Designed by one of the top tier service providers in the US and recipient of numerous awards for excellence in outcomes reporting and service, Vinfen www.vinfen.org of Cambridge, Massachusetts is now offering their “OARS” system to the behavioral/developmental market.

Utilizing a client-centered model to care giving, this leading edge system has been years in the making and continuously refined based on the needs of their clients and staff. Developed under the premise that there were no off the shelf products that met their needs, Vinfen undertook the task of completing this internally.

Example of Quality of Life Outcomes data collection screen – using decision support for question presentation

Over the past 3 years, iCentrix Corp, of Salem, New Hampshire www.icentrix.com and Vinfen have worked together to extend the system focusing on a modular approach. And, drawing from iCentrix’s experience in management reporting systems and data warehousing, OARS is bringing a fresh view to data collection and reporting expressly designed with the client in mind.

Say Bruce Bird PhD., CEO of Vinfen “ We knew early on that a product approach to meeting the evolving needs of this industry would be difficult to find, not to mention how do we ultimately map this to our business processes. And, with our focus on client-centered care, we felt that we wanted to be leading the industry as opposed to playing catch up.”

Bird added, “We needed the ability to control the process. Looking at the next generation of “evidence based practices” tied to our data collection and outcomes analysis, we could not be in a position to be limited by a vendor’s technology.”

Madeline Becker PhD., Director of Quality for Vinfen has been out in front as to what information needs to be collected along with user interfaces, data integration, developing Key Performance Indicators, data mining strategy and reporting (both internal and external.) Her organization has been the key to up front analysis, modeling new tasks, implementation, training and enhancements. “Working in partnership with iCentrix on the development side, we are able to bridge the gap between our needs and deploying new capabilities that are making a meaningful impact across all aspects of our organization. This “design build” approach has changed our time to deployment immensely. It really works!”

OARS Emergency Fact Sheet

One component to OARS is the “Quality of Life Outcomes” surveys which are designed to collect and then track data across multiple domains including residential functioning, employment status, income and benefits, hospitalizations, legal status, etc.

Another area is Risk Management which is designed to track and categorize critical incidents assisting the provider and state agencies to identify trends in risk situations. In addition, this can identify types and frequency of incidents for specific clients and program settings while improving the ability for trending.

Other functionality includes areas like Health Assessments, Diagnosis and Progress Notes, Service Plans, Emergency Fact Sheets, Medication Charts, Involved Parties and Demographics.

Personal Progress Report – using a dashboard as a vehicle for checking indicators

Gary Lamson, President of Vinfen provided some additional insight as to why share OARS with other providers. Says Lamson “We recognize that we have something special with OARS. Our expertise in client-centered car giving and outcomes analysis is something that can benefit everyone.” Lamson also has a vision that the future of OARS will be a provider driven approach. “New OARS users will be part of a consortium or “steering committee” which will not only determine new functionality but can help spread some of the development costs across multiple providers.” Adds Lamson, “We believe that the providers and care givers are best able to determine what works and what doesn’t.”

iCentrix will have an integral role in this initiative. While recognizing that OARS will need to be customized in order to meet the needs of each individual provider, they work in that up front capacity to bridge any functionality gaps that may exist. In addition, they will serve as the IT partner developing the data warehouse, deploying OARS, migrating data, training and ongoing support. They will also play the exclusive role in sales and marketing.

About iCentrix

iCentrix develops real-time, interactive, management information reporting systems for behavioral and developmental service providers. Their expertise in flexible, web-based systems including their highly recognized productivity and data mining dashboard tools extend to providers across the US. For more information on iCentrix, please contact Doug Philipon at 603-893-3922 x25 or through their web site at www.icentrix.com.