Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services

In 2011 the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) introduced the Performance Improvement Process (PIP), now called the Network Improvement and Accountability Collaborative (NIAC), as the primary mechanism to provide a single, consistent evaluative approach to site reviews (monitoring) to all providers in the DBHIDS network, to include programs funded by Community Behavioral Health (CBH), the Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Office of Addiction Services (OAS). Prior to the development of the NIAC unit, site visits have historically been reviewed separately by the various units within the DBHIDS. Functions such as HealthChoices’ credentialing, grant monitoring and the Department of Drug and Alcohol Program (DDAP) monitoring are accomplished through the NIAC unit.

Components of the NIAC review process include the following: an internal preparatory meeting to discuss the agency’s strengths and concerns; the completion of a Self-Appraisal to evaluate the agency’s alignment with the Practice Guidelines; an Entrance Conference, which gives the agency the opportunity to present the results from their Self-Appraisal; focus groups with agency staff members; focus groups with individuals receiving services; Parent Satisfaction Surveys; an executive level interview; facility tours and planned observations; clinical chart reviews; staff file reviews to evaluate training and supervision practices as well as performance evaluations; a review of the agency’s written policies; an Exit Conference to debrief on the overall findings of the site visit. At the conclusion of a NIAC site review, a report is generated and submitted to the agency with a set of recommendations for improvement, which is also known as the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). It is the agency’s responsibility to ensure that changes are implemented based on the areas outlined in the PIP. Finally, all CBH-funded agencies are presented to the CBH Board of Directors for a re-credentialing status.

As a way of ensuring that all aspects of the site review are scored in a standardized manner, a new scoring instrument was developed, the Network Inclusion Criteria (NIC), and was released on April 1, 2013. The NIC establishes a set of core capabilities that DBHIDS has identified as being critical to entering and remaining in the network, regardless of funding stream and level of care. This scoring instrument provides both quantitative and qualitative information to comprehensively evaluate an agency and determine the level of care re-credentialing status. The practices detailed in the NIC measure alignment with the Practice Guidelines for Recovery and Resilience-Oriented Treatment, referred to as the Practice Guidelines, as well as health care reform.