State of the Solution
2006 has been an exciting year for the KaleidaCare team so far. We have released the new Revenue Maximization Module, which includes a resource-scheduling tool, as highlighted later in this newsletter. The FFTA conference is coming up this month in Pittsburgh where we will be presenting in two different seminars and also sponsoring the Senior Management Luncheon. We look forward to seeing you at the conference - make sure you come and visit with the KaleidaCare team.
We are continuing our relationship with OPEN MINDS, a consulting firm specializing in child welfare and the behavioral health industry, to deliver a Child Welfare Seminar Series. The feedback from past events has been very positive. The next event is scheduled just around the corner, in conjunction with FFTA, with the final event for this year being held in September in Ohio, both focusing on "Re-inventing Your Service Delivery System".
There are many changes taking place in Child Welfare and Social Services throughout the US. Here in Texas the effort to privatize the Child Protective Services system is underway, while many states are aggressively reviewing programs under block grants and preventative services for matching Federal funds. Other changes effecting agencies like yours have to do with increased reporting requirements from funding sources or grants organizations. KaleidaCare Solutions can help you meet those challenges. Please let us know if you would like a proposal from OPEN MINDS on how to prepare your agency for these changes or if you would like your KaleidaCare Account Manager to review how KaleidaCare Solutions can help you with these increased reporting requirements.
As usual, the KaleidaCare team is supporting several conferences this summer and fall. Our next User Group and Advanced Training Session is scheduled for November 2nd & 3rd in Nashville, Tennessee. Please save the date and make plans to join us.
Jerri Paul,
President
& CEO
KaleidaCare's National Benchmarking Service
Children's service provider organizations are increasingly being asked to demonstrate performance and value in service delivery. Unfortunately, there are few performance measurement models available and even fewer benchmarks of performance to use. To address these changing requirements and help our agencies prepare for long-term sustainability in the future, KaleidaCare has developed a National Child Benchmarking Service exclusive to our clients. KaleidaCare Management Solutions will help agencies identify financial, clinical, and administrative metrics.
The overall goal of our benchmarking project is to help agencies identify ways to measure performance and identify tools to help them improve overall quality of care. This will help our agencies to create long-term sustainability within their organizations and become industry leaders in their fields.
In order to successfully implement this National Child Benchmarking Service, agencies need to create structured guidelines by identifying which outcomes and operational measures they want to focus on. Agencies should also identify areas within their own agencies where they are doing well, which areas need improvement, and if there are any areas where performance level meets a specific standard among agencies. Once agencies have answered these questions and created a framework to collect information, agencies can start comparing their performance to other similar agencies. Agencies can also compare their performance levels to industry guidelines and requirements. Using the information collected, agencies can set organizational performance and outcome goals and can systematically measure progress and improvement levels. High performing agencies will be identified and used as benchmarks for other agencies within the industry.
KaleidaCare will help agencies identify useful measures in three different areas. Administrative measures include staff turnover and compensation. Operational measures include average caseloads, cancellation rates, services provided associated with cost, deferrals and documentation process time. Clinical measures include Caseworker/Therapy sessions, family visits, incidents per client, length of stay, level of care, and placement changes. Using this data, KaleidaCare and participating agencies will be able to create reports comparing similar programs over different periods of time to analyze current situations and identify opportunities to create efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase quality of care.
The projected outcome of our benchmarking initiative is a structured and methodical plan for agencies to follow to measure performance and outcomes, ultimately creating a strategic vision for the future based around agency sustainability. KaleidaCare Management Solutions is very excited to assist our customer agencies in this innovative plan to increase agency functionality, increase quality of care and create long-term agency sustainability well into the future.
KaleidaCare & FFTA Benchmarking Initiative
It is an exciting time at KaleidaCare Management Solutions. We are working very hard to help our agencies and provide the tools necessary for success. We are proud to be working with the Foster Family-Based Treatment Association (FFTA), as their technology partner for the FFTA sponsored study, 'Benchmarking Treatment Foster Care (TFC)'. The goal of this study will be to measure the effectiveness of treatment foster care and will undoubtedly have national implications on child welfare. Until now, evaluation of TFC has been hampered by the inability to collect large-scale uniform data across a wide variety of settings. The core data elements identified for this study were developed by the Quality Outcomes Leadership Alliance (QOLA) to assess living and school environments, relationship issues, criminal activities and maltreatment. Participating agencies will be able to collect the eight critical data elements for their TFC clients using the Functional Survey Tool in KaleidaCare Solutions. These data elements will be quick and easy to collect in at admission, discharge, and a pre-determined follow-up period after discharge from the agency. We are excited and proud to be participating in this groundbreaking study with the Foster Family Based Treatment Association.
Dr. Kay Hodges and KaleidaCare Partner to Research Outcomes in Foster Care
The Child and Adolescent Functioning Assessment Scale (CAFASŪ) is a well-known and validated instrument for assessing child and adolescent functioning. Though most research with the CAFASŪ has focused on mental and behavioral health, KaleidaCare is partnering with Dr. Hodges to look at outcomes for the foster care population. This partnership will allow for benchmarking across KaleidaCare agencies using the CAFASŪ as an outcome measure. KaleidaCare's CTO, Kelly Gober, will be presenting at this year's FFTA conference, along with co-presenters Shane Frazier (Omni Visions) and Dr. Kay Hodges (professor at the Eastern Michigan University and creator of the CAFASŪ). The title of the presentation is "Use of the CAFASŪ to Track Client Progress and Program Effectiveness". The presentation will describe the use of the CAFASŪ by Omni Visions, a large treatment foster care agency. Data from an aggregate, unidentified sample of a number of different agencies across the country will be used to illustrate the tool's usefulness in monitoring treatment progress for individual clients as well as program effectiveness across the agency.
Child Welfare Seminar focuses on Service Integration
KaleidaCare Management Solutions has partnered with Open Minds, a training and consulting firm specializing in Social and Behavioral Health Services, to present the Child Welfare Seminar Series. The most recent event, Service Integration in Children's Services: How to Create Successful Partnerships with Other Service Delivery Systems, was held on May 18, 2006 in Louisville, Kentucky and was co-hosted by Boy's Haven.
Participants from Kentucky, West Virginia, and Illinois learned about the current and future industry trends for children's cervices and how that is leading to a need for service integration. There were also discussions to describe the elements needed for integration as well a collaborative and cooperative models in maximizing economies of scale.
For more information about the Child Welfare Seminar Series or for information on hosting a Seminar in your area, please contact Jerri Paul at 800-913-9883 ext 223 or jpaul@kaleidacare.com.
Announcing the "Revenue Maximization Module"
KaleidaCare Management Solutions is proud to announce our new Revenue Maximization Module, a companion module to our Smart Service Management Pack. Our Revenue Maximization Module has three configurable components including resource scheduling, service validation, and billing & accounts receivable.
The resource-scheduling component streamlines the scheduling process and assures optimization of clinical and financial resources. The validation component helps agencies ensure that every service is reimbursed properly and the billing and accounts receivable component helps agencies manage payment status of all first and third party payers.
Overall, the combination of the Revenue Maximization Module and the Smart Service Management Pack enables agencies to prevent bad debt in advance by optimizing staffing, validating and recording beneficiary eligibility information and tracking reimbursement. KaleidaCare Solutions is a powerful tool to help agencies in achieving their dreams and operating at the most efficient and effective level possible.
Recent Developments
KaleidaCare Management Solutions is proud to announce that in addition to our recent Revenue Maximization Module launch, our Development and Account Management Departments have released a number of enhancements to our Smart Service Management Pack.
Current Facility Information Section
Current Facility is a new information section for Face Sheets, Information Reports, and Agency Documents. This information section includes the Current Facility's Name, Facility Address, Facility Phone Number, and Date for clients who are Pre-Admitted or Placed in the Substitute Care Client Tracking Tool.
The Current Facility Information will update as facility changes are made in the Client Tracking Tool.
System Administrator Ability to Edit or Delete Case Notes, Session Logs, and Progress Logs
System Administrators now have the ability to Edit or Delete a Case Note, Session Log, or Progress Log. Previously, only the author had the ability, if permission had been assigned, to edit or delete these logs. The Edit and/or Delete Permissions are set on the Menu.
Last Edit Author has been added to the Compressed Log Report for the Case Note, Session Log, and Progress Log in order to record the user who changed the log if it has been edited. This report also displays the Date and Time the log was edited.
New Lock Icon for Logs
A new Padlock Icon has been added to illustrate that a log can be locked. This Action Icon is available on the Solutions Legend. The Key Icon is still available to illustrate the Unlock Action.
Clinical Professionals on Worker Dropdown for Case Note and Session Log
Clinical Professionals have been added to the worker dropdown on the Case Note and Session Log entry screens. The worker will still default to the user who is logged into the system. Clinical Professionals and other Staff are available to be associated with a Case Note or Session Log. This will assist with transcription of services by Clinical Professionals.
User Manuals Added to Home Page
A number of new User Manuals have been added to the KaleidaCare Solutions Home Page. These new manuals include:
Entering a Family in KaleidaCare Solutions
Downloading to Excel and Excel Tools
Diagnosis Log
Agency Document Toolkit
Face Sheet Toolkit
Information Report Toolkit
Data Warehouse Reports
Listing Reports - Address Label Instructions
User Group Gab
Advanced Training & User Group - 2006
Thank you to everyone who participated in our 2006- Houston Advanced Training & User Group this year with a special thanks to our host agency - Depelchin and Shannon Jones for helping to coordinate the event. We had people from Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas who were able to gather some new tips and techniques about the system and make some great contacts with other agencies across the US. We would like to especially thank Billy Jo Weinberg from Spaulding and Shane Frazier from Omni Visions for participating in our panel discussion about using KaleidaCare to track adoptions. The group also got a preview of our new Revenue Maximization Module and KaleidaCare's FFTA benchmarking project. A special thank you to Depelchin for use of their facilities and preparations to make this User Group a huge success. We look forward to seeing you in Nashville in November for our next Advanced Training & User Group.
User Group Advisory Committee Welcomes New Members
KaleidaCare Management Solutions gives a hearty welcome to our New User Group Advisory Committee (UGAC) Members. The UGAC Members are responsible for helping the KaleidaCare Account Managers in the planning, presentations, and reviewing the KaleidaCare Advanced Trainings and User Groups.
The new members for the 2006 - 2008 Term are:
Vikki Finely, Spaulding for Children - Texas
Carolyn Henderson, The Youth Academy - West Virginia
Sarah Ziegler, Chris Kids - Georgia
These new members join our ongoing members: Shane Frazier, Omni Visions - Tennessee; Keith Ingram, Helping Other People's Enrichment (HOPE) - Virginia; Shannon Jones, DePelchin Children's Center - Texas; and Barb Odenweller, Specialized Alternatives For Youth (SAFY) - Ohio.
Thank you for your continued support and assistance in planning these important events!
A New Addition to the KaleidaCare Team
KaleidaCare Management Solutions is proud to announce a new addition to our team. Laura Benedetti joined the KaleidaCare team as a marketing intern in May 2005. Since completing a Master of Business Administration from Texas State University in May 2006, she has joined the team full time as our Marketing & Sales Director.
Prior to joining KaleidaCare Management Solutions, Laura earned a Bachelor of Science in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 2001. Laura was involved in several research projects at the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development to study the effects of child abuse on development.
Following graduation, Laura joined Motorola and worked there for three years. While working at Motorola as a Senior Credit Analyst, she handled over 200 corporate accounts and established a great rapport with her customers. Laura also trained many new members of the team on current business processes and was a team leader for her division. Laura led many committees and events at Motorola to promote employee well being and create a fun environment for fellow employees. Overall, Laura has a unique educational background that gives her a great understanding of both the human and business aspects of our industry, allowing her to bring a creative energy to the KaleidaCare team.
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