HCS launches Web-based health records

Elizabeth Krocke, Therap coordinator, liked working in the agency’s quality assistance department but she jumped at the chance to join the information technology staff and help Heritage Christian Services to transition from paper to electronic record keeping.

What is Therap?

It’s an online reporting system designed to maximize staff communication, documentation accuracy and health record accessibility. Eventually, the system will support nearly 2,000 people served in day habilitation programs, residences and service coordination.

How does Therap affect HCS?

Within just one day habilitation site, we’ve estimated that Therap will save more than 100,000 pieces of paper a year. Imagine that savings across more than 80 sites. The new Web-based profiles can be instantly and securely shared across multiple departments and potentially with other providers. And while there’s been a front-end investment in the software, training and netbooks (mini-laptops), important information about the people we support will be quicker to access and more detailed. Essentially, caregivers will be able to spend less time on paperwork and more time with the people they support.

How has the implementation of Therap been received?

Some staff members were intimidated by Therap, especially those who don’t spend a lot of time using computers. But after just a few days of training and implementation, I can’t think of one employee who hasn’t been thrilled with the system’s convenience and efficiency. That’s something to celebrate!

Founder and C.E.O. of Heritage Christian Services to Retire

Robert Pieters

Robert Pieters – founder, president and C.E.O. of Heritage Christian Services – will retire Dec. 31 after 26 years of service, leaving a legacy of agency growth and vitality.

Pieters, named the 2010 Executive of the Year by the Rochester Business Journal, will continue to serve Heritage Christian by joining its board in 2013. His successor will be Marisa Geitner, who became executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2005 as part of a strategic executive succession plan for the agency, which ranks fourth in non-profits in Monroe County.

“We spent years planning so that we could start this organization, and we’ve also spent several years preparing for this transition in leadership,” Pieters said. “We believe we owe it to the people we support and to their families to ensure this agency is strong, not just for today but for the future.”

The story of how the agency began is a time honored one amongst Heritage Christian’s families. In 1980, Pieters and his wife, Marie, banded with other parents who had children with developmental disabilities to start a Christian-based non-profit, mortgaging their homes and partnering with church communities to open their first neighborhood home four years later.

Once Pieters became president in 1986, he spent more than two decades growing the agency from four homes to more than 100 facilities and eventually operating on a budget in excess of $55-million. HCS continues to specialize in disabilities services - including residential homes, day habitation, respite care and Medicaid service coordination – but it has diversified its operations and extended its high quality of service to other ventures including: Springdale Farm, the Pieters Family Life Center, Expressive Beginnings Child Care and Heritage Christian Stables. It now serves more than 1,700 children and adults.

In addition, for the past 10 years the NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities has ranked Heritage Christian in the top 1 percent out of more than 800 providers statewide. Nationally, Heritage Christian Services has been recognized with the prestigious 2009 Community Builder award from the American Network of Community Options and Resources for its capacity to model and influence inclusive communities for people with disabilities.

Pieters said that the future is bright and that he looks forward to staying close to the agency through his board service and family involvement. “Heritage Christian has never been one to rest on its laurels,” Pieters said. “I’m proud of where this agency has come from, and I know I’ll be proud of where it is going.”

Marisa Geitner

About Marisa Geitner

Marisa Geitner has served the agency for 19 years and has lead the agency through many firsts, including the launch of a new day program model, building an organizational development department to support 1,400 employees and now guiding HCS and similar agencies through a complex Medicaid redesign. Geitner, too, is one of Rochester Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 and an esteemed ATHENA honoree, recognized by the Rochester Business Alliance’s Women’s Council in 2011.

About Heritage Christian

Heritage Christian Services is a thriving human services agency that supports children and adults with disabilities; provides high quality child care; and matches business owners with talented workers who have developmental disabilities.

The agency now operates 70 neighborhood homes, service coordination, respite, community habilitation and 27 day programs and has been recognized by the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities as one of New York state's top service providers to people with special needs.

Heritage Christian Services is known for innovative programs like the Pieters Family Life Center and Expressive Beginnings Child Care in Henrietta, Springdale Farm in Ogden, Heritage Christian Stables in Webster, A Second Thought Resale Shop in East Rochester, Heritage Hollow on Sixth Lake in Inlet and Little Valley Retreat Center near Allegany State Park.

For more information, visit www.heritagechristianservices.org.

Sharing lessons of hope

Ken Shaw wasn’t into essays or poetry – or writing of any kind – but he knew he had his own story to tell. So, two years ago he told that story by publishing a 136-page book, and he hopes his life lessons will help others.

“I hope people come away with a better attitude,” he said from Ferncliff Gardens Apartments in Rochester. Even with tough times, “People can still have a good life and be able to be happy.”

Shaw’s book, Trying to Fill the Void, tells how he learned to cope with the death of his father, a Rochester police officer killed in the line of duty when Shaw was only 19 months old. The book also touches on difficult relationships that Shaw has navigated and some of his physical challenges.

“I think the book is really about how my life has progressed – and how it hasn’t progressed,” he said, adding that his friends have enjoyed the book, which is available through Amazon.com. “I’m proud of it.”

And a recent stay in the hospital has planted the seeds for a possible second book.

“It would be mostly fact,” he said as his first book sat nearby. “Fiction would be too hard to write.”