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Annual Report
Who We Are:
RHA Health Services has been providing services for over 15
years. Currently, RHA supports over 4,000 individuals,
hundreds of whom have moved from institutions. These
numbers do not include families using respite services.
RHA provides an array of services
which means there is real opportunity for people to live with
increasing independence as they learn and develop more
skills.
Qualified clinical staff are important to providing high
quality supports. RHA clinical staff include a Medical Director,
a Director of Nursing, Registered Nurses, Licensed
Practical Nurses, Psychologists, Qualified Professionals (QP's),
Dieticians, Speech-Language Pathologists and Quality Assurance
Specialists. A number of other clinical specialists
are also contracted to provide the necessary services.
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Where We Are:
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RHA strives to provide supports to the person in his or her
own community, whenever possible. We provide support to
people living in homes and apartments throughout North Carolina
and Tennessee
Each RHA region has administrative and
clinical staff to provide oversight and services to people in
their communities.
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People supported by RHA are everywhere
- going to school, buying groceries, eating out, at
football games, concerts, street festivals, teaching in
Vacation Bible School, bowling, going to the movies, going
to the library and the Y, volunteering at hospitals,
providing Meals on Wheels, delivering newspapers and much,
much more.
RHA Health Services and its partner companies are currently
working with 21 of North Carolina's area mental health
programs/local management entities. RHA receives oversight from
each of these programs, as well as from the North Carolina
Division of Facility Services, the North Carolina Division of
Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse
Services, the North Carolina Division of Medical Assistance, and
the State of Tennessee.
How We Support People:
Each individual participates with their family and with
clinical staff to develop a person centered plan each year.
Individuals supported in homes or apartments participate
annually in a formal process to identify personal
outcomes they want to achieve. All the supports identified
as being necessary in the plan are developed specifically for
that individual.
How We Improve Quality:
| RHA Health Services has developed a comprehensive Quality
Assurance/Quality Improvement process. Quality Assurance
activities include record reviews, nursing assessments,
environmental assessments, interaction/engagement assessments,
safety checklists, fire and tornado drills, mealtime
assessments, and monthly review of weights, medication reports
and other incident reports. |
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RHA's Quality Assurance (QA) specialists
routinely audit the quality of services in each home. A Quality
Improvement Plan (QI) in each region addresses issues identified by
RHA's QA activities noted above.
The QI Plan also
addresses issues identified by Personal Outcome Measures,
guardian/family satisfaction surveys, area program/local
management entity surveys and staff surveys.
Guardian and Family Satisfaction Surveys indicate a high
level of satisfaction with RHA Health Services. The 2004
survey had 217 responses, and the average rating across
thirteen questions was 4.5 on a five point scale.
A component of RHA's Ethics and Compliance Program is
training for families and staff in order to make it easier to
families and staff to voice their concerns. Families and staff
can bring issues to any supervisor, or can telephone directly to
the corporate Help Line. The user can either identify
themselves or remain anonymous, and they can be assured that
their concern will be investigated.
In addition to the agencies listed above, RHA Health Services
maintains working relationships with a number of state and
community agencies, including Departments of Social Services,
the Health Care Personnel Registry, and local fire and health
departments.
RHA is accredited by the Council on Quality and
Leadership,
and holds compliance verification by the NC Council of Community
Programs.
| What Others Say About Us:
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Consumers and families in concert with area
mental health programs/local management entities across
North Carolina have frequently selected RHA Health
Services to provide additional services in their
communities. In the last three years alone, area programs
have contracted with RHA to provide vocational services in
coastal North Carolina, two additional respite homes, over
30 alternative family living homes, an ever growing number
of supervised living homes throughout the state, and
periodic services. |
In closing, here are just some of the statements
made by the Council on Quality and Leadership about RHA during
their 2003 accreditation visit:
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The organization does a good job in training staff in
core competencies. (RHA's
Committment to Training)
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People served received the support and encouragement
to get the privacy they needed.
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People served feel respected by their staff and
staff place significant efforts into ensuring respect is
communicated.
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People served feel safe and staff do a good job
planning and providing for people's safety.
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The organization had a clear and understandable zero
tolerance policy on abuse, neglect and exploitation.
There was clear evidence that this was adhered to and
enforced.
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People served were seeing medical professionals regularly
and people were benefiting from good healthcare and
follow-up.
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The organization's employment screening procedures minimized
unnecessary or unreasonable risk.
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The organization has implemented all systems required
to comply with HIPAA (health information privacy).
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The organization's personnel practices met all
governmental fair labor regulations.
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The organization had a budgeting and accounting system
that was based on learning about people's needs and
preferences.
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Performance evaluations clearly evaluate staff on how well
they have learned about people's priority outcomes
and supported people in the achievement of these outcomes.
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