Patrick Ober, Director of Programs & Operations, Stepping Stones
Lisa Stephens, Adult Day Director, Stepping Stones
Who is Stepping Stones?
So Stepping Stones is a nonprofit organization located here in Cincinnati that provides services and programs for individuals with developmental disabilities of all ages.
Who is the scope of your agency?
We have an adult day program that serves approximately 97 individuals across three locations, one in Norwood, one on the west side of Cincinnati, and one out in Batavia. We have a recreation and leisure program that offers summer camps, overnight weekend in summer camps, as well as Saturday clubs. That is at our given location in Indian Hill as well as our Camp Allen location out in Batavia. We also have an education program that serves individuals with autism and behavioral issues that is located at our given location in Indian Hill.
How long have you been using Brittco?
We've been using Brittco for about seven years. It originally started with one of the adult day programs that we merged with. So they started working on it and then when we merged, that's how I believe we found Brittco.
What was the impetus to move from paper to Brittco?
From what I understand, they were using all paper documentation and space was a big issue as far as where to put all the binders of paper. Ease was another one that they looked into the Brittco for just because it was easier than all the writing that had to happen and reading of handwriting. They wanted more detail and the paper documentation really didn't have that. We are loving it.
What are some benefits using Brittco?
We can find everything we need in one place. We can not only do documentation, but read the My Plans, do all our incident reports. And for us managers, the reports and tracking of attendance and I'm sure billing, Teresa, and just reports of even just reaching the goals that we need to reach with our guys.
Yeah, it also helps us, the fact that we have multiple locations and also are able to use this system for multiple programs or adult day program in addition to our rec and leisure program where we have participants that go to both, they'll be in our adult programs during the week and then will be at our overnight camps from Friday to Sunday. So having one centralized place where wherever we are or whatever participant we need the information on, we can access that quickly and easily and everything is centralized so that we're aware of the progress and goals for individuals, the MUIs and UIs that would happen across programs and across locations. We just have one place that we can maintain all of that information. Much, much better than the paper documentation, Excel sheets, and trying to search through those things depending on where you were or what computer you were on.
A favorite feature…ISP sign-offs
And even the sign-offs for My Plans, it's nice that we have the ability to read and agree and we can track that. It's been incredible. I will say that when I've reached out personally, I get a response within the same day or the next day. It's really never been an issue for myself or our compliance. When we do have a question or even a request, I do know support really tries hard to help us any way they can.
Trust in Brittco to stay current with state rules
I'll also add that I think it's been incredibly beneficial for us that Brittco as a system is trying to stay as aligned as it can with the state waiver rules and training requirements. It's been very helpful for us to know that Brittco is staying up to date and that the information we need, what we need to document on, if there's trainings that our staff need to take care of, we know that Brittco is a reliable place for us to make sure that that information is taken by us in that we have something we can trust.
