The Impact Prize team is busy reviewing the submissions for this round, and we look forward to reading your submission too! 

We know that our providers do outstanding work with AWARDS, and that ingenuity and commitment to using the software raises client services and agency operations to a higher level. We want you to tell us about the excellent things you've done with AWARDS, and we'll reward the most innovative accomplishments with a cash prize of $1000! Self-nominations are highly encouraged.

Service Referrals

The Service Referral functionality is being revamped to make data entry easier and reporting more robust. When completed later this year, enhancements will include:

• A new Referral Agency feature under System Setup will allow administrative users to add, edit, and remove referral sources and contacts at those referral agencies.  This will make it easier to ensure you always have an accurate list of referral agencies without unnecessary duplication.  
• A new Referral Agency ReportBuilder will allow users to report out on the referral agencies and their contacts.   
• The new Referral Agency list will feed directly into the revamped Service Referral feature, making it easier to pick which agency you are referring clients to.  
• New options will make it easier to specify why you are referring clients to each agency as well as streamline the process for tracking those referrals.  
• A new Service Referrals ReportBuilder is being planned as well.  

Electronic Lab Orders

Foothold Technology has partnered with Change Healthcare to bring electronic lab order functionality into AWARDS, which will bring users a direct connection with Quest, LabCorp, and hundreds of other labs.  The functionality will allow users to:

• Send orders electronically and print specimen labels in the Laboratory Orders feature
• Receive result alerts by email
• View detailed results in the AWARDS Messages module
• Work with results as structured data and view supporting result documentation in the Diagnostic Test Information feature

We've completed the development of the feature and look forward to entering a closed beta in the coming weeks.  Once we've completed the beta, we look forward to making the feature available to all AWARDS agencies.

For more information including pricing, please keep an eye out for updates in the next FootNotes and FootholdConnect.  

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 ask your local Help Desk or your Foothold Client Services representative.  We hope these enhancements improve the way you use AWARDS and provide services!

Deployment:  March 2, 2016

Allergy Data Entry - New "Type" Field

For any programs using the Allergies feature in the Medical module, a "Type" down-down option has been added with a standardized list of allergy types so that the data can be translated into the SNOMED code set. This field will allow us to more easily transmit allergy data across different systems.

HMIS CSV Import

Access to the "CSV Imports" feature is now available to administrative users upon request. This feature allows users to upload a zip file in the HMIS CSV 4.1 format in order to import data into a database.  The file will be validated before import and the user will get a notification message in the Messages module when the file has been uploaded.

ReportBuilder Enhancements

As part of our ongoing effort to make AWARDS ReportBuilders as comprehensive and user-friendly as possible, several enhancements have been deployed to the ReportBuilders listed here:

Demographics ReportBuilder

• Applied Intake Date Re-labeling - For agencies who have requested that the Intake Date variable be re-labeled on their Intake/Admission form, the corresponding Demographics ReportBuilder variable is now re-labeled as well. 

HMIS ReportBuilder Saved Formats

• Updates to Saved Foothold Data Quality Reports - Updates have been distributed as saved ReportBuilder formats in the HMIS ReportBuilder.  The updated report formats are listed below.  Older versions of these report formats are being deleted.   

• Foothold Data Entry Audit Report v2 - This saved report format allows you to compare the admission and discharge dates of clients alongside the dates of data entry to make sure data entry is being done in a timely fashion.  The new version of this report simply changes which fields are used for comparison.  
• Foothold Data Quality Report - Chronically Homeless v4 - When an admission is processed AWARDS calculates and saves the client's Chronic Homeless status.  This report allows you to compare the saved value with the fields that are now used to calculate chronic homelessness.  Because the definition of Chronic Homeless  changed in January 2016, it's a good idea to review this report and see if any clients need to have their admission record updated.  To be considered Chronically Homeless the client needs to meet three criteria.  First, their "Disabling Condition" must be "Yes." Second, either "Client entering from the streets, ES or SH" must be "Yes" or the "HMIS Project Type" of the project the client is being admitted to must be "Emergency Shelter," "Street Outreach," or "Safe Haven."  Third, either the "Approximate Date Started" must be more than 1 year prior to the Admission Date, or the "Number of times the client has been on the streets, in ES, or SH in the past three years including today" must be "4 or more" AND "Total number of months homeless on Streets, ES, or SH" must be "12" or "more than 12."  For households and children, if any adult in the household is calculated to be Chronically Homeless, then all household members should be considered Chronically Homeless too.  The definition of Chronic Homelessness has changed over the years and values which were saved previously may need to be updated by re-saving the client's admission form.
• Foothold Data Quality Report - Duplicate Clients v3 - This version fixes an issue with the report footers.  Run the report for all programs over the last year and look for clients with a footer that shows "Distinct Client ID Values" of anything greater than 1. Those clients are good possible candidates for the Merge Duplicate Consumers tool.
• Foothold Data Quality Report - Universal Data Elements v4 - The list of Universal Data Elements changed in October 2015 and this report format looks at all of them.  The best way to use the Universal Data Elements Report is to sort the report by each column one at a time and look for blank cells as well as any value marked as "Client Doesn't Know," "Client Refused," or "Data Not Collected."  Some of the fields in this report are conditionally required and may be blank for some clients.  The fields "Approximate date started" and "Number of times the client has been on the streets" are conditionally dependent and should only have values stored if "Client entering from the streets" = "Yes."  "Total number of months homeless on the street" is conditionally dependent and should only have values stored if "Number of times the client has been on the streets" has been answered with at least one episode.  "Destination" is only required for clients who have been discharged.  Fields that only apply to heads of household or adults will say "N/A" for household members or children.  

Hospital Episodes ReportBuilder

• New "Current Entitlements" variable - Current entitlements can now be included in the Hospital Episodes ReportBuilder by selecting this new variable from the Demographics section of the variable selection page.

Service Contacts ReportBuilder

• New "Entitlements on Contact Date" variable - This new variable in the Service Contacts ReportBuilder allows you to report on which entitlements were in effect for a client on the date of the services listed in the report.  

At Foothold we have a team of staff who meet every day to discuss the current needs of HMIS and the projects that we are working on.  Our focus lately has been in preparing for the release of several Coordinated Entry projects which will be spread out of over the course of this year.  Our hope is that these projects will allow each Continuum of Care the flexibility to implement their Coordinate Entry Systems in a way that makes the most sense for their community.  In the project pipeline you can read about the changes that will be made to the Service Referral section, which is one critical piece of every Coordinated Entry System.  In future editions I'll share more details about the other projects that are coming up, including the Waiting List Builder and the project to expanded cross-agency communication.

While our work continues to move forward, we have started to hear inklings of news from HUD. The latest word from HUD is that the new revised CoC APR is still not ready to be released in eSNAPS due to budget constraints in congress.  However, at Foothold we've had the new APR designed and ready since last October.  Instead of continuing to wait for HUD to prepare their systems we've decided to release this new APR in a "Beta" format for any databases that want to see it early.  We've also heard from HUD that it is unlikely that there will be a new AHAR report this year.  Instead we will be working to improve the existing AHAR.  Finally, we've been told that HUD will release "Critical Updates" to the existing data standards later this summer, with the changes being implemented in October.  Once we have more details we'll be sure to share them with you.