Therap Responds to Newly Released Joint OIG, ACL, and OCR Incident Management Report in Group Homes

WATERBURY, Conn., Jan. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Joint Report of The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG), Administration for Community Living (ACL), and Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Ensuring Beneficiary Health and Safety in Group Homes Through State Implementation of Comprehensive Compliance Oversight, found serious lapses in health and safety policies for individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

OIG's audits found states "failed to ensure that":

• Group homes reported all critical incidents;
• All critical incidents reported by group homes were properly recorded;
• Group homes reported incidents at the correct severity level;
• All data on critical incidents were collected and reviewed; and
• Reasonable suspicions of abuse or neglect were properly reported.

Report findings resulted in the OIG, ACL, and OCR issuing four key compliance oversight components to ensure health and safety in group-home settings: 

1. Reliable incident management and investigation processes;
2. Audit protocols that ensure compliance with reporting, review, and response requirements;
3. Effective mortality reviews of unexpectant deaths; and
4. Quality assurance mechanisms that ensure the delivery and fiscal integrity of appropriate community-based services.

Therap provides a COTS comprehensive incident reporting solution that supports compliance with federal and state regulations, including:

• State and other oversight agencies have complete information about incidents and resolutions.
• Oversight agencies can generate incident status reports, audits, recommendations, and findings.
• Medication errors.
• Injury reports - type, severity, treatment details
• Abuse reports systematically flagged for neglect and exploitation, with automatic, real-time alerts using internal HIPAA-compliant messaging system.
• Automated alerts and notifications based on assigned priority levels.
• Business intelligence dashboard reporting.
• Investigation monitoring.

Since 2003 Therap has provided incident management, investigation, resolution documentation and reporting. Therap's comprehensive Incident Management software supports the "model practices" suggested in the report by helping states implement:

• Incident management and investigation;
• Incident management audits;
• Mortality reviews; and
• Quality assurance.

Therap's incident reporting system is offered at no cost to State Governments.

Currently nine states are utilizing Therap's software as their state incident reporting solution.  Over 500,000 individuals with I/DD utilize Therap in all 50 states.

"We have an incident reporting solution that meets the recommendations included in this Report. We're able ensure that states are up and running in no more than 90 days," said Jeff Case, National Director of Business Development.

For more information, visit TherapServices.net or contact Jeff Case at 816-522-3683 or [email protected].

SOURCE Therap Services