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In this issue:

User's Conference Tickets on Sale!
FootholdConnect Events
Highlights from the Project Pipeline
What's New in AWARDS
This Month in HMIS
Tip of the Month - It's All About the Extras
Foothold News & Blog

User's Conference Tickets on Sale!

NYU Kimmel Center, New York City
Thursday, July 11, 2019
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Eastern

Our 12th annual User's Conference will build on last year's back to school theme with a focus on the ever-changing landscape of care. 

Find out how Senior Advisor David Bucciferro is representing Foothold and you in the national policy conversations around health information technology and the fight against opioid abuse...

Discover how your agency can leverage your data to drive decisions and improve outcomes with a business intelligence tool such as AWARDS InSights...

...and more!

This year sees the return of our virtual conference experience so you can attend sessions without leaving the comfort and convenience of your desk. If you aren't able to join us in person, we hope you will join us online.

To purchase your 2019 Foothold User's Conference Early Bird tickets today, click here.  (The last day to purchase discounted Early Bird tickets is Tuesday, April 30th.)

For more information and highlights of last year's conference, click here.  If you have any questions about the User's Conference, please email [email protected].

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FootholdConnect Events

For more information on upcoming FootholdConnect events, please go to FootholdConnect on the AWARDS Home screen's navigation bar, or visit the Upcoming Events page of the Foothold Technology web site.  And don't forget... If you've missed any recent FootholdConnect events, you can access the recordings for those in Online Help here!

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Highlights from the Project Pipeline

COMING SOON!  AWARDS InSights - The Business Intelligence Tool You've Been Waiting For!

We are very excited to announce that we'll soon be ready to release AWARDS InSights, our new BI tool, powered by Sisense. If you've been looking for a smarter way to see your data, this is what you've been looking for. We've been building dashboards to measure program activity, productivity, service delivery, and outcomes using AWARDS data in ways we've never been able to do before. These dashboards will show you your data in a whole new InSightful way!

Stay tuned to upcoming issues of Footnotes for more detailed information. We expect to make AWARDS InSights available in early summer 2019!

Transportation Functionality Enhancements Are On The Way!

We are very excited to let you know that we are currently hard at work building out new and improved features in AWARDS to help you better document, track and bill for the transportation services you provide. The first update will be a new Mileage field in the Progress Notes feature for agencies who want to utilize progress notes for transportation tracking and billing. This will be followed by a new and improved Transportation module in AWARDS that will replace the old model currently in use. All of the helpful feedback you have provided over the years about the challenges with this existing feature have been considered for this project and we are excited to get to work! Stay tuned to upcoming issues of FootNotes for more details and anticipated release dates!

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What's New in AWARDS

As we have done in previous months, we are continuing to make available a new set of useful features and functions to users of AWARDS. As always, this round of upgrades is provided free of charge to all AWARDS users and is described below. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the Help Desk. We hope these enhancements improve the way you use AWARDS and provide services!

Deployment Date:  4/10/19

BillingBuilder - Configure Billing Types "Include Admission Hour/Discharge Hour" Option Split

To allow for more flexibility in 837I reporting, the Configure Billing Types > Include Admission Hour/Discharge Hour option has been split into two separate settings:

  Include Admission Hour - When selected, the 837I file reports the qualifier "DT" in the DTP*435 segment to represent a date and time being reported as well as an admission hour.

  Send Discharge Hour in 837I (DTP*096) - When selected, the 837I file reports the DTP*096 segment as well as a discharge hour.

FormBuilder - Configuration Process Enhancements

For more flexibility and ease of use, we have made a few minor changes in the FormBuilder configuration process:

  The Add New Form link now appears at the top of the FormBuilder Index page, allowing users to access it quickly without scrolling down the page. 

  The maximum number of characters allowed in the Form Name field has been increased to 50, allowing for slightly longer form names to be saved. 

We hope you find these updates helpful!

HMIS Bed Inventory Feature - NEW!

A new HMIS Bed Inventory feature is now available under System Setup > Agency Program Information for HMIS projects with a residential project type (ES, TH, SH, PH, and RRH). This feature does NOT replace the existing Residence Units functionality, but instead works in tandem with it to provide an accurate chart of housing inventory for residential HMIS projects. Until now this information has been saved behind the scenes and used to generate the Inventory.csv file found in HMIS Exports and in the LSA report. Now, system administrators and Local CoC Admins can access the HMIS Bed Inventory feature to make notes about the numbers of beds and units available at any point in time, along with the type of bed. This feature can even be used by projects that don't participate in HMIS or who simply upload data. Users with the necessary permissions to access the Residence Units feature will also be able to access HMIS Bed Inventory. An accompanying ReportBuilder is also available, making it easier than ever to produce a full Housing Inventory Chart for a Continuum of Care.

ReportBuilders - New Data Variables Available

As part of our ongoing efforts to make the ReportBuilders across AWARDS more comprehensive and user-friendly, we've made the following enhancements:

  Demographics ReportBuilder and Medications ReportBuilder - For programs that have been configured to display and record HIV information as part of Charts > Medical > Medical Info records, HIV Test Date and HIV Verification Date have been added as ReportBuilder data variables.  These new options are located within the "Profile" section of the Demographics ReportBuilder Options page, and within the "Demographics" section of the Medications ReportBuilder Options page.

  NOTE: Only users with the "HIV/AIDS Status Data Access" data entry/access permission have these new data variables available to them.

ReportBuilders - New Saved Report Formats Available

For agencies transitioning to the new Progress Notes E-Signatures Configuration feature, we have created several new saved system reports to aid in the process:

  E-Signable Records ReportBuilder - The new Foothold Technology - E-Signatures Configuration Transition Report saved format is intended for agencies transitioning to the Progress Notes E-Signatures Configuration feature. The report provides you with a list of partially signed progress notes that have 1) multiple signatures available for signing; 2) at least one signature that has been applied; and 3) at least one signature that has not been applied. We strongly recommend using this report to determine which progress notes still need to be signed BEFORE switching to the new feature. Once the Progress Notes E-Signatures Configuration feature has been turned on globally in your database, new configured signature sets will be applied to any previously unsigned progress notes, and for all new notes moving forward. Additionally, any previously partially signed notes will remain locked as they are, with no additional signing options once the new feature is set.

  Electronic Signatures Configuration ReportBuilder - The new Foothold Technology - Progress Notes E-Signatures Configurations (By Note Type) saved report format  is designed for agencies that have transitioned or are in the process of transitioning to the Progress Notes E-Signatures Configuration feature.  It's a great starting point for seeing how electronic signature configurations are set up by progress note type.

  Progress Notes ReportBuilder - For agencies with the new Progress Notes E-Signatures Configuration feature already turned on, the following saved report formats are designed to enable you to see which progress notes have been signed and, if so, the details of those signatures. They also allow you to easily see which notes still need signing, and by whom:

  Foothold Signature Status Report - By Client 

  Foothold Signature Status Report - By Employee

Both of these new formats are available when the Display One Row Per "Signature Action" option is selected on the Progress Notes ReportBuilder Settings page.  

Restricted Census Access - Training Film Now Available

The Restricted Census Access feature is an optional database enhancement used to configure client chart access for users with the "Restricted Census Access" exception override permission. This permission restricts users from seeing any client charts unless they are specifically granted access to those clients within this feature. This restriction applies to all programs the user has access to. There is now a recording in the AWARDS Online Help that demonstrates how this feature works and its related reports. To access the recording, click here.

Spell Check - Removed

We have removed the Spell Check button that was available on some text fields in AWARDS. Modern browsers have their own spell check feature, and we encourage you to use that functionality moving forward.  If you need assistance setting up spell check in your browser, please consult that browser's Help system for instructions.

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This Month in HMIS

Lots of exciting changes are afoot in the world of Homeless Management Information Systems!  

First of all, those of you who were looking forward to a new PATH Annual Report Survey will need to wait just a little bit longer. SAMHSA and HUD are delaying the release of this new report until June 1, 2019.

The biggest concern for HMIS System Administrators right now is the Longitudinal System Analysis (LSA) report. Abt Associates has sent out error reports to every CoC and is asking that errors be addressed by April 15th. What they failed to mention is that many code changes were given to vendors in December 2018 and January 2019, making the report that was submitted back in December rather useless. We are recommending that communities re-run the LSA and ask their Abt Associate contact to re-evaluate the file to see what errors and warnings still exist. Also, be sure to check out the new HMIS Bed Inventory feature (described above), which will help you see exactly what inventory information is being reported.

Last month, vendors and HMIS administrators were given a sneak preview of the Data Standards changes that will be coming this October. Among these changes include new data elements for tracking Coordinated Entry events and client assessments. We will be providing a deeper look at the Data Standards changes at the User's Conference in July.  

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Tip of the Month - It's All About the Extras: Improve Your AWARDS Experience with Optional Enhancements

Each month, Foothold Technology makes new and improved AWARDS functionality available to all users free of charge. Many of those enhancements are automatically deployed to all AWARDS databases, and are announced to users via the FootNotes Monthly Digest and FootholdConnect.

Other enhancements are not deployed automatically, and instead must be requested so that they can be turned on for you behind-the-scenes in AWARDS. These are optional features that may not be required for your agency, but may be useful to you in your service provision and documentation.

This month, we're highlighting optional features available for service contacts records, accessed under the Services - Individual and Services - Group modules. For instance, you can:

  Customize the Location drop-down list in progress notes, contacts logs, and group notes

  Configure a list of alert keywords that generates the Progress Note Nightly Keyword Alert Scan internal audit message

  Prevent users from entering future start times on progress notes, supportive services checklist, and group notes

  Apply services entered in a client's Supportive Services Checklist record to additional household members enrolled in the program (requires that the Household be turned on in your database)

  Auto-calculate Duration or End Time for progress notes, supportive services checklist, group notes, and daily checklist

  Add a co-leader option for scheduled group activities

  Enable identifiers, including the client's name, AWARDS ID, Medicaid ID, Chart ID, and any configured Client Identifiers, to print in the header of all client-specific records

To have these and many more options turned on for you behind-the-scenes - at no additional cost - click here and complete the Service Contacts Implementation Request Form. If you have questions about any of the features, please contact the Help Desk.

For more information on available enhancements in other areas of AWARDS, click here.

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Foothold News & Blog

Check out the latest in Foothold news and recent entries from the Foothold blog!

Standardizing Data Collection to Support Clinicians in the Opioid Fight - Learn about David Bucciferro's Involvement with the EHRA Opioid Crisis Task Force 

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