article written by Cindy
Faulkner, Regional Director of Performance Improvement,
Bluegrass
Bluegrass
Regional MH-MR Board, Inc. is the largest
community mental health center in Kentucky.
We are a private non-profit organization providing
services in mental health, mental retardation,
developmental disabilities and substance abuse
to over 30,000 individuals each year. Those
services are delivered in a variety of settings
- outpatient, residential, hospital and intermediate-care.
The area served covers over 500 square miles
in Central Kentucky.
The majority of our funding comes from State
general fund dollars and Medicaid. The mission
of the organization is to provide services regardless
of the individual's ability to pay for that
care. Bluegrass typically delivers over ten
million dollars a year in charity care. With
this in mind, it is easy to understand that
we run very lean administratively. We would
rather devote resources to our consumers than
spend money on administrative staff.
As the organization grew, it became increasingly
difficult to keep up with the demands of various
stakeholders for data and information without
additional staff resources. The organization
is accredited by The Joint Commission under
behavioral healthcare and hospital standards.
Data and the use of information play a key role
in the accreditation process.
Additionally, in 1996, the organization agreed
to take over management of an intermediate-care
facility for individuals with mental retardation
and developmental disabilities. This facility
had lost its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) certification and was under a
Federal court order due to poor quality care.
After first ensuring the physical safety of
the residents, the collection and analysis of
data became a priority. This was necessary in
order to manage the facility, ensure continued
resident safety and to meet the requirements
of the federal court order.
In 2008, Bluegrass made the decision to purchase
the Statit
Performance Indicator & Management Dashboard
(piMD) software. The choice was made after
a cost/benefit assessment and a comparison of
other products the market had to offer. In
looking at the purchase price, we discovered
that for the cost of one year's salary and fringe
we would gain the work product of at least three
FTEs. Probably the deciding factor for us
was the ease of integration with our current
information systems. Our data was being collected
and stored all over our system in various SQL-based
software applications. The information we collect
is highly sensitive in nature and many other
products sought to "warehouse" our
data outside our control which was not acceptable.
The fact that Statit goes out and "gets"
the data from wherever it resides was a real
plus. We really liked the fact that the application
of the product was not dependent on the type
of organization in which it was utilized. The
development of applications geared toward mental
health is limited, and for organizations with
our scope of services is non-existent. Statit
piMD doesn't really care what the industry is;
it is the data that is important.
Its value as a management tool was a key factor
as well. We want our managers spending time
improving the quality of care to our consumers,
not worrying about what control chart to create
with what type of data. Statit piMD takes away
that concern. It puts information at a manager's
fingertips as soon as it is available. No more
waiting on reports and data analysis to be generated.
It is possible to limit access to those individuals
who have a need to know which provides security
for our data and helps to address the information
overload often felt by managers.
The software has been installed for less than
one year and has already had a terrific return
on investment. It began paying for itself the
day after our initial installation and two day
on-site training. During the training, our staff
were able to create about four hundred indicators.
The following day, surveyors from The Joint
Commission appeared on our doorstep to conduct
a survey of our Opioid Treatment Program. The
surveyors were amazed at the amount of information
available to the program and the ability to
drill down, identify process changes and measure
improvement. It turned a normally stressful
data use interview into an advertisement for
Statit.
At the October 2008 visit by the Federal court
monitor to the intermediate-care facility, the
organization was criticized for not utilizing
data to make decisions and for the quality of
data analysis. At his February 2009 visit, the
organization was praised for having gotten control
of the vast amount of data required and making
great strides in the use of the information
collected. The turn around was dramatic - accomplished
by another seven hundred required indicators
and a valuable software product.
Bluegrass has been extremely pleased with Statit
piMD. It delivers as advertised and the follow-up
support is great.
