HCS UPDATES

HCS LEADERSHIP RETREAT HCS leaders meet to review 2019, look forward to 2020 HOME & COMMUNITY SERVICES UPDATES

The senior leadership of Home and Community Services participated in a management workshop on Feb. 4 at the Lacey Community Center to discuss the division’s achievements and goals for the coming year. Participation included the director, deputy directors, office chiefs and regional and deputy regional administrators.

Among the many accomplishments noted for 2019, participants recognized the successful separation of Adult Protective Services and HCS, the hard work done to address nursing home closures and the success of several pilot projects aimed at finding better ways to serve clients and their caregivers.

In addition to program goals, themes identified for 2020 include focusing on giving and receiving feedback, creating opportunities for staff to grow through delegation and supportive coaching, fostering a Lean culture of learning, and building trust with staff, stakeholders and other key partners in our service delivery system.

Representatives from ALTSA’s Lean Engagement and Innovation team facilitated the full-day workshop.

“It’s an honor to work with people who are deeply dedicated to this mission-driven work,” said Amy Besel, Organizational Development Administrator.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

The legislative session wrapped up last month and we saw several bills signed into law that will affect our work.

• The home care agency vendor rate bill allows the rate calculation to reflect the average home care agency employer tax rate. It also eliminated the electronic time keeping requirement for home care agencies since a new federal requirement of electronic visit verification will take effect in 2021. Although this is a technical bill, it will help home care agencies to receive funding they need and to reduce what would have been duplicative administrative requirements. • Another bill modifies the admission criteria for enhanced services facilities to align with current admission and eligibility criteria and to describe the offerings at ESFs as supportive services instead of treatment. This will help us counter some of the stigma associated with enhanced services facilities so we can support people seeking to open new facilities around the state. • The new budget adjusts the nursing facility Medicaid payment rates based on inflation. • The legislature also passed a bill allowing adult family homes to expand from 6 to 8 beds. This is a positive development, allowing us to grow our community capacity to serve more individuals in the settings of their choice. • A bill on long-term care worker safety requires home care agencies and the Consumer-Directed Employer to adopt and maintain a comprehensive written policy about how they will address instances of discrimination, abusive conduct and challenging behavior to protect employees and work to resolve issues impacting the provision of personal care.

The Adult Protective Services bill that would have allowed individuals to petition for removal from the Aging and Disability Services Abuse Registry did not pass. ALTSA may try to run this legislation again next session.

You may also have heard that the governor used his veto authority to trim the supplemental budget in anticipation of likely decreases in revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A few of our items were among those vetoed, including the increased administrative rate for home care agencies and funding for dementia education.

In October 2019, HCS employees had the opportunity to review the ALTSA Strategic Plan and provide feedback on five questions. Your responses have been reviewed and organized, and HCS leadership have begun the task of addressing your comments. Over the last few weeks, they have met to discuss your feedback and update the strategic plan to reflect your comments.

Moving forward, HCS will continue scheduling quarterly strategic objective workgroups with the purpose of updating action plan items and reviewing current data. We will also hold quarterly strategic plan webinars, which will provide resources and education pertaining to the feedback you provided, as well as offering an opportunity to ask questions of HCS management. These meetings are open to all HCS staff and will be scheduled for July, October and January.

Every staff member at ALTSA contributes in many ways to support individuals to have choice, independence and safety. All of what we do matters. Our Strategic Plan is the blueprint for how we transform lives by ensuring Washingtonians can choose where they want to live and receive longterm care, as well as remain safe and have access to quality services. Our Strategic Plan shows our assessment of areas where we excel, and where we can grow. In addition, it summarizes action plans that we are undertaking to continually improve the way in which we deliver services.

The HCS Strategic Plan Feedback Summary is available on SharePoint. HCS’s hope is this document will help you see your role in the Strategic Plan and that your feedback is important.

YOUR VIEWS

Which goals align most with the work you do to transform lives?

Protection 15%

Quality of Life 30%

Health 15%

Public Trust 19%

Safety 21%

Do our action plans align with our objectives and will they help us achieve our goals?

Do you feel the measures we have in place accurately assess our objectives?

YES 92%

YES 89%