Microsoft Technologies: Impacting Vantage Health System's Past, Present, & Future Success

Organization Information:

Organization Name:
Vantage Health System
City & State:
Dumont, 
New Jersey
Organization Website:
http:www.vantagenj.org
Organization's Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide high quality comprehensive healthcare services while empowering individuals and families to achive wellness.

Submission Information

Impact Essay

VANTAGE HEALTH SYSTEM MICROSOFT IMPACT STORY CONTEST SUBMISSION

Microsoft Technology plays a vital role in the delivery of services at Vantage Health System, a nonprofit behavioral healthcare organization. We use the technology to enhance client care, provide educational workshops for clients, and increase staff productivity. Below is a description of our organization, a list of products we have purchased, as well as two examples of how Microsoft Technologies have made a tremendous difference in our day-to-day operations.

 

Background of Organization

Founded in 1957 as a Child Guidance Center with $10,000 and a half day a week social worker, Vantage Health System became the first free-standing community mental health center in Bergen County, New Jersey in 1972. Since then, the organization has grown to 200 staff in 9 sites with programs for children, adolescents, adults and seniors with mental health, addiction, developmental and eldercare challenges.

The mission of Vantage Health System is to provide high quality comprehensive healthcare services while empowering individuals and families to achieve wellness.

With outpatient facilities in Dumont and Englewood, NJ, Vantage is the community “safety net” for our clients, who are predominantly low income or indigent. We are licensed by the State of New Jersey and offer a full range of outpatient psychiatric treatment services, a residential program consisting of 6 fully owned group homes and supervision of 55 apartments, a Prevocational Workshop, a Medical Adult Day Health Center, a 50-bed all male Adolescent Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program, which serves residents statewide, an in-home program for at risk children and families and a job coaching program for homeless mentally ill individuals.

List of Microsoft Products Purchased

We thank you for the opportunity to share how Microsoft Technologies have made a difference. In the category of stabilizing and securing our technology infrastructure:

· We received Microsoft Office 2003 software and licenses and Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional software and licenses which allowed us to take advantage of some discounted personal computers and receive affordable operating system software and licenses to make the desktops operational.

· We purchased Windows Server 2003 licenses which allows us to control our flow of data with a common file server/domain controller. Also, we received Exchange Server 2007 software and licenses. This will aid us in bringing our email system in-house and not rely on a POP3 service. We will better control spam and virus emails.

· We also ordered Microsoft Publisher which helps us to create newsletters which keeps staff informed about the implementation of our Electronic Medical Records (EMR).

Two Examples of how Microsoft Technologies have made a difference

EMR Implementation

We are using technology from Microsoft to transform the way we meet our mission through the Expression Web. Expression Web allows us to create our Clinical Documentation Forms for our EMR program. This assists us in meeting our technology goal of an EMR which will soon become a federal standard.

The full implementation of the EMR will address new regulatory requirements, increase staff productivity, enhance client care, and improve reimbursement.

Life Enrichment and Achievement Program (LEAP)

Our LEAP program serves adults who have both a developmental disability and mental illness. It’s our goal and objective to encourage our clients to reach their individual goals and contribute to the community in many positive ways.

Many of these individuals have just been deinstitutionalized and previously, they lived in either psychiatric or developmental center institutions for decades. Many of our clients received very little or no training in reading so while they may be considered technically “illiterate” they are educable.

Clients in the LEAP program use our personal computers to learn basic reading skills and to increase levels of reading. The improved reading skills will help our clients succeed in life, as well as in and out of the workplace. Through special software, the clients also learn about money skills, independent living skills and community resources groups.

Conclusion

As you can see, Microsoft Technologies have made life changing differences for not only our clients, but our staff. At Vantage Health System, we believe in a wellness and recovery model for our clients. We pride ourselves on getting our clients into the community so that they may live as independently as possible. The Microsoft Technology, along with our caring staff, assist our clients with filling out paperwork for job interviews, filling out banking documents, and other community living tasks that require literacy skills.

As we enter a new world of Electronic Medical Records for our clients across all of our programs, it’s an exciting change. It seems just like yesterday we were introducing Microsoft Outlook. (We couldn’t image a world without Microsoft Outlook or Office.) Thank you for making such an impact. Kindly consider us as a contest winner!

Submission Category
Stable and Secure Technology