One Heck of a Day!!

Mornin .. morning ... *SIGH* Hehe Sorry

Had to get all that off our chest! Well, we made it through day one! And so far ... it looks like we are doing pretty good. We wrote directly to Vince yesterday ... so, Vince ... don’t read this part it’s a replay, k? :)

The surveyor is pretty good and maybe what is more important is that he seems to like us! He is from Kansas and is retiring from the Chief Executive position of a large 200 person served facility. He’s been doing CARF surveys for like 27 years and he’s gotten almost 300 of them done.

We talked to him in general and about Outcomes and Rights. Sister and our friend did Finances. Our friend did health and safety and smoozed lunch yesterday and will again today. Sister did leadership and human resources. Today the other Q and I will do program and client files. Community is happening all along. Today he’ll talk to some of the DSP’s and clients. I’ll also go through Accessibility with him. He’s already met with our financier from the State, a representive from our Advisory Board and a parent.

At night time, he has to be writing his reports ... think that will happen a lot of Wednesday too. He will probably peek in during the Thinking group and he has to give us our exit report an leave by 11 am Wednesday. From what we can put together so far ... he is very fast and deliberately hard striking on some very main points, he’s listens to our verbal and is thinking through out. Part of his work seems to be checking us out and the other part to give guidance.

So far, I think he’s made about 4 recommendations ... these are for improvements, not about standards that have not been made and have to be corrected. I think effort toward working through the 94 standards count for a lot ... and in that area we shine. Last year, we scored 97% and we had about 10 recommendations.

Now, the really, really good part. The toughest part of accreditation is making it past the Outcomes. Thing is ... he read my Outcome report before he got here. To do that report was a very, very long standard #14. Standard #12 was the matching difficult one. It encompasses 11 reports on "Business Improvements." We were very thorough in at least 10 out of 11. Thinking tonight I will redo what I can on the 11th one, because he wants to take a copy of them with him.

Basically, what he is saying to us and our bosses is that he thought my reports were, well, he used the word, "exemplary." I figure that wemust of looked confused, because he went on to diagram verbally and with his hands. He said, "it means you are head AND shoulders above any other site he had ever surveyed." It was like man oh man.... He says they are so good that he believes they should be marketed. I’m very sure I have no idea what that might mean, but I figure that our friend will know and we’ll be able to talk about it today.

The really neat thing now??? He’s offered us a job at CARF surveying like he does! Like Holy "Whatever!" I guess their was a fair amount of talking about me through Sr. Tess and my friend, the surveyor said, he was going to talk to them about the opportunity he is offering. I would still work at the Center, but a minimum of 3 times a year, CARF would pay for my travel and accommodations to go check out other sites ... like ours ... all over the United States and Canada and a few European countries.

They would also pay to train me. It would be a 5 day intensive course in Arizona. It’s not something one does for the money. Hehe, they pay you only $50 a day. It’s more about ... (this is from what I read on their site last night ... It’s an opportunity to learn from other organizations, a chance to contribute to the quality of services in an organization, recognition of personal achievement and excellence in the field, an opportunity for professional networking, training, complimentary registration fees at CARF sponsored events, and complimentary CARF publications, including the standards manual (couple hundred dollars).

They say that for St. Rose the benefits are the new ideas I will get from surveying, an opportunity to share with others our innovations, exposure to national and international trends in the field, and they get a staff member (me), who is up-to-date with changes in the field and the CARF standards.

This would be a really, really big deal. If I was found to be acceptable, I could do more surveying which is what they really want, but for the sake of time argument ... we won’t say that directly to Sr. Yet. In July, I will have been at the Center 5 years, and that is one of the requirements of the position. There is two kinds of surveyors. One is administrative which would have required being in a position like Sr.’s which I am not. The other is to become a program surveyor. That would mean surveying the direct service and treatment areas in Employment and Community Services.

Pretty big deal. I don’t think I would ask for a raise of pay from Sister, but I would like to ask for a position change. If I accepted the position, I would like to go in it with a title at the Center of "Program Director." It would mean doing CARF, teaching the Staff not only program development, but State Certification Training, plus of course developing training programs for the individuals as well as conducting groups for the individuals in Thinking, Leadership, and Self-Advocacy. I would be a part of the Annual meetings for the clients, but not do Qnotes. I would be over the Q’s and maintain a position on the Administration Team and Behavioral/Human Rights Committee. It be a very, very good position, but the thing is that Sr. Would have to come up with the money to hire another Q. That’s the tricky part.

There was one recommendation he made to our work on Outcomes. It was something about coming up with Goals, such that ... they could be achieved. By that a number or percent would be calculated, targeted, and reported.  So if we would make a goal of making 95 widgets, or raise a satisfaction score by 12%, we would know if we met the goal, then you would devise an action plan to change or explain the current position met.  It be a regrouped problem/resolutionn to solve. Currently what I am doing is the numbers work on a multitude of indicators, but I'm only noting and comparing.  It's another step further to say, I would like the program to be at 63% of whatever and this is what we'll do differently this next year.  We discussed it at length. Then, he gave me a copy of his organizations Performance analysis report. Like man oh man, between that model and what I’m able to do, we have no doubt of surpassing what he is doing.

This morning already, we read the complete 51 page report. Hehe ... were pretty quick! Anyway ... the point is ... although his center is working with a lot more people, from everything I gathered, it’s not even coming close to ours as far as improving quality of life. I rectify that statement, in that, their reports of clients and stakeholders is much more like ... he got a job, or he’s now living in one of their residents in their own bedroom. That seems to have been THE goal.

But, they mention absolutely nothing what happens to the individual’s minds or mindsets over the course of the year, or in gaining perspective of adaptive/maladaptive behavior. Or, nothing in regard to personal goals like building friendships, values, respect and independence. Our way of doing things covers all of these. I think thins AND the razzle/dazzle I am able to do with numbers is why he thought so highly of our report as exemplary.

Another thing we discovered is the difference in populations we are serving. In our Center we only have like 3% of the people who have mild mental retardation. His is like 41% mild. That means that 97% of our people are below ability of his top 41%. We also have a more diverse population. In our organization about 80% are minorities while his population is 84% white. Usually that means our population would be more economically disadvantaged as well, especially since they are suburban Kansas (population 48,000) where we are south side Chicago (population like 4 million). The last glaring detail is that they have less than 1% of their population with mental illnesses, where we have about 32% with mental illnesses. Big differences all around. Seems to say our group is in general more challenged than the one he’s working with.

Don’t know ... don’t know. But, I do know that he wants a decision by today on the job offer so he can write it up before he goes tomorrow. Dr. M.? You keepin up with things here? Hehe, or all others ... any opinions so far on what should be done next??? Yeeks, beside the thought, it’s time, we get ourselves moving for this next day. Hopin that it will be as wonderful as yesterday was! :) Hehe, we told him yesterday about after CARF surveying that we’ll be lookin forward to relaxing on the Lake with a slurpee. Then later after we’d received such high praise, we said we might get two slurpees! Heheh ... at the end of the day, he said, "I think you deserve three!"