4th Quarter Newsletter 2011

KaleidaCare: Smart Agency Software

In this issue:

Letter From The CEO
Welcome New Customers
Welcome to the KaleidaCare Team
KaleidaCare National User Group an Overwhelming Success
Customer Spotlight
Got Feedback? We Want to Hear It

Letter From The CEO

As the English say, we’re working our socks off here at KaleidaCare. We’ve been busy building the team, getting Solutions7 across the finish line, launching the KaleidaCare360 dashboard, and trying to keep up with the surge of new customers.

One consistent discussion for us is how we can more effectively help customers get more value from what they already have. It is an ongoing concern that so many customers are only using a small fraction of the capabilities of the system to streamline administration and deliver actionable data. We want you to get more value! Please talk to your account manager for ideas.

Another consistent discussion is around the final release specifications for Solutions7. Original design requirements were to replicate Solutions6 functionality in the new architecture and improve only navigation. Over time, new requirements have had to enter the picture. As I look out into the future of child and family services, I see two driving needs for your software: It has to work well with other systems, and it has to start tracking to the emerging electronic health record standards. Building in the required interoperability capabilities and enhancing electronic record capabilities has added work to our process, but is going to give all customers a significantly more powerful system that is built for the present and the future.

We’re excited to be playing a small part in the critical work that each of you does with children and adults in need. We have been investing heavily into our own technology and services to empower our own mission, which is in turn to empower yours. Thank you for being a member of our community.

Best regards,
Alistair

Welcome New Customers

Circle of Friends Services, Inc. (Deltona, FL) has joined the KaleidaCare team to help track their counseling services. Circle of Friends Services, Inc. was formed in 2008 as a Florida not-for-profit organization to provide trauma-based mental health services and support to children and families in need. Services include trauma-based individual/family therapy, mental health, psychosexual and domestic violence evaluations, comprehensive behavioral health assessments, supervised visitation, clinical consultation, program development and training.

Commonworks (Colorado), a not-for-profit incorporated in July 1995 brings three agencies to KaleidaCare. Gateway Youth and Family Services, a Child Placement Agency (CPA), specializes in the social and clinical treatment of youth from offices in Canon City, Delta and Grand Junction. Gateway works with youth who are at-risk of being removed, or have been removed, from their homes; and provides community-based programs for youth and their families as an alternative to institutional care. Synthesis, also a CPA, provides out-of home-placement for youth ages 0 to 21 with medical, developmental and therapeutic needs. They also provide private adoption services, including home studies, placement of children for adoption, post placement supervision and birth parent counseling, with offices in Colorado Springs and the Denver metro area. WhimSpire, another CPA, is dedicated to providing services that allow young people the opportunity to remain in their communities by offering treatment foster family care services to children and youth throughout Colorado.

Counseling and Consultation Services, Inc. (Limestone, TN) has joined KaleidaCare in effort to streamline management of their services. Established in 1990 as a non-profit, Counseling and Consultation Services was formed to evaluate, treat and provide consultation regarding specialized services for sexual offenders and their families. In addition to an Adult Out-Patient Treatment Services and Assessment Center that provides adult treatment services and assessment services, the agency offers services to youths. SteppenStone Youth Treatment Services, a Joint Commission Accredited continuum of services for boys 12-17 years old who have emotional and behavioral problems often in conjunction with sexual issues.

GAP Ministries (Tucson, AZ) joined forces with KaleidaCare to enhance their productivity in the foster care arena. GAP Ministries is currently licensed to serve children in several “SPLASH Houses”; the children in the Houses are unable to remain in their current placements. Houseparents work to provide a loving, home-like environment while addressing the specific needs of each child in care. GAP Ministries has focused on serving children since 2000.

The Up Center (Norfolk, VA) recently joined KaleidaCare to help track and report their foster care and adoption services more efficiently. The Up Center is an FFTA agency and COA accredited agency. With their multiple programs, The Up Center has been helping people live better lives since 1884.

Welcome to the KaleidaCare Team…

KaleidaCare is pleased to introduce two new team members.

Brian Martinez, Senior Account Manager

Brian Martinez brings decades of experience in education and technology. A lifelong Texan based in Austin, he was graduated from the University of Texas in 1996 with a degree in journalism and a lifetime teaching certificate. He spent a decade working with students directly in the classroom, where his students consistently won awards for their work. He left the classroom twice; once for a sabbatical to work as a consultant for a publishing company, and later to work for Apple as a trainer. Since then, he has continued to passionately pursue the technology field, always seeking innovative ways to use software to help others. He was a National Merit Scholar, but still finds solace in the mindlessness of reality TV.

Mary Ellen Wallace, Quality Assurance Specialist

Mary Ellen enthusiastically joins the KaleidaCare team as a Quality Assurance Specialist. She’s excited to blend her experience in child welfare with her interest in data and technology. After graduating with her master’s degree in social work, Mary Ellen served as the data team leader for a research team that studied successful special needs adoptions at the University of Texas at Austin. She spends most of her free time entertaining (but also being entertained by) her two-year-old son, practicing yoga, and cooking up healthy nourishment for friends and family.

KaleidaCare National User Group an Overwhelming Success

National User Group Participants in their famous KaleidaCare User Group Super7 tee shirts.

The 2011 Annual National KaleidaCare User Group was held September 7th - 9th, 2011 at the Marriott Courtyard Downtown/Convention Center in Austin, Texas and was deemed a huge success.

The record-setting attendance received useful information about how agency leaders can manage by objectives. KaleidaCare’s new dashboard product, KaleidaCare360™ was also demonstrated and discussed. But the highlight of this year’s User Group was the demonstration of Solutions7 and the attendees’ first hands-on experience on the Solutions7 system.

Alistair Deakin, KaleidaCare CEO, welcomed the group and used a toast and the music of Kool and the Gang to “Celebrate the Solution” and kick off the 2011 National User Group. Alistair also provided the afternoon session on Managing by Objectives, which gave participants practical use of setting goals and working toward those goals.

Kelly Stepura, PhD, Vice President of Product Development, and Chip Bolyard, MSW, Director of Account Management provided an overview of the recently released KaleidaCare360, KaleidaCare’s Executive Dashboard. This new functionality, built with the Solutions7 technology, provides easy to read graphs on over 30 client and homes/facilities key agency indicators – referrals, deferrals, discharges, incidents, face to face contact, foster/adoptive home inquiries & closures, and occupancy rate.

Lisa Boyle, Quality Assurance Specialist, along with the Development and Account Management Teams, provided a demonstration of Solutions7. Lisa highlighted the new Solutions7 functionality through several “real life” scenarios. Participants then had an opportunity to “Touch and Feel” Solutions7.

Preparing for the free upgrade to Solutions7 continued through most of the event. Luanne Barr, Senior Account Manager outlined the permission changes in Solutions7. Trish Murphy, Senior Account Manager reviewed the enhancements on how custom forms will be created in the upgraded system. Jeremy Slatton, Financial Developer and Trish Murphy presented “Dollars and Change”, an overview of the billing and financial tracking changes in Solutions7. Chip Bolyard, and Luanne Barr led a discussion on recruiting and tracking foster and adoptive family inquires using the new Solutions7 functionality.

The 2011 National User Group concluded with sessions on the upgrade plans and how to prepare for the upgrade to Solutions7.

Congratulations to Cathy Pallon, from Creative Community Services in Georgia, for winning our User Group Tee Shirt Competition. Congratulations also go out to Tim Hart, from New Horizons in Texas for his first runner up artwork.

“The amount of information you learn and the relationships you build with other companies is so important and useful in this business! We met some very software intelligent individuals who we can lean on in the future should we have questions or concerns that may not necessarily require a conversation with KaleidaCare staff. We sometimes want to look at things outside of the box and don't really have to go through KaleidaCare to contact other end users.”
-- Michelle McCartney, Human Services Consultants, Arizona

Mark Your Calendar Now for the 2012 National User Group – September 5-7, 2012 in Austin, TX!

Customer Spotlight

Harmony Host Homes in Brighton, Colorado began using KaleidaCare in July 2010 and provides residential care and support for developmentally disabled adults. Serving an adult population, Harmony works with their clients for many years, oftentimes for the consumer’s entire life. One of the guiding principles of Harmony Host Homes is that their Host Home Providers are the heart of their company. They contract with providers who not only are willing but also desire to accept clients into their families as members. Harmony staff are available to providers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to support them in the care of the consumers.

As part of their regular communication with Host Home Providers, Harmony publishes a monthly newsletter and has recently implemented a new column called “KaleidaCare Korner”. Harmony will use this column to offer tips, reminders, and important information about the KaleidaCare system. Their providers document in KaleidaCare regularly including Fire Drills, Food Diaries, and Weight Tracking forms as well as daily Progress Logs to track attendance at Day Programs or Work, Nutrition Intake, Medication Changes, and more.

Incorporating KaleidaCare into an agency’s regular communications with providers and staff is an excellent way to enhance system usage and to reinforce the importance of accurate and timely data collection.

Got Feedback? We Want to Hear It

We encourage everyone to submit a Feedback when they have any questions or issues with the system. This is the most efficient method because one of us is always covering them. We’ve found that some of our best users ask the most questions – so don’t hesitate to take advantage of this feature. It’s part of the free ongoing support that we offer. We expect to get a lot of questions from new customers; in fact we worry if don’t hear from you! Here are some tips to make the process even better:

Confidentiality – Please refrain from using any part of a client’s name, including their initials. Instead, use their System ID number, which is a unique identifier that doesn’t violate HIPAA. This number can be found on the client’s Menu and on many of the browse screens.

Be very specific – Include an example and as many details as you can to describe the situation. For example, if you can’t find a document/log that was written include the ID# of the client, the exact name of the log/document (sometimes there are several documents that have similar names), the date of the log/document (not the date it was created), and the author if it wasn’t you. If you experienced an issue or error tell us if it was when you were adding, saving, viewing or editing. If there was an error it’s more helpful to copy and paste the whole error than to give the error ID number. The more specific you are, the faster we can help you.

Encourage staff to submit their own Feedback from their computer – When you submit a Feedback it includes some information about the type of browser that is being used on that computer. Not using Internet Explorer is a common issue and this helps us identify that more quickly.

Contact information – Enter a System Default email address and phone number for all your users. These will automatically pull into the Feedback for them.

Here’s a reminder of what we do on our end:

Copy your team – We always copy your Account Manager and the System Administrators you’ve told us to include. This keeps everyone on your team aware of your agency’s needs and the specific problem or question that you have.

Coverage – Support is always available at KaleidaCare. We monitor Feedbacks every day and evening, including weekends and holidays. Response time is faster during weekdays, but we’ll always respond.

Tracking - Feedbacks are tracked in our system so that any of us can check on the status of something for you. The system also keeps a record of all of the Feedbacks. If you ever want a report of Feedbacks from your agency for a specific time frame, just ask us.

Our goal is to give you great customer support. Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions!

4th Quarter Newsletter 2011

Letter From The CEO

Welcome New Customers

Welcome to the KaleidaCare Team…

KaleidaCare National User Group an Overwhelming Success

Customer Spotlight

Got Feedback? We Want to Hear It

Recent Developments

KaleidaCare Calendar

Refer A Friend and Save Some Money

KaleidaCare Web Training Series

Stay In Touch