Frequently Asked Questions
The OMA is the method by which LA County is collecting data for Full Service Partnerships, Specialized Foster Care Intensive, Field Capable Clinical Services, and Wraparound FSP Services. The OMA is a web-based application that can be accessed by a secure ID card and IS logon or by DMH workers inside the DMH network. Full Service Partnership providers must submit their Outcomes data electronically to LA county by either using our OMA or by using thier own data collection system and submitting the information to DMH via XML. At the moment, only providers using Caminar are NOT using OMA, and very soon Caminar will no longer be used to collect Outcomes. All LA County FSP providers must collect LA County data elements in addition to the state FSP data requirements.
Once you have had the hands-on (computer/data entry) training you can start entering your outcomes into the LA County OMA. You can follow the Step By Step Guide for accessing the application, or click on the links in the SideBar (on the right side of this page).
This is a question most Contract providers will encounter because you might have a SecurID to get on the IS, but have never needed another password to get in. DMH users have a user name and password to get the IS since they access it through the intranet.
To get that OMA password, you need to call the Help Desk and tell them you need that password...they will set you up... 213-351-1335
No, currently the OMA is only being used to collect data for Full Service Partnerships (FSP) including Wraparound FSP, Field Capable Clinical Services (FCCS) and Specialized Foster Care intensive mental health services, not ACT and AB2034. Please see this page for further information on the conversion of AB2034 clients to FSP: AB 2034 Transition.
If they are former AB2034 clients, you don’t need to file 3M’s or KEC's on them until April 1 2008 or later. This is because DMH was still trying to figure out how to handle those clients: we’re not requiring 3M’s from 7/1/07 to 4/1/08 because DMH didn’t have a policy about them until then.
There is a set of forms for FCCS Outcomes data collection, and electronic Data collection began in June 2009. More details can be found here: FCCS.
Currently, DMH is requiring the collection of Outcomes information for SFC Intensive In-Home clients in order to provide details of our services to the panel supervising the Katie A settlement. DMH was collecting Outcomes for SFC Basic, but discontinued that practice in 2009. Completion of Outcomes is required for all SFC Intensive cases opened after August 1, 2007.
The County of Los Angeles uses modified forms that collect both data that the County deems necessary AND collects all of the State-mandated outcomes information. The State forms are different, and they will not allow you to collect all the data you will need. Please do not use the State forms! Only use the DMH forms! Those forms are located here... Forms
For every client that is enrolled in a full service partnership program, a baseline assessment must be completed upon enrollment. The baseline covers the activities of the client during the 12 months prior to enrollment and the day of partnership, and includes a few questions covering the client's life before the past year. If information reported in the baseline changes in certain areas, (i.e. residential status, hospitalizations, emergency room contacts, starting and stopping school or work, etc.), you will need to report each change on a Key Event Change form. A three month assessment is due every three months on every enrollee in full service partnership programs.
The requirement for Specialized Foster Care is the same, but FCCS providers use a different form and a different schedule. Please see this page for information for FCCS providers: FCCS
We do not collect any FSP data on FSS cases. Clients in FSS are the family members of enrolled FSP clients. We collect outcome data on the actual FSP client(s), but not the family member(s).
It is recommended that Baselines be completed by clinicians, since many questions require clinical judgment and knowledge. As with any initial assessment with a client, clinicians needs to gather client’s background information and make informed clinical decision. Since KEC’s and 3M’s are more focused on fact finding/changes with the client, case managers can gather that information and seek consultation with the clinician if they need to answer questions that are clinical in nature or if they are unsure of how to answer them.
For Full Service Partnership and Specialized Foster care, a Baseline assessment should be completed within the first 30 days after enrolling in services. The sooner the baseline is completed the faster your program can start to show outcomes. The three month assessment is due on every 3 month anniversary of your start date. You have a window of 15 days prior to the 3 month anniversary and 30 days after to complete it. A Key Event Change (KEC) needs to be completed as soon as a change is known. You only need to complete the section of the KEC for which you are reporting a change. You may report more than one change on a single KEC assessment as long as the changes are in different domains. If you are disenrolling a client, transferring a client, or receiving a transferred client, you should ensure all outcomes are updated at the time of transfer or disenrollment.
The baseline is completed from information you have about the client from the client and/or information you have received from supplemental documentation or input from family members. Use your clinical judgment about whether you just need the parent in the room or whether you also need some information from the client. There are some questions that pertain to the client’s preferences like “is the client satisfied with their current living arrangement”, that you might have to ask the question directly to the client. It might be necessary to collect the information over a couple of sessions. DMH does expect that the Baseline will be completed within 30 days of the Partnership Date.
You will need to switch to the TAY forms even though the child remains in the Child FSP program. When your staff go to enter the data in the OMA system, they will be shown the TAY forms for assessments done on or after the client’s 16th birthday.
No, a new baseline is not necessary if the clients is continuing in the same type of program. If there is an existing baseline, the new provider needs to ensure the previous provider has completed a KEC for the provider site transfer with date. Once that is completed, the new provider can generate KECs and 3Ms off of the other provider's baseline. You should be able to view the client's baseline that was completed by the other provider, you just won't be able to edit it. You only complete baselines for clients newly authorized for FSP or Specialized Foster Care Intensive programs, not all those new to your agency (i.e. transferred clients). The only instance in which you would create a new baseline for a client that already has a baseline is if the client was previously enrolled in the same type of program and has had a lapse of service for more than 1 year. If the existing baseline in the system is for a different type of program then you need to do a new baseline. For example, if the baseline in the system is for Full Service Partnership, but the client is now in your SFC intensive program, a new baseline is required. If a client is moving between FSP age group programs or Wraparound FSP there is no need for a new baseline. If you are working off of a previous baseline, you adopt the previous partnership date and assume what was their 3M schedule.
You only need to complete the section of the KEC for which you are reporting a change. You can report multiple changes in a single KEC as long as the changes are in different domains. You must ensure outcomes are current at the time of disenrollment and transfer.
No. As long as they're just moving spaces and not actual living arrangements, you don't need a KEC.
The Partnership Date is the first date that you provide FSP services, not outreach and engagment. This date cannot precede the authorization date from countywide programs (in the case of FSP programs). The partnership date likely coincides with the first billable service to the FSP IS plan. For Specialized Foster Care the partnership date is the date you would consider to be the start of SFC intensive services.
There's a whole page on what to do when you get a new Reporting Unit...right here.
If it has been less than a year, you should do a KEC to represent changes since the client left: basically, use the KEC to bring things up to day. The Partnership Date remains the same as long as it's been less than a year. Check the re-establishing partnership box. When entering the KEC, you will find the client and then select the client baseline click on new KEC and then a drop down episode field should appear allowing you to select your current episode.
SFPR is changed in the Integrated System, not in OMA. Change it in the IS, and the change will be reflected in the OMA…although it will take at least 2 hours for the change to show up in OMA (since that’s how often IS updates OMA). Some changes (such as SFPR) might not load until the weekend since there are some database updates that DMH will only do on weekends.
All clients must have an open episode in the Integrated System in order for you to see an Episode in the OMA. You will not be able to make or open a Baseline unless they have an open Episode in the IS. If you do have an open episode in the IS but can't see it in the OMA, please contact Help Desk at 213-351-1335. If you CLOSED that episode before you entered the Baseline, please see this page: http://dmhoma.pbworks.com/Remove+Discharge+Date
The IS and OMA are not directly connected: every two hours, the OMA loads up new data from the IS. In other words, there's a lag time between your opening an Episode in the IS, and it showing up in OMA. Wait for an hour or two and try again.
There are a couple of possibilities here.
The first is that there is a problem with your logon: the OMA doesn't recognize you as someone who is authorized to work on this Episode. Double check to make sure that Episode belongs to your clinic (the first four digits of the Episode number should be your Reporting Unit number), and if they are you need to check your logon. It's possible that you did not logon correctly. If you are a DMH employee: make sure you are using your IS logon name and password, NOT your DMH logon and password (that's the one you use first thing to get on the DMH network). If you are a Contract provider, you need to get an IS password. Scroll up and look at this question: "How do I get a password if I already have an RSA SecureID?"
The other possibility is that you ALREADY have a Baseline for this client. Click on "Baselines" and see if there is one started. Click on the pencil next to the Baseline to Edit the Baseline.
You will need to ask DMH to remove the Discharge Date. Thereby re-opening the episode so that you can enter Outcomes. The form for doing that, including instructions and contact information, is at this address:
http://dmhoma.pbworks.com/Remove+Discharge+Date
Try and find the original source of the referral if possible, for example. if the family contacted the navigator to request services, you should check family member. If you are unable to find out who the original referral source is, and you only have the navigator, please check "mental health facility/community agency" to indicate "service Area Navigators" as the source.
Start with 12 months prior to the partnership date. For example if your partnership date is 12/1/2006, you are tracking living arrangements from 12/1/2005-11/30/2006, and checking the tonight column where the client slept on the first night of the partnership (12/1/06). This is the way your total days will equal 365. Living arrangements for baseline data collection should end on the day before partnership. It's always the 365 days immediately prior to starting in FSP or SFC. You can get tips on how to fill out Living Arrangements right here:
http://dmhoma.pbworks.com/f/Living+Arrangements+Example+2.0.pdf
Since the system requires 365 days to be accounted for "during the past 12 months," please default the time in utero under "Other." These anomalies will have to be accounted for when the data are analyzed.
List one occurrence on the form with the residential types listed in the left hand column, fill in the dates, check the appropriate columns, enter an occurence of 1 and number of days for that occurrence. List additional occurrences on the blank page of living arrangements. You can get tips on how to fill out Living Arrangements right here:
http://dmhoma.pbworks.com/f/Living+Arrangements+Example+2.0.pdf
Never: the occurrance column should always be one for any living arrangement you report the client has slept in the past 365 days. The electronic application will automatically default to one and will total the occurrences when we report it out to the state. If the client did not reside in a particular living arrangement over the last 365 days, leave that entire line blank, and only check the box at the end of the row if the client has ever resided in that type of setting anytime prior to the last 12 months, or check the tonight box if the client will sleep there on the first night of the partnership.
No, you put their admission date as the "From" date, and the "To" date needs to reflect the last night they slept in the hospital. This is usually the day before the discharge date reflected in the IS or reported by the client. For example if the IS screen shows a hospitalization from 1/1/06-1/05/06, the client was released on 1/5/06, thus did not spend the night there that night. The "To" date should be reflected as 1/4/06 as the last night the client spent the night.
The "Tonight" box is not counted because, as you point out, it hasn't happened yet. The best way to think about it is that "Tonight" is what we expect will be happening.
Tonight refers to what is happening the evening of the Partnership Date. Often you will check "Yesterday" and "Tonight" on the same living arrangement, but not always. A good example would be this: you establish a new client on January 2, 2008. That means you're going to record the Living Arrangements for this client from Jan 2, 2007 through Jan 1, 2008. That client was Homeless last night, so you will mark the "Yesterday" box under Homeless for Jan 1, 2008. However, for tonight (Jan 2, 2008) you managed to get housing in a shelter. You would then check "Tonight" under Emergency Shelter, although you would not enter any dates. Your next Living Arrangement KEC will tell us when that person moves out of the shelter.
Take a look at this sheet if you haven't already:
http://dmhoma.pbwiki.com/f/Tips+on+Living+Arrangements.pdf
...if you fill it out according to those directions, it will add up to 365.
If the moves were due to issues in the parent's life, the living arrangement would be "Lives with One or Both Biological Parents" for the entire 365 days. The idea is to capture the living arrangements that are affected by the client's wellness...as long as they are being moved as a result of issues in the parent's life, the living arrangement will stay the same: biological parent.
You would file a KEC change to the same living arrangment residential type and the effective date of the move. The state requests us to capture a residential change every time there is a change in address.
We want to capture the primary living arrangement, and in this case the mother is what’s important in this situation. As long as a younger client is living with a parent, that should be the way the Living Arrangement is listed: Lives with Biological Parent.
Base this information on client's report and do the best that you can. lasd.org might be a resource to find out previous county jail stays up to three months ago. This will also provide information if your client is currently in jail.
lf the client is still enrolled in your FSP program, you are maintaining contact while the client is in jail. There should be no reason why you cannot complete the 3M. You would do a disenrollment if the client is going to be incarcerated for an extended amount of time.
Either (4) Decrease in Functioning or (11) Improved Functioning
You can only report one change per domain in one KEC. Since you are reporting two living arrangement changes, you need to fill out two KECs, but just the living arrangements section. You don't need to fill out the other sections. Also, you don't need to fill them out on paper: you can just enter them directly into the OMA and print out the data you entered to place in the file.
There is an "Unknown" category under living arrangements you can use if you don't have information from clients. You are still expected to put date parameters around the unknown time periods. You can reflect multiple periods of unknown time frames the same way you would for multiple occurances of homelessness, hospitalizations, etc. Sometimes you can gain more information if you talk about landmark dates: try asking the client where they were on Christmas, their birthday, etc. We know that taking these histories can be very difficult, but the more complete they are the more clear the outcomes are.
2008 and 2012 are both Leap Years. For example: February 29th brought the total number of days in 2008 to 366. The OMA program is set up to take account of this when calculating things such as the window for filing 3M's, but one thing you will need to be mindful of is the calculation of Living Arrangements on any new Baselines for the next year.
In the past, our advice concerning Living Arrangements has been to write the date range in the top margin before you start tracking, and to start 365 nights before the Partnership Date. For example, a Baseline for a client with a Partnership Date of February 15, 2008 would mean that you need to collect Living Arrangements data from February 15, 2007 to February 14, 2008.
Since the Leap Year puts us off by one day, you will need to start your calculation a day later. In other words, if your client has a Partnership Date of March 4, 2008, 365 days before that date (adding in February 29th) is March 5, 2007. This difference will remain in effect until March 1, 2009
No, only check the box if the client has full scope Medi-Cal.
An HMO Medi-Cal client, a client has turned their Medi-Cal over to an HMO, is considered a full-scope Medi-Cal beneficiary for our purposes. Those client services were part of the carve-out and our providers see the clients and bill Medi-Cal for their services. Therefore, check the Medi-Cal box if your client has HMO Medi-Cal.
No, you do not have to report if the client gets emergency medi-cal. However, if the client secures full scope medi-cal when in the FSP, you would report this event in a key event change.
Report what you can...if they refuse to give info, that's the best you can do!
Monthly foster care rates should not be reflected as client or caregiver wages. You can list them under other and write on your form "foster care payment".
Yes, you should mark “unemployed.” Whether or not they are eligible is not really an issue for the State…just whether or not they are working. I think it’s understood that employment among pre-teens is very unusual.
No, it should not be included as income.
You can leave the ”grades” section blank. The State should be able to interpret the data correctly given the age of the clients.
We are checking to see if we can add a "No Response" field here...there are some small items like this that are still in process.
No, for this question you should report the highest grade level completed. For example if you client is currently in 11th grade, your response to this question should be 10th grade since that is the highest grade level completed.
Since the client is on vacation, they are not required to be in school. They should report their normal attendance pattern as if school was in session unless there is some reason to report a change.
The same rules apply: Since the client is on vacation, they are not required to be in school. They should report their normal attendance pattern as if school was in session unless there is some reason to report a change.
Our initial planning did not include this. When we establish a users group, if there is a strong interest, the age group leads will have to make that decision based on stakeholder input.
The question refers to whether the client has access to needed medical services. There are clients that do not have insurance, and are not able to afford any kind of medical care, therefore do not have access. For this reason it cannot default to yes.
Crisis Stabilization is actually a 23 hour facility where they would go for stabilization to deter hospitalization. An example would be Augustus Hawkins Urgent care center, Olive View, or the mental health urgent care center in Long Beach.
Crisis Stabilization is a facility used to divert psychiatric hospitalization. Clients can stay there up to 23 hours and cannot meet criteria for 5150/5585 involuntary hospitalization. The crisis stabilization facilities we have in LA County that I know of are the MH Urgent Care Center in Long Beach, Augustus Hawkins Urgent Care, and Olive View and Westside Urgent Care Center. I am not sure if any of these facilities currently serve children or TAY.
If the client went to a hospital without visiting an emergency room or crisis stabilization you would not need to check any box. It is entirely possible to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital without ever setting foot in an emergency room or crisis stabilization unit for a voluntary or involuntary admission. You would only need to check a box if one applies to your client. If a client went to a hospital voluntarily but in order to access care, had to be seen in the emergency room first, then you would check emergency room.
Psychiatric mobile response teams might come out to see a client and the call might not result in hospitalization at all. If a psychiatric mobile response team evaluated the client and provided crisis intervention services then you would say yes to the question about client being seen by PMRT or 24/7 response teams. If the call resulted in hospitalization then you would say yes to that question.
Only children under the age of 18 should be counted. There should not be a box for other because the state is not asking that all of the client’s children be accounted for, rather how many children they have in foster care, adopted out, etc.
The client would still have to meet DSM criteria for diagnosis as a substance use disorder. If they currently meet criteria for a use or abuse diagnosis then you would circle "Yes."
The boxes should all have zeroes in them: the boxes do not need to equal the total number of children the client has. If the children do come to live with the client, that should be recorded and should be a positive outcome. Also, these boxes only relate to minors: children over 18 are not counted here in any case.
The OMA team has added an "Is Complete" button to each assessment screen in the OMA. Assessments are only considered complete (meaning they are ready to be added to the database) when a user clicks this button! We know that you sometimes get to the end of the assessment, but you still need to add information. This button lets you tell us when you are done. Users can edit their assessments AFTER they have checked the "Is Complete" button, however we will be looking into locking assessments after a certain period.
Please consult the FSP Guidelines and/or your service area liaison on disenrollment procedures. You can also seek guidance from the countywide age group leads if you still have questions after that. As far as OMA goes, we expect that once you have countywide authorization to disenroll, the outcomes will be closed out. We expect that KECs and 3Ms are entered throughout the course of the partnership, however, please ensure all relevant changes have been reported in a KEC with the respecitve status change dates prior to closing client out. Once all statuses have been throroughly updated and all 3Ms are collected and entered, then fill out the administrative section on a final KEC for the discontinuation using the Countywide signature date or last date FSP was claimed (whichever is more recent) as the date of disenrollment. The disenrollment guidelines (and the related forms) are on the wiki and also on the MHSA site right here… http://dmh.lacounty.gov/AboutDMH/mhsa.html
First, contact the agency that the client started with: they need to file a KEC listing your agency as the New Provider agency under the Administrative section. Prior to the first agency completing the provider site ID change all statuses should be updated and all 3Ms collected should be entered. Once the provider site ID change is made, the new provider site should complete a KEC for a partnership service coordinator and the date. There is no need to indicate a program change on the KEC, unless countywide has authorized the client to be in a new age group FSP.
Please note: you will not be able to edit the Baseline for this client. You must, however, use the Partnership Date on that original Baseline as the anniversary date for all the 3M's you will file. In other words, the 3M schedule is based on the first date of FSP service EVER for the client, not on your acceptance of them in you FSP.
It is important to remember that you must have authorization from countywide prior to disenrolling a client from FSP. The disenrollment date therefore must be on or after (very shortly after) the authorized disenrollment countywide signature date. We realize at times that clients disappear or are in locations where services were not able to be billed prior to requesting disenrollment. In those circumstances, when you close your IS episodes, you will likely close the episode back to the last date of service. In these circumstances, the discharge date on the IS episode will predate the FSP disenrollment date. It is okay if the FSP disenrollment date does not match your IS episode close/discharge date. What is important is that we capture outcomes for the entire time the client is considered enrolled in FSP. Remember clients are considered enrolled in FSP until you have authorization to disenroll from countywide age group admins. Please ensure your partnership status change dates are either on or shortly after the countywide authorized disenrollment signature date. If you have questions, feel free to contact your age group representative or a member of the OMA team.
For SFC it would be the date that the SFC services stopped (probably the date the case was closed).
There doesn’t seem to be a very good fit here. Since it is a physical health SNF and there is no option about an interruption of program due to prolonged medical care, I would say that “target population criteria are not met” would be the next best choice here unless it’s truly because the client will be too far away to serve any longer, in which case I would chose “moved to another county/service area."
The OMA will allow you to do both on one, but we would prefer that you isolate the reestablishment KEC so that you only report the reestablishment and do a second one for Transfer. It might be ideal to have the first provider do the KEC for transfer and the second prov to do the reestablishment for the same date, in the new site.