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Authors Posts by Carol Ferenz

Carol Ferenz

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The Department of Human Services, Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) is pleased to announce the release of Bulletin 00-21-02: Incident Management Bulletin. This bulletin has been released prior to the effective date for stakeholders to begin to understand the Incident Management (IM) operating procedures and guidelines. This Bulletin will be effective on July 1, 2021. Also released with this bulletin are Attachment 1: Victim’s Assistance Programs, Attachment 2: IM Regulation Crosswalk, and Attachment 3: DP 1081, Incident Report, for use when provider is unable to access the EIM system.

Pennsylvania continues to be at the forefront of IM and takes pride with continuing to ensure the IM policies and procedures reflect a new and innovative approach to protect and promote the health, safety, and rights of all individuals. With this said, the Incident Management Bulletin was developed to help stakeholders understand how to operationalize the IM policies and procedures as well as to give interpretation of the IM regulations found in 55 Pa. Code 6100.401-405. The Incident Management Bulletin was created with significant stakeholder input ranging from in-person meetings across the state to the public comments received when the Bulletin was released as draft. This bulletin describes:

  • Uniform practices for building organizational polices and structures;
  • Guidelines about responding to incidents;
  • How to report and investigate incidents;
  • How to take corrective action in response to those incidents, and how to implement quality management, risk management; and
  • IM processes for the analysis of the incident data.

As communicated in ODP Announcement 21-020, there are two webinars that are scheduled for stakeholders to attend. These webinars consist of the Incident Management Introduction Webinar related to the IM process and the Incident Management Overview Webinar that expands on the Introduction webinar. Please reference the communication to register.

Questions about the bulletin’s implementation or contents may be directed to the appropriate ODP Regional Office or to ODP’s Incident Management Unit.

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) is pleased to announce the opportunity for public comment on Appendices A through H of the AAW. There is a 30-day public comment period that begins on February 27, 2021 and ends on March 29, 2021. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approves waivers for a five-year period. The current AAW expires on June 30, 2021. As such, ODP must submit an application to renew the AAW to CMS. The waiver renewal is anticipated to be effective on July 1, 2021.

In the request for renewal of the AAW, ODP proposes substantive changes to Appendices A through H as outlined in ODP Announcement 21-024. As part of this process, ODP is seeking your valuable feedback and comments on Appendices A through H of the proposed renewal.

ODP will be publishing a separate notice announcing the availability of Appendices I and J for public comment upon completion of the rate-setting process. A communication will be published when these appendices are available.

  • Appendices A through H of the proposed renewal of the AAW are available here.

Information regarding Appendices A through H of the proposed renewal of the AAW, including how to provide comments, can be found in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, Volume 51, Number 9, published on Saturday, February 27, 2021.

Interested persons are invited to submit written comments regarding the proposed AAW renewal. Comments should be addressed to Laura Cipriani, Department of Human Services, Office of Developmental Programs, 625 Forster Street, Room 510, Harrisburg, PA 17120. Comments may also be submitted to ODP via email, using subject header “AAW Renewal.”

Comments received by 11:59 pm on March 29, 2021 will be reviewed and considered for revisions to the proposed renewal of the AAW.

ODP will also hold a webinar to receive comments on the proposed renewal of the AAW. Date, time, and link for registration to attend this webinar are as follows:

Tuesday, March 16, 2021 • 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Use this link to register

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With the recent release of Bulletin 00-21-01 Guidance for Human Rights Teams and Human Rights Committees, ODP is making available a 4-part webcast series titled Human Rights In Depth, which provides additional information and support for stakeholders involved in implementing the guidance and requirements related to individual rights and restrictive procedures.

ODP is not requiring a specific timeframe for completion of the webcasts; however, it is recommended that all of the webcasts be viewed, with priority placed on the first one, which is an introduction to the concept of individual rights and its importance to our community.

ODP Announcement 21-023 provides more detail regarding these courses.  Also, please visit MyODP using the following link to access the webcasts and webcast versions in PDF format. To receive a certificate, you will be required to view all four webcasts, complete a training confirmation, and pass the course post-test.

Course: Human Rights and Restrictive Procedures: Human Rights in Depth (myodp.org)

For questions please email: RA-PWODP_OUTREACH@pa.gov.

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A message from the Office of Developmental Programs:

Pennsylvania will once again be participating in the National Core Indicators Staff Stability Survey for 2020. There will be further information forthcoming on this critical survey, but initially, we are attempting to provide the cleanest possible contact list to the survey organizers to ensure a robust, statistically significant response rate from ODP providers. We expect the survey to be open for completion during the months of April and May. As background, you can find previous years’ reports here.

We are asking that each provider agency identify an email and phone number for the appropriate person to complete the survey. This would typically be a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Finance/Payroll, or Human Resources (HR) professional. You can identify the appropriate person using this link.

This contact survey will be available until March 15. If you do not provide an updated contact point, it would be our intention to use your Act 24 reporting contact as the initial contact for your agency. This can always be changed later, but it will be more efficient to identify the correct respondent up-front. There can only be one identified reporting email per agency (MPI). Thank you in advance for your attention.

Rick Smith, Director
PA Department of Human Services, Office of Developmental Programs
Bureau of Financial Management and Program Support
625 Forster Street Room 412  l  Harrisburg, PA 17120
717-783-4873
www.dhs.pa.gov  |  www.myodp.org

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Photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels

ODP Announcement 21-022 announces the release of the DHS web-based Vaccine Administration Tracker and provides instructions for its use. The Department of Human Services is tracking when vaccines have been administered to individuals and direct support staff in licensed Community Homes and Private Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with an Intellectual Disability (ICF/IDs).

It is very important that providers use the Vaccine Administration Tracker. This information is essential to implementing the Commonwealth’s vaccine planning and administration plan and to help ensure that vaccines are being administered as soon as can be accomplished. Completing this form is a major component to stopping the spread of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth.

Community Home and Private ICF/ID providers are asked to submit vaccination information by service location. Information will be submitted when the vaccine administration process is completed at the service location. In general, the vaccine administration process is “completed” when the people served in the location and the direct support staff who work in the location have been vaccinated or have chosen not to be vaccinated.

This is a one-time data collection initiative. Providers will only enter this information when the service location has completed the vaccination process. Providers are not required to update the information or submit a new form if information changes. Providers are encouraged to contact ODP with questions or to request guidance with any part of this process.

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Date of Data Extraction: 02/17/2021

This report is produced using data on COVID-19 that is self-reported by ODP providers and Supports Coordinators. ODP began capturing this data in mid-March 2020.

COVID-19 Suspected means that a person has been tested for the COVID-19 virus and is awaiting the test results OR a test has been ordered by a health care practitioner, but the person has not been tested yet.

COVID-19 Confirmed means that a person was tested for the COVID-19 virus and test was positive OR was diagnosed with COVID-19 by a health care practitioner even if no test was completed.

Tested Negative means that a person was tested for the COVID-19 virus and test was negative.

Individuals
COVID-19 data for individuals with an intellectual disability or autism is captured using the Enterprise Incident Management (EIM) system. Data is captured for individuals who:

  • Reside in a private Intermediate Care Facility for Individuals with an Intellectual Disability;
  • Receive Home and Community-based (HCBS) Waiver services;
  • Receive base-funded services; or
  • Reside in ODP-licensed settings but do not receive HCBS Waiver or base-funded services, e.g. are private-pay or whose services are funded by another state.

Data for Pennsylvanians with an intellectual disability or autism who are not known to ODP (i.e. who do not fall into one of the above categories) is not captured.

Staff
COVID-19 data for staff persons who support the individuals identified above was captured using an email resource account maintained by ODP through June 10, 2020. From June 10 forward providers report staff COVID-19 data via a web-based form developed by ODP. “Staff” include any staff employed by the service provider. Supports Coordinators who have no physical contact with enrolled individuals since mid-March are not included.

 

Notes:

  • The amount of time between testing for COVID-19 and obtaining the test results may be as much as 7 days.
  • It takes 24 hours for data submitted through EIM or through the resource account to be available to ODP for aggregate, statewide reporting.
  • Data is not validated against Department of Health records.
  • Data on confirmed, tested negative and deaths is cumulative.
  • Effective June 10, 2020 ODP transitioned to a web-based tool for the reporting of Staff COVID-19 cases.

COVID-19 Data for ODP licensed residential settings and private ICFs by county can be found here.

COVID-19 Data for State Centers is updated daily and can be found here.

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