In 2008 the Performance Improvement process was initiated, a more comprehensive plan to monitor and analyze each program areas performance. During the year, 5 outputs were selected from each area by the person responsible for that program or support area. Data collection was established for each output and 1 of the outputs was selected as a key outcome measure.

A Data Analyst was hired in the Spring of 2008 to assist with the data collection and analysis. The Performance Improvement Committee collected and reviewed the data, and any recommendations from staff based on the data. This year was a work in progress.

In order to facilitate this process, the immediate goals of the Data Analyst are twofold. The first is to locate and provide technical support to the purchase process and implementation of a relational database designed and maintained by a third party software vendor specifically for use in small, treatment oriented operations such as ours. We have enjoyed a great deal of success with this approach in our Training Academy in recent years, and anticipate similar results when this approach is brought to our main treatment provision units.

The second goal for the Data Analyst is to support this year’s PQI process in order to limit the amount of narrative reporting and increase the overall quality of the data being collected. Ultimately, this will be accomplished by pulling data directly from the relational database and making it available to the participating managers for use in PQI reporting and their own decision making processes. Until this database is established, however, individualized, custom built Excel databases have been issued to every manager participating in the PQI process. Some were able to end the current fiscal year using these databases, others were not. Use of these databases to collect and organize PQI data will be compulsory moving forward with the current fiscal year, and as a result we expect a dramatically improved data reporting effort starting in July 2008.

OUTCOMES RESULTING FROM THE PQI PROCESS

Global outcomes resulting from the PQI process include the initiative described above regarding the move towards a more data driven system, and a refocus of our staff training to move from an agency wide training agenda to a house specific coaching model.

The Training Committee identified last year that the structure used in the past, which was to complete training needs surveys and scheduling training on the results of the surveys, was not supporting the implementation of our trauma-focused treatment philosophy.
It was decided to combine all of our training resources into our Training Academy and to utilize a Coaching Model to teach the Leadership of each house how to model and teach the competencies their staff require directly. Quarterly refreshers for each house now focuses on the identified competencies that particular house needs as opposed to a list of generic trainings.

Specific program Improvements were accomplished in all of our programs. For more information on these please contact the Chairman of the Performance Improvement Committee, David H. Tompkins.