Author: ViaQuest

The ViaQuest/Olentangy Employment Initiative ended for the school year at the end of May.  As a point of reference, this is the program ViaQuest developed with Olentangy Local Schools & TRECA to provide community based work internships in the Village of Powell for current Olentangy Local School students with disabilities.  This year was the first year of the program.

While developing the Olentangy Employment Initiative, the partners determined that the goals will be that students going through this program will have the opportunity to gain on-the-job experience through internships that would then lead to the opportunity for employment &/or more appropriate graduation (graduating prior to 22 years of age).

Our pilot program consisted of three female students.  Nanette, Alexis & Kelly.  All are 19 years  of age.  At the start of this program, all students and their families had the expectation that they would continue to enroll in Olentangy Local Schools through age 22.  The families did not expect for their child to meet the expected outcome goal (early graduation or job).

However… Nanette & Kelly are graduating this year and Alexis was offered a job at her internship site! That would be a  100% success rate of the program!

Olentangy Local Schools is overjoyed with the final outcomes of the program, as are the students, their families & the internship sites.  All of them directly contribute the participation in the Olentangy Employment Initiative as the reason for the students’ success!

More details…

Nanette will be attending cosmetology school after graduation, and will continue to be supported by ViaQuest through OOD funding.

Alexis has been offered a job at Local Roots, and will continue to be supported by ViaQuest through OOD funding.  Due to this job, Alexis is considering ½ day academics next year instead of attending school full time.

Kelly will be attending OSU’s TOPs program for further education after graduation.  A requirement of this program is that all participants must be able to safely navigate crosswalks and understand pedestrian rules. Kelly did not have these skills prior to this year.  She learned and mastered them as part of her individual program in the Olentangy Employment Initiative.  Due to her mastery of these skills, she became eligible to enroll and was accepted in the TOPs program.

This is a tremendous success for ViaQuest, the VES team and specifically Wes Almond & Ashley Radca who worked day-to-day on the Olentangy Employment Initiative!

This program has been such a success that there are already another three students enrolled for next school year and ALL of the current internship sites have agreed to continue to be part of the program.  Additionally, Olentangy Local Schools highlighted the program this month in their newsletter.  Here is a link to that article:  http://issuu.com/olsd/docs/spring_2014_olsd_community_newslett

ViaQuest continues to provide incredible services and outcomes for people of all ages!

ViaQuest Day Services is very excited to launch a new program titled “Home Base”.  The pilot locations for the program are the Valley View and Twinsburg Day Services (in Summit county as well as Cuyahoga county).  Each location has a selected number of participants who have volunteered to be involved in this program.  The groups are selected by staffing ratios and a desire to be out in the community. Twice a week each group will be involved in the community for the entire 5 hours of the program day.  Some of the involvement will include fun activities, and continuing our program “giving back to our communities” through volunteering. Things being set up are pen pal programs with seniors in nursing and assisted living programs and visits to our veterans in hospitals and at their homes.  The program will also include volunteering in the community for:

• Habitat for Humanity

• Animal Protective League

• local food banks and more!

Another important piece of the program is community employment.   The groups will be touring a wide variety of different types of companies and possible employment opportunities.  We will be sharing this information with our ViaQuest Employment Service division weekly to discuss the interests shown individually in the quest for gained employment in our communities.

DUBLIN, Ohio (June 11, 2014) – Today, ViaQuest, Inc.

announces that ViaQuest Administrator of Serenity Hospice, Carol Ward-Agee is named to an additional role of Vice President of ViaQuest Hospice of Indiana.

Serenity Hospice, formerly part of Trilogy’s Indiana TriStar Home Health and Hospice operations, was acquired in April by ViaQuest, a leading Midwest provider of hospice and home health services. Since 2005, Ward-Agee has held various leadership roles with Trilogy Health Services, playing an instrumental role as a leader in the long term care industry and will now oversee all hospice operations in Indiana for ViaQuest.

“Ward-Agee has demonstrated strong leadership with hospice, her focus on helping people and their families through the delivery of compassionate and high-quality care is an attribute that we hold dear at ViaQuest’” said Rich Johnson, CEO of ViaQuest. “Carol will play an integral role assisting us expand our delivery model throughout Indiana to benefit those in need of hospice services.”

As Administrator of Serenity Hospice, Ward-Agee ensures that quality services and care are provided to each community served and leads her team through daily operations. As Vice President of Indiana Hospice, ViaQuest, she incorporates visionary leadership to help identify areas of Indiana that will benefit from its services in the community, including employment opportunities. She will head the strategic planning and oversight of future operations throughout Indiana.

“We have built a great team at Serenity Hospice,” said Ward-Agee, “And ViaQuest has embraced our mission to extend hospice services throughout Indiana. As we move forward in our endeavors, it is foremost that each patient receives quality, individualized, compassionate care during this life stage.”

Before working with Trilogy, Ward-Agee served as a healthcare consultant to several long term-care and hospice organizations in the Midwest. Hailing from Indiana, she has a blended educational background in business management and healthcare as well as specialized studies in gerontology and clinical leadership from various universities in Indiana and Colorado.

About ViaQuest

ViaQuest, Inc. is a healthcare company that believes strongly in choice for its employees and the people it serves. Its areas of expertise include home health and hospice, mental and behavioral health, and developmental disabilities throughout Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. ViaQuest offers quality, highly-personalized, specialized and cost-effective care, empowering individuals to function independently and live their best possible lives. Through a wide range of innovative services referred to as ViaQuest’s Circle of Care, a skilled, dedicated staff ensures that the people served are active participants in their own care. The company is based in Dublin, Ohio. For more information, call ViaQuest at 800-645-3267 or visit www.ViaQuestInc.com.

The Ohio-based leading regional provider of healthcare services will use genetic testing to help the people it serves achieve improved pain management and behavioral health outcomes.

 DUBLIN, Ohio (June 10, 2014) –ViaQuest, Inc. announced today that it is expanding its innovative personalized medicine program for the more effective use of prescription medications to include patients who have ongoing pain management and behavioral health needs.

As part of the initiative, individuals in the ViaQuest Hospice or Home Health programs in Ohio will be eligible to receive a simple genetic test, the results of which will enable physicians to determine which pain or behavioral medications should be administered in the correct dosages and time frames to best meet the individual needs of each patient. Although the genetic testing program initially will be available in ViaQuest’s Ohio locations, the healthcare provider intends to expand it to the ViaQuest Indiana and Pennsylvania locations in the near future.

The personalized medicine program is a form of what is known in the healthcare industry as pharmacogenetics, which is the practice of using genetic profiles, combined with data such as physical and environmental characteristics, to more accurately prescribe the medication that works best for that individual. It incorporates the study of how genes affect the human response to drugs.

Earlier this year, ViaQuest became the first hospice provider in Ohio to provide a pharmacogenetics pain management program for its patients. Now, the company is expanding pain management to other healthcare programs it provides and is incorporating a behavioral health medication component.

“We are proud to be a pioneer of our industry and are committed to finding creative and innovative solutions to improve quality of life for our patients,” said Kathy Richard, chief clinical officer of ViaQuest and a nationally recognized leader for her work in pharmacogenetics. “ViaQuest’s mission is to set the standard for quality through highly-personalized, cost-effective health care.”

Helping to take the guesswork out of dosages and combinations of prescriptions, pharmacogenetic testing enables physicians to tailor a personalized treatment plan based on the genetics of each individual, increasing the likelihood of effective outcomes while diminishing possible side effects.

“Genetic makeup accounts for 20 to 95 percent of the variability of a drug’s effect,” Richard said. “With a simple mouth swab, the metabolism and ability to process specific medications are assessed to determine the efficacy of a medication for an individual. Currently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends genetic testing on 122 prescribed medications.”

ViaQuest will collect data over the next three years to gain insights into the effectiveness of its program. Richard expects the data will show improved clinical outcomes, increased medication compliance, lower hospitalization and readmission rates and a significant cost savings related to decreased adverse drug reactions and current ineffective drug therapy.

ViaQuest partners with PGXL Laboratories in providing pharmacogenetic testing. Based in Louisville, Ky., the internationally-recognized company is the first independent lab to be certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to conduct the testing.

About ViaQuest

ViaQuest, Inc. is a healthcare company that believes strongly in choice for its employees and the people it serves. Its areas of expertise include home health and hospice, mental and behavioral health, and developmental disabilities. ViaQuest offers quality, highly-personalized, specialized and cost-effective care, empowering individuals to function independently and live their best possible lives. Through a wide range of innovative services referred to as ViaQuest’s Circle of Care, a skilled, dedicated staff ensures that the people served are active participants in their own care. The company is based in Dublin, Ohio. For more information, call ViaQuest at 800-645-3267 or visit www.ViaQuestInc.com.

ViaQuest’s Mental Health Mobile Treatment Team receives Platinum Award and ViaQuest’s Kathy Richard honored for Individual Professional Leadership

DUBLIN, Ohio (May 29, 2014) – ViaQuest, Inc. was  recently recognized with the 2014 National Case In Point Platinum Award in Behavioral Health Case Management for its Mental Health Mobile Treatment Team.

The award, presented during Dorland Health’s Fifth Annual Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC, recognizes the most successful and innovative case management programs working to improve processes across the healthcare industry. Dorland’s recognizes companies and organizations that set the standard for programs that deliver sustained success across a variety of disciplines and settings in the overarching continuum of care coordination.

“We focus on the uniqueness of each person and specialize in delivering integrated and comprehensive services to meet an individual’s needs,” said Rich Johnson, CEO and founder of ViaQuest. “Recognizing that everyone deserves the opportunity to live the best life possible, we are committed to providing a continuum of care in home and healthcare settings.”

ViaQuest’s Mental Health Mobile Treatment Team is led by Lori Lasosky, Vice President of Home Health and Hospice, and includes psychiatric nurses, social workers, nurse practitioners and certified home health aides who coordinate care across the service delivery system to bring quality services and support to patients in skilled nursing facilities.

The team concept was first launched as a pilot project from Jan. 31 to Aug. 7, 2012, encompassing a nurse assessment, doctor visit, computerization of medical notes and patient/facility follow-up. During that period, the program was able to significantly reduce the need for hospitalization, as only five of 98 patients required hospital admissions. The team continues to expand and improve efforts through facility training, development and implementation of behavior plans, and dose reduction meetings to decrease psychotropic usage with no increase in hospitalization.

Also recognized by Dorland’s was ViaQuest’s Chief Clinical Officer, Kathy Richard, with an honorable mention in the Individual Professional Category of Case/Care Manager Leadership for the National Platinum Awards. An industry leader, she is nationally recognized for her work with the development and implementation of Ohio’s first hospice-based pharmacogenetic pain-management program, which considers an individual’s genetic makeup when developing a pain management regimen.   She has a tireless desire to advance healthcare through care coordination and innovative approaches to disease and case management.

The one thing that sets ViaQuest apart from other companies is our culture.  As ViaQuest employees, we all strive to embrace our Mission, Vision and Values in order to better serve our individuals.  We have recently begun further integration of technology which will allow us to enhance and continue to provide the best services possible.  This embodies two of our core values including Creativity and Excellence.  We are problem solvers and are always looking for new ways to approach challenges by using unique solutions to provide the highest level of care to the individuals we serve.

iPad and mobile computing – Our ViaQuest Residential Services homes and ViaQuest Day Services programs now have iPads as well as touch screen computers which we are using to streamline and improve the process for documentation.  Employees at these locations are submitting electronic time sheets as well as electronic documentation of the services provided to the individuals at these locations.  The iPads are allowing us to use software to increase efficiency as well as reduce the amount of time employees document allowing more time to directly serve clients.

CareTracker software – One type of software we have been using is called CareTracker.  We have recently invested a lot of time, resources and commitment by developing a plan to use it for ViaQuest Residential Services throughout the entire state of Ohio.  We just recently provided extensive training for our employees that manage and work in the Central Region supported living homes.  In the near future, we will also be using CareTracker in the North, West and South regions.  This specific software allows our dedicated employees in the client’s homes to document all of the services necessary for them to live as independently as possible and develop new skills.  Development of new skills and maintaining current skills is a key to their happiness and sense of independence.  Program directors can access this data in real time to ensure services are delivered as well as send important messages through the system to staff.  Reports generated by this software allow for us to focus on outcomes, thus resulting in better services.  Each plan in CareTracker is specifically tailored to a client as outlined in their Individual Service Plan.

Medical Records and CareManager software – In addition, we are also implementing Medical Records and CareManager software for use with ViaQuest Psychiatric & Behavioral Solutions

as well as ViaQuest Residential Services.  This will greatly improve efficiency as well as increase the quality of our services.  Psychiatrists will be electronically ordering prescriptions, thus decreasing errors and billing will be generated from this software allowing for a major reduction in time spent behind the scenes.  Goals, objectives and tasks across service lines will be collected in one efficient system that can be monitored and updated by members of the clinical team.  This software will fully integrate our services resulting in better outcomes for the individuals we serve.

Real time feedback – Another way ViaQuest has advanced services to meet our client’s needs is by using customer and client feedback surveys documented on iPads/Laptops to obtain real time information in order to track and trend satisfaction and complaints. Our Client Advocate is directly involved with this process and can act quickly to step in and address and resolve any complaints or issues brought to our attention through these surveys and client feedback programs.  This allows customers and clients alike to benefit from quick resolutions using this ViaQuest team approach.

ViaQuest’s commitment to technology allows us to further our mission as well as to continue our endeavor to become the company of your CHOICE.