presentations for the National Provider Administrator Conference in February.  It is an impressive list with many opportunities to learn more about Therap.

If you have not had an opportunity to participate in this conference – I highly recommend it.  It will not dissappoint!!!

It will be great reconnecting with the great people I’ve come to know through LifeQuest’s association with Therap. 

Of course meeting more people who are dedicated to providing quality supports for people with developmental disabilities is also an experience that is been interesting, beneficial and FUN!

Hope to see you there!

Bonnie

It has been way too long since I last wrote a blog.  Hopefully it will be more frequent now.

I was able to participate in the NE conference last week and it was very enjoyable.  The people attending were great!  But what can I say – we were in my home state!!!

There were several discussions about the provider administrator side of Therap.  That is one of my favorite topics regarding Therap.  There are so many options available for agencies to be able to customize what people are able to do within Therap.

I’ve found the list of roles within Therap very helpful when assigning permissions.  At LifeQuest workgroups develop the plan for implementing new features and it is helpful in determining what permissions need to be available for which employees.  Sure makes my job as PA easier !

I have saved the page in my favorites for easy access.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Bonnie

At LifeQuest we are very excited about the Individual Home Page!

While in New York JP (my husband) and I were able to connect with family for dinner at PJ Clarke’s in New York City.  It was a very enjoyable evening!

Of course servers using a touch screen wall mounted computer caught my attention.  I was impressed with the efficiency of processing orders  It was very busy in the restaurant and I was impressed with how quickly they processed numerous orders and quickly entered updates.  If someone ordered another drink it was a quick entry into the computer and on to the next customer. 

While I was too far away to see “details” of the screen I was able to see there was a screen that had the layout of the restaurant.  The server would touch the table and another screen quickly popped up and they again touched several sqaures (very rapidly I might add).  I’m assuming it had categories such as drinks, appetizers, dinners, etc.  When they were ready to process the bill a receipt appeared on the screen. They were able to process credit cards with this same computer and print receipts on a small stand by the computer.  Minimal space required for the entire operation.

The Individual Home Page is evidence that Therap is once again responsive to feedback and making access to information for employees/families reviewing and entering information more user friendly and efficient.

Thanks Therap!

It pays to browse the Therap website!  On Saturday I viewed a webinar by Pete Ratekin and Justin Brocke and learned about using Macros within excel.

Now I have to say – I was like a child in a candy store!  It was a good thing I was in the office with only one other person in the building.  Fortunately the other person was Daryl who has supervised me for 16 + years and already knows I am strange.

I am so excited to experiment with this new knowledge and hopefully save a bunch of time each month!

Thanks Pete for the great information!

Looking forward to seeing many really cool fellow Therap users in Fishkill!

Now that I have your attention with the title of the post!!!!!

One of the very helpful features of Therap is the Event Summary.  At LifeQuest we are trying different approach to facilitate using this feature more and hopefully having an even more positive impact on supports for people.

Not everyone is like me and enjoys learning about how to use excel to manipulate your information to track for trends and such.  While that is hard for me to understand – it is true!  So we have now started a group that met for the first time today – that will be the “go to” people for obtaining information through the event summary and using fun things like pivot tables and charts to get information to the teams who need it.

Our first and most important task was coming up with a name for the group.  Now the title of the post is accounted for!  Yes, we are the Stats Cats! 

Although we may have some disagreement on what “level” of expertise some members have in excel – it is a fun group!  I still say I’m a beginner – no matter what Mark Limberg says!!!

This is going to be interesting to see how this concept develops over time.  I’ll have to keep you posted on how it is going!

As many of you reading this blog already know – there are many advantages to using Therap.  Today I will focus on the ISP Feature.  

My position involves oversight for several residential locations.  Previously if I wanted to review documentation of programs or monthly reviews of programs it would require tracking down binders and also traveling to the different homes.  Now I’m able to view several programs at a variety of locations within a few minutes while in my office.

It is just inevitable that demands on our time increase and expectations for oversight does NOT decrease!   One of the advantages of using the ISP feature is to allow more “people” time and less “paper” time. 

It is nice that my limited time in homes can now be spent visiting with employees and people using supports.  It is  cool to be able to visit with the person about the volunteer activities they participated in during the last few months because I read about it in the ISP Feature.

Yesterday I was able to assist an employee prepare for a meeting by obtaining a summary of information for programs.  The best part was it took about 10 minutes.

If you are not currently using the ISP Feature I encourage you to do so!  It is a very versatile feature and well worth the time to learn about and use!

For those currently using the ISP feature – what are the various ways you are using it?  I’d love to hear about them!