NECC

MINUTES

/
Februaray 24, 2015
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Noble County Community Foundation
/ Ligonier IN
MEETING CALLED BY /
Rich Burden
TYPE OF MEETING / Council Meeting
FACILITATOR / Rich Burden
NOTE TAKER / Pam Deetz
TIMEKEEPER / Pam Deetz
ATTENDEES / Reecie Verslype—Logan, Tammy McMullen—AWS, Rich Burden—INSOURCE, Kirk Stoltzfus—ARC, Shanda Branneman—LEA, Nancy Moore—PNE, Stephanie Furnas—Hand in Hand, Donna Driscoll—Hand in Hand, Bridget Sovinski—SPOE, Clare Mann—1st Kids, Brigette Fairchild-Leazenby—SPOE, Jaimie Burks—SPOE, Betsy Burks—LPCC, Pam Deetz—LPCC, Lydia Bradford-Otatio—CTI, Nicole Wysong--ECA

Agenda topics

INTRODUCTIONS/Minutes/Announcements
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rich burden
DISCUSSION / The meeting was called to order at 12:30 PM. Nancy moved to accept the minutes of the previous meeting, Donna seconded and the minutes were approved.

AGENDA TOPICS

budget/RFF
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Clare mann
DISCUSSION / 1.  37% of the budget was used from July-January, and there have been no out of the ordinary costs.
LPCC updates
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bridget sovinski
DISCUSSION / 1.  Referrals have been the same as 1 year ago, but the number children with IFSPs is down @ 200.
2.  Betsy Burks has been conducting child find in each of the new counties 1 day a month. She has logged a list of 76 places where child find activities have taken place. Fourteen mailings of poster to dr’s offices have been done, and “I Support First Steps” car decals have been created.
3.  A letter for the parents of newborns is to be distributed through the area hospitals. Families can fill this out and will be contacted to follow up with a call and postcard with developmental info at 3 months. We are collaborating with Cluster C at the Parkview NICU in Fort Wayne.
4.  Dr. Lisa Bergeron will be a Dev. Pediatrician with Parkview in Fort Wayne, and will be doing Autism screenings. This will provide local families with an option, rather than traveling to Indy. Dr. Griffin is currently doing the same in South Bend, and is meeting with the doctors in that area. She takes referrals only from drs.
spoe updates
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Bridget sovinski
DISCUSSION / 1.  SPOE is interviewing for an intake position, as one of the new Intake Coordinators left to go to DCS.
2.  A team SLP Allison Thompson is moving to Michigan, and SLP Susan Salee will be taking her place on the A team.
3.  The state did not okay the proposal for cost containment approved by the council at the last meeting. Appropriate referral sources will be targeted, helping to contain costs because assessments will be more efficient. We would like to review closure codes to help determine why intakes aren’t going to IFSP, however that data is not available with the current system. SPOE will be tracking secondary referral sources to help determine any trends.
4.  The process for doing stand alone evals was discussed at the agency committee meeting prior to the council meeting relating to the following issues:
-  Stand alone evals to add services: A motion came from the standing committee to enable the A team to do paper reviews rather than stand alone evals for changes. This will allow for more efficient use of the A team. Tammy seconded, and the motion was carried by the council.
-  The use of A team DTs to do evals for under 9 months: The agency committee moved that SPOEs be allowed to use their discretion for using DTs for referrals under 9 months, excluding direct referrals from the NICUs. This would help in scheduling evals and thus promote more timely start of services and efficient access to services. Donna seconded this motion, and the council approved it.
5.  Nancy reported on a pilot project from Cluster J in which
for referrals of children 29 months or older, the families would have a choice of who does the eval and provides services (FS or the LEA). The council had many questions about how this would be implemented.
6. The Performance Plan is due March 15th. Bridget reported
on the following topics:
n  A list of child find activities will be included and secondary referral sources tracked with the aim of increasing good referrals.
n  The use of informed clinical opinion and consistency of AEPS scoring will be reviewed at the next A team meeting.
n  We are still searching for answers regarding the anomaly of the data about services being provided in the natural environment. We need coding information from billing to help resolve this issue.
n  MOAs for transition are looking good.
n  We are in need of a medical representative to sit on the council.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
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PAM DEETZ
DISCUSSION / 1.  Random audit calls were conducted in Fulton and Kosciusko, with generally positive results. A report was shared with the council.
2.  The concern/complaint log was reviewed. One new issue relating to provider behavior was logged, and several issues relating to availability of providers.
3.  The QA procedure needs to be updated, and Pam reviewed a few needed changes. A revised version will be emailed to council members for input and approval.
4.  Nancy expressed an interest in seeing a log of insurance issues that have been reported.
TRANSITION /
shanda branneman
DISCUSSION / 1. The annual Transition lunch meeting will be from 12-3 on
March 6, 2015 at Goshen College.
AGENCY MEETING
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TAMMY McMULLEN
DISCUSSION / Topics of discussion at the agency meeting included:
1.  The sharing of providers,
2.  How many consults are being done,
3.  Provider needs in Regions 2 & 3,
4.  The coding issues for services, and
5.  The proposals for stand alone evals and use of DTs for under 9 month evals (as reported above).
DATA COMMITTEE / NANCY MOORE
DISCUSSION / 1. Nancy reported on the findings of Michael Conn Powers,
which indicate that African American children and children of lower incomes move onto needing Special Education services more than others, and do not progress as well within the First Steps program.
2. The Data committee also continues to look at the issue of
services provided in the natural environment.
ADDITIONAL ISSUES / 1. A training on “Enhancing Your Treatment Skills of Young
Children” will be offered by Hand in Hand on April 16-17.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:00 PM. The next meeting will be on 4/28/15 at the Noble County Community Foundation. Agency mtg at 10, council at 12:30.