HomeMy WebLinkAboutIDD Provider Meeting Minutes 02-21-20Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities
Provider Meeting
Friday, February 21, 2020
MEETING MINUTES
Welcome & Introductions
Everyone introduced themselves and their agency affiliation.
Allison Scott
Easterseals Western & Central Pennsylvania: Club Lily
Allison Scott, Assistant Director of Camping and Recreation , provided an
overview of Easterseals’ Club Lily co-ed overnight camp programs for adults with
any disability or special needs.
The programs are offered year round (April to November) with weekend retreats
in the spring/fall and five (5) day camps in the summer. A weekend retreat is
scheduled at Camp Joy El in Greencastle from May 8th to 10th. It is still open for
registration with several spots available. Most of Club Lily’s offerings are hosted at
Camp Victory in Millville, PA (Columbia County). This facility features activities
(i.e. rock climbing wall, zip line, archery) that are completely accessible to
individuals using wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches.
All camp sites are staffed at a ratio one (1) counselor for every three (3)
campers. Individuals with fragile medical or behavioral needs are allowed to
bring their own personal care aide. Every location has a nurse on duty at all
times to dispense medication and provide first aid. Other staff are fully trained in
personal care (i.e. showering, toileting, transfers in and out of wheelchairs).
Club Lily is specifically for adults ages eighteen (18) and older. Activities vary
considerably by location and are always designed around campers’ interests.
Although the programs are mainly focused on recreation, they have also proven
effective at developing campers’ life skills by encouraging them to establish
daily routines.
Very few individuals pay for Club Lily out-of-pocket. Waiver, state, or county
funding is accepted and financial assistance is available to families in need.
Easterseals is currently in the end stages of the Office of Developmental
Programs (ODP) Licensing process so other providers will soon be able to find
their information on the Home and Community Services Information System
(HCSIS).
Club Lily’s rates are $475 for weekend retreats and $875 for summer camps. More
information about the programs and registration is available at
https://eastersealswcpa.recdesk.com.
Any provider staff who are interested in employment opportunities may contact
Allison at ascott@eastersealswcpenna.org or (717) 741-3891. Easterseals is always
looking to hire more nurses for its Club Lily programs. The scheduling is flexible so
that nurses can split their time between different camp weeks if necessary.
IDD Provider Meeting
Marion Rowe
Yellow Dot
Yellow Dot is an available resource for providers that transport individuals.
PennDOT will send a Yellow Dot kit to anyone who requests one through the
following website: https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/Pages/Yellow-Dot.aspx.
The kit contains a yellow dot sticker that is to be placed in the lower left section
of the vehicle’s rear window and participant medical information sheets for the
driver and their passengers. The sticker will alert first responders to check the
vehicle’s glove compartment where completed medical information sheets are
stored. This information is critical in the event that the driver and passengers
cannot communicate their needs after an accident.
Health Care Quality Unit (HCQU) and Health Risk Screening Tool (HRST) Updates
Katie Freeman presented HCQU and HRST updates.
Franklin and Fulton Counties are currently ahead of the state average for
completing screenings. As of mid-February, 34% of individuals have been
screened statewide while 75% of Franklin/Fulton individuals have been screened.
Some Franklin/Fulton individuals have already been re-screened with a change.
The HCQU is willing to do trainings on any topics that have been identified as
training considerations during the screening process. These trainings can be
offered in-person or online and for an individual or countywide audience. Live
online trainings are still available every month and open to anyone (working in
the IDD field is not required). Interested individuals can reach out to Katie to
register for an online training.
Providers in attendance did not report any specific problems with the HRST. Katie
acknowledged that completing the initial screening is time-consuming and that
the amount of training considerations can be overwhelming. Generic
recommendations also pose a challenge for providers. More specific
recommendations will only be generated if the individual receives specific
scores. Overall, re-screenings tend to be less difficult because they mostly consist
of updating previously saved information.
According to the HRST, seizures and eating/swallowing issues are currently
coming up as the most common training considerations in Franklin and Fulton
Counties. The HCQU will use this data to form their future course schedule so that
specific training considerations are addressed.
HCQU Training Syllabus
o The HCQU Training Syllabus for the next quarter (April to June) will be sent
out with this meeting’s minutes. All Franklin County HCQU trainings will take
place from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Human Services Building. Please
check the syllabus for specific dates as the trainings may not be following
a regular 2nd Friday of the month schedule due to conference room
availability. Providers may contact Katie at kf1@theadvocacyalliance.org
to register for a training.
IDD Provider Meeting
Incident Management
o Preparation for Individual to Individual (I2I) Abuse
Marion sought feedback from providers in regard to their preparations for
upcoming changes through which I2I abuse will become a regular abuse
allegation requiring an investigation. She asked if providers with residential
programs had enough investigators and about the current frequency of
I2I abuse incidents. Providers observed that more training classes are
needed on this topic because initial ones filled up too quickly. Marion has
previously brought the need for more classes to the state’s attention and
will continue to do so.
In the absence of formal training, providers can still make preparations to
ensure that individuals living in close proximity are getting along and
working well together before the changes are fully implemented. They
can examine trends such as whether certain individuals are being
targeted as victims and may need additional support. Changes and
alternative techniques should be considered if providers determine that
individuals are not a good fit for each other in order to reduce the
likelihood of an I2I abuse related investigation.
Providers may contact Marion if they have questions about the I2I abuse
changes since ODP probably will not host another training class for the
remainder of the fiscal year. She discussed ways that smaller providers
could collaborate and share resources such as swapping investigators to
increase objectivity. Marion offered to facilitate collaboration efforts by
connecting interested providers. She also welcomed all providers to
attend Quarterly Risk Management Meetings. These meetings feature
discussion of previous incidents and high profile/extremely challenging
individuals, review of restrictive procedures, and recommendations for
providers.
o Reminders: County and Regional Review, Information in 1st Section
Providers should be clicking on the County and Regional Initial Review
sections within HCSIS to check for any comments before finalizing their
incident reports. They must scroll through every screen to view the
comments. Skipping this step will leave the comments out of the final
report and result in it being bounced back.
For incident reports involving challenging behavior that led to police
involvement, an ER visit, or Behavioral Health Unit (BHU) admission, the
initial section should mention if staff were following the behavior support
plan that was in place as written. It is important to provide as much
information as possible about the individual in this section because ODP
does not look at Individual Support Plans (ISPs) during its incident report
review process.
IDD Provider Meeting
o Adult Protective Services (APS) Involvement
All incoming and outgoing communication with APS should be
documented in the initial section. If no communication with APS occurred,
this should also be documented. ODP wants to know about APS’ follow-
up actions after being notified. If APS does not come out to meet with the
individual, it can be documented as “no APS involvement.” Likewise, any
information received directly from APS should be documented.
o Reports Never Submitted
Providers should pull reports on the Enterprise Incident Management (EIM)
system to determine whether there are any reports that have been
initiated but never submitted. These reports should be deleted from the
system because they will continue to appear state reports in an initiated
status. If the incident still needs to be submitted, it should be deleted and
started over again.
o Due Today vs. Overdue
Providers should frequently check the Overdue tab on the EIM dashboard
for any pending report submissions. All items are time stamped and will
automatically move from the Due Today tab to the Overdue tab after
twenty-four (24) hours. It is possible for this to happen without the provider
noticing depending on how often they access the EIM dashboard.
Checking the Overdue tab will ensure that no items are missed.
Marion Rowe on behalf of Lori Young
Provider Qualifications Update
Provider Qualifications are due if the provider had a Quality Assessment and
Improvement (QA&I) on-site in 2019. Providers can review ODP Announcements
20-007 and 20-010 on the MyODP website (https://www.myodp.org) for more
details.
QA&I
There are no new priorities for Cycle 2 and no new tool incorporating the 6100
Regulations. Lori will send providers updates on both items when she receives
them.
Jane Cline
Meeting with Care Management at Chambersburg Hospital
WellSpan Care Management at Chambersburg Hospital would like to schedule
a meeting with residential providers. They requested this meeting to find out who
they should be contacting and what information should be communicated
during the discharge process. There have been recent issues with hospital nursing
staff not providing necessary information because they were unfamiliar with
support coordinators and residential provider staff. Care Management wants
their nurses to know the appropriate contacts within each agency.
IDD Provider Meeting
Jane will send residential providers possible dates to schedule this meeting for
March or early April. She would like residential provider nursing staff, directors,
and any other relevant contacts to attend.
If an individual is admitted to the hospital prior to the meeting, providers should
reach out directly to Care Management to facilitate the discharge process. It is
important to note that there are completely separate Care Management Teams
for medical (located in the ER and throughout the hospital) and behavioral
health (located in BHU only).
Jane’s overall goal is to establish better relations with WellSpan since they are still
relatively new to the area.
2020 Census
Census Bureau staff had requested group home addresses during a recent
training to prepare for the 2020 Census. IDD has decided to provide each
agency’s main address and contact information. The Census Bureau may
contact residential providers to ensure that all individuals are being counted.
Reports
Friendly reminders of due dates for Base funded providers
(See procedure statement MHIDDEI-416)
% February 15th – Quarterly Report of Expenditures (October – December)
% March 31st – Appendix A and Budget Packets for FY 2020-2021. All Base
funded providers should have received their Appendix A information.
% May 15th – Quarterly Report of Expenditures (January – March)
If you have any fiscal questions, please contact Ashley McCartney
(almccartney@franklincountypa.gov).
Round Table/Provider Updates
Marion Rowe and Jane Cline
Residential providers and support coordinators should begin to collaborate on
the staffing ratio changes that must be incorporated into ISPs. A recent training
emphasized that staffing ratios should have a person-centered focus and
change throughout the day based on the individual’s unique needs in certain
areas. Going forward, these specific changes to staffing ratios will be included in
all ISPs.
IDD will be enrolling eleven (11) or twelve (12) upcoming graduates in the
Person/Family Directed Support (PFDS) Waiver.
Service Access & Management (SAM), Inc.
SAM has hired Sandy Kling to be its newest support coordinator. She has already
contacted several providers to schedule meet and greet sessions. Sandy is
currently completing a fifteen (15) hour orientation program. After finishing this
IDD Provider Meeting
program, she will eventually take on much of Darlanna Heinbaugh’s former
caseload. Sandy’s agency cell phone number is included on the SAM contact
list that will be sent out with this meeting’s minutes.
The Arc of Franklin & Fulton Counties
The next Arc social events will be a Game and Craft Night on March 17th and
Talent Show on April 21st. Both events will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Chambersburg. A 5K walk/run fundraiser to
benefit the Nathan Tappen Memorial Scholarship is scheduled on April 4th at 9:00
a.m. at Shippensburg Township Park.
Menno Haven and PennCares Support Services
These providers are partnering together to offer two (2) trainings on April 16th at
the Menno Haven Resident Life Center in Chambersburg: “Communication &
Behavioral Challenges of Dementia” from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and
“Understanding Intimacy & Dementia” from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The
registration fee for each training is only $10 due to funding received through The
Franklin County Community Foundation.
Person Directed Supports
Person Directed Supports has identified an individual who needs a home
placement but is still trying to find a suitable rental property.
Angels on Call
ODP will be doing a self-audit of HCSIS/PROMISe billing sometime in the spring or
summer to check for potential fraud and gaps. Progress notes and any
paperwork related to billing could be subject to review during the self-audit.
To prepare for implementation of its Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) system,
ODP will be adapting a new goal sheet and progress note which allows
providers to check off the appropriate boxes. The information will be submitted
directly to the EVV system thereby replacing an existing paper goal sheet. ODP is
expected to provide additional direction and feedback on this change in the
summer or fall.
Mary deCoen’s last day at Angels on Call will be March 13th. She will be taking a
position with EyeTech which is a new company specializing in the development
of eye gaze technology for individuals with disabilities in clinical settings.
Keystone Human Services
Keystone Human Services will be rolling out a new electronic health record with
check off options so that staff learn how to use these features prior to
implementation of the EVV system.
There are currently plans to upgrade available housing options which include
building a new home for three (3) individuals that satisfies all Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements. Keystone Human Services wants
to move towards owning more properties rather than leasing in the long term.
IDD Provider Meeting
Merakey
Merakey has recently hired a Site Director, Residential Director, and Residential
Program Specialist. A transition plan has been put in place to prepare these staff
for their new roles. The Site Director will likely be available to attend the next IDD
Provider Meeting on May 15th.
Upcoming Trainings
March 20thth: HCQU – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)
Next Provider Meeting
Friday, May 15, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. at the Human Services Building.
2020 Provider Meeting Schedule
May 15th August 21st November 20th
Minutes by Dan Rhodes