UNICENTRIC's Service Management System Unites Three Organizations For Senior Care NORC Project

Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Jewish Family & Children’s Services and Jewish Association on Aging use UNICENTRIC’s Service Management System to Coordinate Projects Among Agencies

PITTSBURGH, PA (PRWEB) May 21, 2004 -- UNICENTRIC, an integrated platform that helps human service organizations improve service quality and increase efficiency, today announced that the Pittsburgh NORC Project has implemented its Service Management System for use by the three agencies.

The system has been deployed across the Jewish Association on Aging, Jewish Family & Children Services and the Jewish Community Center. These three agencies have come together in a federally funded demonstration project supporting healthcare and independence for senior citizens in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs).

“After winning the NORC grant, one of our challenges was how to coordinate our cross agency activities,” said Alexis Winsten-Mancuso, Director of Organizational Development at JCC. “There were issues to overcome. How do we coordinate care team activities? How do we centralize the case files? In whose building? With the Service Management System, the information is electronic and so is equally available to all three agencies. Even our paper-based documents can be faxed or scanned into the system.”

With the Service Management System, agencies have an integrated framework for intake, assessment, case management, reporting, accounting, third party billing and EDI. The system is customized for each customer to support their specific programs and activities. Access to information is restricted according to a user’s privileges within the system.

“Perhaps the most important question was how we would share case information while adhering to HIPAA regulations,” said Jordan Golin, Director of Clinical Services at JF&CS. “With the Service Management System, we are able to share our case files between our agencies while restricting access to sensitive data. Information is provided on a need-to-know basis.”    

“Since the Service Management System can be accessed and used over the Internet, it is ideal for coordinating the activities of people in multiple locations,” said Evan Indianer, President of UNICENTRIC. “The NORC project is controlling and measuring their processes across agencies. This level of accountability will help them make strategic decisions to continuously improve their quality of service and efficiency.”

UNICENTRIC is a software company that helps human service, healthcare and educational organizations improve efficiency and lower the cost of delivering quality service. UNICENTRIC's core offering, the Service Management System, combines productivity tools with adaptable modules to support existing and emerging organizational processes. UNICENTRIC harnesses the power of its innovative Form Maker to customize workflow at a fraction of traditional custom software application costs. UNICENTRIC’s solutions require no capital expenditure and are priced with an appreciation of the fiscal challenges of nonprofit organizations.

NORCs are concentrated pockets of older Americans who have aged in place and have chosen to remain in an area familiar to them - a community they feel at ease in and call home. They are located in all types of settings including apartments, condominiums, public housing or neighborhoods of individual homes. In Pittsburgh, an interagency partnership has been established among the Jewish Association on Aging, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and Jewish Family and Children's Service to create care teams. The three-person care teams are comprised of staff from each agency and include at least one licensed social worker. The NORC grant is a product of the United Jewish Federation government relations initiative. Information on participation in the NORC project can be obtained by contacting Elderlink at 412-422-0400.

Contact:
Greg Gendron
Unicentric
412-697-7333
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