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QUESTION: Please share feedback, anonymously, about how your organization (providers) has received and benefited from Remote Supports. Additionally, please share information regarding the level of oversight you experience and how safety concerns have been addressed. Our program and organization essentially benefit from it based on a staffing level. We aren't having to staff during certain hours, so it allows us to free that staff up to work in a more hands on location. However, it also benefits those we serve by giving them a little more freedom and independence. The companies we work with handle all of the oversight. They learn each consumer's plans and if anything happens outside of the realm of their plan, they contact the manager immediately. Safety concerns are addressed as they arise, unfortunately when you have staffing 24 hours a day you don't truly learn all of the safety concerns so with remote supports, if something happens, we are contacted immediately, and it's shared with the individual's team. The team as a whole decides what should happen to address those concerns, whether it's changing up how they receive remote supports (adding or taking away equipment) or counseling individuals on what could happen and what they can do to prevent safety issues from happening. We use remote services for many of our non-24 sites. It has been a benefit, if the individual needed something, they could press the button and the person responding can assist them or contact the on-call person if needed. It’s provided safety as well. One person we serve was having a health issue and through the camera in their living room, they were able to contact 911 and contact us so we could meet them at the ER. Some individuals want to be without staff but find the monitoring a comfort so that they know they are not alone. We as the provider, pay for the installation of the services. We pay the monthly fee out of the reimbursement we get. The cost is based on the number of hours each month the service was used. We have a handful of individuals who get remote supports at night. They have staffing 12 hours per day and remote 12 hours overnight. I wouldn’t say that we have benefited as an organization, rather the individuals have. The newfound independence and freedom has meant a lot to these particular consumers. We have an on-call rotation for support, and within our contract we had to identify and communicate who those contacts are. Those contacts are required to be within 20 minutes of the individual's home, and they are paid a stipend to be on-call. I suppose one benefit to the organization, particularly as we all struggle with staffing, is that remote supports free up some of your staff. There are many practical options being offered by remote support companies and I have been encouraging staff to consider and advocate for these options when they feel like someone, they work with is independent enough. We tried remote support yet a lot of our participants either didn’t have adequate technology or desire to talk for long periods on video. For our people who were still working they wanted to continue to see us at work as their jobs were ever changing as the world around us continues to do on a daily basis. We did have a telemedicine release for our consumers yet once again they didn’t really understand how they were going to be supported via a video if they didn’t have the technology or desire. As for our company computer network, the security didn’t allow us to use any of the streaming video services so for the most part we had to use our phones. This information is a compilation of suggestions, ideas, and opinions shared by INARF Members in response to the featured question. This information should not be considered official interpretation or guidance of State or Federal Policy. Additionally, statements within this document do not necessarily reflect an official position or opinion of INARF.
QUESTION: Please share feedback, anonymously, about how your organization (providers) has received and benefited from Remote Supports. Additionally, please share information regarding the level of oversight you experience and how safety concerns have been addressed.
Our program and organization essentially benefit from it based on a staffing level. We aren't having to staff during certain hours, so it allows us to free that staff up to work in a more hands on location. However, it also benefits those we serve by giving them a little more freedom and independence. The companies we work with handle all of the oversight. They learn each consumer's plans and if anything happens outside of the realm of their plan, they contact the manager immediately. Safety concerns are addressed as they arise, unfortunately when you have staffing 24 hours a day you don't truly learn all of the safety concerns so with remote supports, if something happens, we are contacted immediately, and it's shared with the individual's team. The team as a whole decides what should happen to address those concerns, whether it's changing up how they receive remote supports (adding or taking away equipment) or counseling individuals on what could happen and what they can do to prevent safety issues from happening.
We use remote services for many of our non-24 sites. It has been a benefit, if the individual needed something, they could press the button and the person responding can assist them or contact the on-call person if needed. It’s provided safety as well. One person we serve was having a health issue and through the camera in their living room, they were able to contact 911 and contact us so we could meet them at the ER. Some individuals want to be without staff but find the monitoring a comfort so that they know they are not alone. We as the provider, pay for the installation of the services. We pay the monthly fee out of the reimbursement we get. The cost is based on the number of hours each month the service was used.
We have a handful of individuals who get remote supports at night. They have staffing 12 hours per day and remote 12 hours overnight. I wouldn’t say that we have benefited as an organization, rather the individuals have. The newfound independence and freedom has meant a lot to these particular consumers. We have an on-call rotation for support, and within our contract we had to identify and communicate who those contacts are. Those contacts are required to be within 20 minutes of the individual's home, and they are paid a stipend to be on-call. I suppose one benefit to the organization, particularly as we all struggle with staffing, is that remote supports free up some of your staff.
There are many practical options being offered by remote support companies and I have been encouraging staff to consider and advocate for these options when they feel like someone, they work with is independent enough.
We tried remote support yet a lot of our participants either didn’t have adequate technology or desire to talk for long periods on video. For our people who were still working they wanted to continue to see us at work as their jobs were ever changing as the world around us continues to do on a daily basis. We did have a telemedicine release for our consumers yet once again they didn’t really understand how they were going to be supported via a video if they didn’t have the technology or desire. As for our company computer network, the security didn’t allow us to use any of the streaming video services so for the most part we had to use our phones.