Track Outcomes for Clients who Move to Multiple Service Areas/Programs
Track Outcomes for Clients who Stay in One Service Area/Program
There are a number of way to track outcomes. Tracking how clients respond to treatment is very important, and it is important to know how best to analyze the data you have using the various approaches that FAS Outcomes provides.
Client Dashboards/Client Reports: Used to track outcomes for an individual client. Shows change in scores over time, as well as research-based clinical indicators for the client. Valuable for addressing an individual client's outcomes over time.
Supervisor Dashboards: Used to track outcomes for a group of clients or the entire organization in real-time. Allows Supervisors to quickly find clients who are not improving and drill-down to the case details for that client. Valuable for proactive supervision.
Aggregate Reports: Used to track short or long-term program outcomes for a group of clients or the entire organization. Allows Supervisors and Program Administrators to document trends and baselines. Valuable for program evaluation.
Data Export: Used to extract data from the system for use in your own reports, research, and analysis. Allows research departments to analyze the data beyond the standard FAS Outcomes reports. Valuable for creating custom reports or combining FAS Outcomes data with data from other information systems.
When using the Dashboards, Aggregate Reports and Export, only assessments done while the client was in the selected Service Areas/Programs will be returned in the results. So, this allows you to run a report for given Service Area and only see Clients assessed in that Service Area/Program (while excluding other Service Areas/Programs).
For Re-assessments, if the Initial was done in a different Service Area/Program than the re-assessment, the outcome data will still be shown on the dashboard/report comparing the Re-assessment to the Initial. Note that only change indicators will be shown comparing the Re-assessment to the Initial. The details of the Initial assessment itself will not be available in drilldowns, nor will the initial assessment count toward the sample size.
The Scenario
We have a Service Area called "Region 1" with Programs of "Intake","Home-based", and "Outpatient".
We have a client named "Transferring, Travis".
Travis starts in Intake and takes an Initial assessment on 1/1/2009.
At 3 months, Travis is transferred to Home-Based and is given his 3 month assessment on 4/1/2009.
At 6 months, Travis is transferred to Outpatient and is given his 6 month assessment on 7/1/2009.
The Results
If you run a dashboard or report for the "Intake" program from 1/1/2009 to 7/1/2009 (note the super dash only allows 3 months...this is hypothetical):
You will only see the Initial Assessment from 1/1/2009.
If you run a dashboard or report for the "Home-Based" program from 1/1/2009 to 7/1/2009 (note the super dash only allows 3 months...this is hypothetical):
If you run the report for "Initial" assessments, no results will be returned (because the Initial was done in another program).
If you run the report for "Re-assessments", only the assessment from 4/1 will be included in the sample size and available in drill-downs, etc.
Note that outcomes WILL be shown comparing the 4/1 assessment to the 1/1 assessment. This is confusing because I said only the 4/1 assessment will be returned. This is still true. The 1/1 assessment is not returned, all you see is the change indicators comparing 4/1 to 1/1, you never see the details of the 1/1 assessment.
If you run a dashboard or report for the "Outpatient" program from 1/1/2009 to 7/1/2009 (note the super dash only allows 3 months...this is hypothetical):
If you run the report for "Initial" assessments, no results will be returned (because the Initial was done in another program).
If you run the report for "Re-assessments", only the assessment from 7/1 will be included in the sample size and available in drill-downs, etc.
The 4/1 assessment will NOT be shown because it was done in another program.
Note that outcomes WILL be shown comparing the 7/1 assessment to the 1/1 assessment. This is confusing because I said only the 7/1 assessment will be returned. This is still true. The 1/1 assessment is not returned, all you see is the change indicators comparing 7/1 to 1/1, you never see the details of the 1/1 assessment.
While the details for tracking outcomes for Clients who have transferred between multiple Service Areas and Programs are somewhat complex, tracking a Client who has stayed in one Service Area and Program is rather simple. It is important to keep a few things in mind when using the Dashboards, Reports, and Exports:
If you run the report for "Initial" assessments, only Initial assessments done within the time frame specified appear. If Re-assessments of the Initial were done since the Initial that are in the time frame specified, no assessments will appear, as the system is only looking for Initial assessments and will only display Initial assessments.
If you run the report for "Re-assessments", all Re-assessments done within the time period specified appear. Re-assessments done on the same Client outside of the time frame specified will not appear, and in no circumstance will Initial assessments appear.