New Horizons’ Performance Improvement Goals
July 2022 through June 2023
FY 2023
FY 2023 proved to be an exciting year for New Horizons. The total number of persons served increased by about 500, and we continue to utilize multiple methods of educating our communities about our presence, services, and programs.
Many of the rule changes related to the covid pandemic were reversed as numbers of covid cases have fallen, but we continue to be cautious and follow CDC guidelines as case numbers fluctuate.
New Horizons continued to offer telehealth services as an option for many of our individuals receiving services, and the number of individuals attending services in person increased.
We piloted a very successful “express clinic” as part of our effort to decrease the time between intake and “first service”. Initially offered three days a week, Intake staff were able to complete the intake process in a significantly shorter amount of time and individuals saw the prescriber on the same morning. This process was so successfully that it has been expanded to five mornings a week.
The nation-wide difficulties with hiring staff and filling vacant positions has improved to some degree. New Horizons has filled a number of empty positions; however, some positions remain vacant. Recruiting licensed staff members in out outlying counties has continued to be very challenging despite intense recruiting efforts.
New Horizons has entered the next phase of becoming a Certified Community Behavioral Health Center (CBHCC). This preparation has included expanding our intake hours and availability, hiring staff and initiating a protocol to coordinate care as our persons served are referred out to other services and specialists in the community, and a host of policy and procedure changes among other improvements. As part of the road to CCBHC, we have expanded our already lengthy list of community partnerships and continue to be open to additional collaboration opportunities.
Throughout the year, New Horizons continued to collect data and work toward meeting our goals for Performance Improvement. A summary of outcomes for these goals follows*:
- MH Residential Services met all their goals related to residents having state approved ID, applying for appropriate benefits and moving to a more independent setting.
- PATH met their goals for number of individuals enrolled and outreach during the year.
- Our Mental Health Supported Employment program obtained a score of Exemplary on the annual fidelity review and increased their score over the previous year. SEP also met their enrollment goal.
- The Rural Rapid Rehousing program met their goal of housing individuals within 30 days of intake for all four quarters.
- Case management and Intensive Case Management struggled to meet their goals of increasing the number of persons served and the frequency of service. This appears to be related to staff turnover and difficulty filling vacant positions.
- For individuals entering the Midtown program, we met the goal of completing lab testing prior to attending group for 9 of the 12 months.
- Journey to Recovery successfully met their goals of contacting 90% (or more) of referrals within 7 business days and residents attending 90% of all weekly meetings.
- Generation Next was successful at contacting all referrals within three days, but we did not meet the goal of increasing enrollment to 2o individuals.
- Intake met the goal of completing the CSSRS and Safety Plan on the day of the individual’s intake visit.
- Intake also met the goal of having 75% of individuals seen by a licensed or associate licensed clinician within 7 days of hospital discharge.
- Utilization Management met their goal of providing each program with training on Carelogic Documentation and Billing.
- Project Change Clubhouse met their goal of obtaining required lab work prior to the first day of treatment, but did not meet their goal of increasing daily attendance.
- Emerge Program met their goal of contacting referred individuals within three days, but also were unable to meet their goal to increase enrollment to 20. Emerge also met their goal of 75% of individuals remaining with the ETP program until transitioning to other services.
- Mental Health and Substance Abuse residential programs met with goal of ensuring that 95% of individuals served have approved identification within 90 days of enrollment and have applied for appropriate entitlement programs within 30 days.
- In the outpatient clinic, staff met the goal of obtaining PHQ-9 scores at first assessment on 90% of individuals.
- Developmental Disabilities Services met their goal of 92% on their customer satisfaction survey.
- Developmental Disabilities did not meet their goal for moving 3% of individuals in Pre-Vocational programs to community employment.
*Please note, this is not a complete list of goals (the complete list is 36 pages long). This is a summary providing information regarding the types of goals and outcomes.