Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Community Card Update

More than six thousand people are using Pathways new Community Card to get faster access to services they need, while the organizations serving them dramatically reduce time spent on data entry.

The Pathways Community Card system provides a complete solution to communities: providing client ID cards, unlimited card scanning capabilities, a program validation process and automated service transaction creation. Development of the scanning module was underwritten by the Fulton County Department of Health and Human Services (FCHHS) and piloted at the county’s Jefferson Place housing and case management programs.

“Implementation of the card scan function at Jefferson Place has increased efficiency in our day-to-day tasks,” said Shenelle Smith, FCHHS Systems Manager. “Our staff is now able to document consumer services in record time.”

The card scan module allows organizations to:
● quickly process repetitive service transactions at high volume sites; i.e. food banks, soup kitchens, clothing closets
● confirm that clients qualify for services they are receiving
● decrease data entry errors and increase staff productivity
● improve data quality by reducing the number of duplicate client records
● itemize costs associated with each service and analyze how each of these costs contributes to successful outcomes

“Although we have not implemented the cost association as yet, through the program/service association we were able to redefine available program services, which improved the overall service delivery to our customers,” Smith said.

For more information about the Community Card, contact Tommy Phillips at 404-639-9933 x305.

Pathways Announces the Release of V5.16.76

Pathways release V5.16.76 will be available this evening (June 15, 2011). The APR report is being released to allow agencies and CoC leads to begin looking at agency data in the new format well advance of required reporting deadlines.

This release includes the New HUD APR Report, and modifications to the Processing Pages to improve the quality of data entered during a process. In the near future, modifications will be made to the Programs page that will allow updating and adding financial information. This addition will also improve the quality of data submitted to the new HUD APR.

Finally, an improved version of the Program Enrollment and Discharge Export will be available shortly. This report will be used to help identify clients reported in the HUD APR who have missing data.

The changes, all of which are designed to improve the quality of the data used to submit the new HUD APR to e-snaps, are outlined below:

New HUD APR Report (pdf):
The New APR is presented in two separate reports, HUD APR I and HUD APR II.

HUD APR I covers e-snaps questions 7-25. To access this report:
 Main Menu > Reports > Statistical > HUD APR Format> HUD APR I (Do not filter) > enter parameters. (Note- be sure the Filter parameter is set to “No”.)

HUD APR II covers e-snaps questions 26-29. To access this report:
 Main Menu > Reports > Statistical > HUD APR Format > HUD APR II (Do not filter) > enter parameters. (Note- be sure the Filter parameter is set to “No”.)

While extensive testing has been completed on the APR reports, a couple of situations continue to be addressed:
 APR Questions 23-26 are still undergoing additional testing to ensure accuracy.
 Some labels are being corrected to match those in e-snaps, and some other minor issues are still being corrected.

Program Enrollment & Discharge (Export):
The Program Enrollment & Discharge Export will be updated in the near future to capture additional fields required for the new APR. The new columns are and what pages the information is pulled from:
 Program Type: Pulled from the Program Profile Page
 Program CoC: Pulled from the Program Profile Page
 Last Permanent Zip Code at Entry: Pulled from the General Information Page (stored during program enrollment)
 Length of Stay: Pulled from the General Information Page (stored during program enrollment)
 Cash Income Answer at Entry: Pulled from Finance Pages at Program Enrollment
 Non-Cash Benefits Answer at Entry: Pulled from the Finance Pages at Program Enrollment
 Housing Status at Exit: Pulled from General Information Page (stored during program discharge)
 Income Answer at Exit: Pulled from Finance Pages at Program Discharge
 Benefits Answer at Exit: Pulled from Finance Pages at Program Discharge
Processing Pages:
The “Skip” button has been removed from several processing pages to ensure the required data elements are being captured. These pages where the “Skip” button has been removed include:
 Intake Process – When a New Client is being entered in the system.
 Program Enrollment Process – When clicking the “Process” link on the Results List.
 Program Discharge Process – When discharging a client from a program

Note: The Skip button will still be visible when clicking on the links to these pages from the Client Menu. The Skip button should be only for viewing purposes.

Program Page Updates:

Client Finance information linked to a specific Program Enrollment and Program Discharge will be able to be updated or added. This capability will be added to the system in the near future.

To access this Page to update client financial information: Click on Client Visit Menu, then Program.
 Click on Program Entry Info: Click here to add/edit the finance information or
 Click on Program Exit Info: Click here to add/edit the finance information

These new links will open the Finance Wizard. Finance updates made the Program page will be reflected on reports.

Note: The Skip button will be visible on the finance pages here when assessing them from the Program page.

For more information on these updates, please contact the Support Team at support@pcni.org.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

APR Development Status

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While it has been an arduous process, we are not quite at the finish line. Over 1225 items have been tested and now we are retesting items that had to be fixed. Your patience in this process is appreciated. The new estimate of completion date for the APR development and the APR report is June 15, 2011. If this causes any APR scheduling problems for your agency, please let us know.

In the meantime, we are asking each Agency Administrator and/or those persons responsible for generating the APR reporting to attend the Overview of the New Agency Level APR webinar. To register, go to www.pcni.org, click on the Training Link, then click on Sign Up for Training and select the webinar you wish to attend.

For more information, contact the Support Team at support@pcni.org.