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An Agency Profile: Transitional Services for New York, Inc. The AWARDS of Online Case Management By Tech News Staff Writer Transitional Services for New York, Inc. (TSI) is a community-based mental health organization located in New York City. TSI provides a continuum of rehabilitative services to enrich the lives of the mentally ill and facilitate their transition to increased levels of independence. TSI was founded 27 years ago after a group of parents of mentally ill young adults banded together to seek alternatives to long-term hospitalization. With locations throughout Queens and the Bronx, TSI employs over 250 staff, and services 2,500 clients in multiple facilities – both outpatient and residential. Beyond Paper About seven years ago, the staff members at Transitional Services for New York, Inc. were swimming in paper. The 27-year-old mental health agency had no computerized record-keeping system and no systematic tracking device to help sift through the agency's thousands of client files. Gleaning information from those files is a critical task necessary for the agency to report back to its funders and specifically to the Department of Mental Health. But like many nonprofit social service providers, while TSI knew its reporting methods were cumbersome and labor-intensive, it hadn't been able to find a cost-effective computerized alternative.
It's exactly the sort of program TSI understood it needed to replace its all-paper case management system. But it would take years before TSI identified the staff member to task with solving its paper problem, and when it did, former Program Director Peter Amato was assigned the job. Amato now serves as TSI's Divisional Director of Informational Technology, Quality Assurance & Operations. He notes that the agency's Director and Deputy Director had been talking about computerizing the office back in 1996, when Amato first joined TSI as a social worker. By 1999 it became clear that Amato, who jokes that he was one of the few in the office "who could install printers and software and therefore had magical powers," had a knack for computers. Well, some knack: "I could use spell check. It was like, 'watch out'!" he says. That year, Amato was charged with the mission to convert TSI's paper mill into a computerized system. "I was asked to computerize the agency or '86' the entire plan," says Amato. He had his work cut out for him. Indeed, only magical powers could have changed the fact that paper, and not money, grows on trees. Amato's research revealed that the cost of implementing a software program to overhaul the agency's reports, including buying hardware – a new server for nine of the agency's sites – would cost upwards of $200,000. The cost was prohibitive for an agency like TSI. The hope of computerizing TSI's case management system, dimmed. Finding the Right Solution Then, in 2000, Amato attended an ACL (Association for Community Living) conference where he met Marlowe Greenberg, the CEO of Foothold Technology, the company that created the AWARDS program. Greenberg told him that AWARDS wouldn't require the purchase of extra hard-drives. Further, AWARDS would cost TSI about $100,000 – half that initially projected by Amato – and this figure included the cost of buying a few additional computers, DSL fees, and Foothold's annual subscription (which costs, on average, $2,000 per month). "AWARDS is about 85 percent ready for any social services agency to use," says Greenberg. If, as sometimes happens, an agency needs little to no customization, the process is fairly streamlined and affordable. There's no installation involved – the software is web-based, not server-based – and it doesn't take long to set up. Says Greenberg, "You just flip the switch and it's ready to go." This appealed to Amato and his agency and TSI quickly signed on, making them one of Foothold's first AWARDS program clients. TSI started using AWARDS software almost immediately for its residential services program. Staff use AWARDS-based programs for "face sheet" information, or client profiles that include medical history and emergency information. They also use the program for keeping staff notes online so employees can quickly access important information about their clients. Over the past two years, Foothold has been working with TSI to develop programs for its outpatient services, such as continuing day treatment. Amato says the process has been "intense." It's taken almost 100 hours to customize AWARDS for all of its many outpatient-reporting needs. Improving Results and Saving Lives But the time has been well worth it judging by the success of the residential program, reports Amato. For example, every two years TSI must produce a report called a client characteristics survey. Pulling the information together from files used to take an hour per client, or about a week's time total. Now it takes 10 to 15 minutes per client. Staffers simply use AWARDS to fill out 32 questions specific to the reporting requirements of the agency, and the software finds the information needed in its network. The technological improvement may even help save lives. Nightly, the AWARDS program scans the program logs and searches for words that employees may have recorded during their shift, such as "suicide" or "hurt." The system then sends an email to administrators and supervisors, which alerts them to potential crisis situations while also ensuring quality control across sites. In June 2002, TSI staff evaluated AWARDS through a survey. About 95 percent agreed that the program enhanced the quality of service to clients and made documenting client needs much easier. "AWARDS solved our paper problem," says Amato. And troubleshoots countless others. To learn more about TSI's case management program, you can email Peter Amato at pete@amatonet.com, or contact Marlowe Greenberg at (212) 780-1450. For more information on Foothold Technology, visit (http://www.footholdtechnology.com). For more on ASPs, see Tech News articles: "The Pros and Cons of ASPs", "The ABC's of ASPs", and "Using an ASP to Transform Your Agency". |
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