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CaseBASE for DATIS 1.50.00 ReleasedDrug & Alcohol Treatment Information System Plans Immediate RolloutSeptember 9, 1996 -- ACSL delivered it's release version of 1.50.00 to the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Information System of Ontario (known as DATIS). DATIS has planned to roll the release out to it's 154 participating agencies as soon as possible. The release is substantial in that it includes over 20 new reports, numerous field additions, as well as major customizations for all types of service delivery models. The most notable modification is a new calculation for Program Days for Detoxification Centres. "[Detox] agencies have specifically formulated this method for calculating the number of days a client spends in their facilities. We've been able to get a very high level of consensus on this method of calculation, and it will allow [detox] agencies province wide to compare apples to apples finally..." says Bob Williams, DATIS Project Manager. Many other refinements include additional error checking on intake input fields, better controls on case number assignment and automatic numbering of admissions. These many refinements have lead to faster data entry with greater accuracy, "We've heard the user community and DATIS and have made a number of modifications to make data entry a less onerous and time consuming task. In-house testing indicates we've been able to shave the amount of time from start to end of an intake by at least 35% - it is also very obviously a smoother process..." says Jay Patterson, ACSL-DATIS Project Manager. Version 1.50.00 also heralds the implementation of submission of non-identifying case data to DATIS for central provincial reporting. CaseBASE uses public-key encryption technology to protect any submitted data, so it is suitable for transmission to DATIS by any method from diskette to modem. Now participating agencies, DATIS and the Ministry of Health have the ability to review a wide range of data points on a multitude of fields collected by agencies. Decisions both within local agencies and at the provincial level can now be made with the support of data directly from the field. "This gives the Drug and Alcohol Treatment community the opportunity to become 'self-aware' at a level never before possible. Stakeholders no longer have to grope in the dark for hard numbers and leading trends... ...they can now watch trends unfold locally, regionally and provincially... " says Mr. Patterson. ACSL is currently finalizing WordPerfect Merge and CaseNOTES, planned to be released before the end of 1996 as release 2.00.00. CaseNOTES will allow agencies to move their case notes and other case documentation to electronic format using the WordPerfect Wordprocessor. While this may appear to be nothing new (using a wordprocessor to store case notes), CaseBASE will control the file storage and retrieval of case notes, and will consolidate all agency notes into one physical file, accessable through CaseBASE only. "This method increases security and make storage of ALL case notes for an agency a practical possibility. Currently users have cluttered hard disks with thousands of wordprocessed notes within the old DOS file naming convention, making finding a specific note for a client or case almost impossible. The performance of a computer with thousands of files in one directory quickly degrades. Since CaseNOTES stores all notes in a database, file naming, storage and retrieval become tasks the user no longer has to be concerned wtih. CaseNOTES will change case documenting and charting overnight...". CaseNOTES is a key component in delivering on CaseBASE's two main goals; 1) to be an essencial agency management tool, and 2) to provide data to DATIS. The future for CaseBASE for DATIS and it's users looks very bright. DATIS was formed by the Addiction Research Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Health in April of 1995 to provide a province-wide information collection, support and analysis network for the Drug & Alcohol Treatment community in Ontario. DATIS provides information services to all stakeholders in the Drug & Alcohol Treatment system in Ontario. ACSL has provided the technical consulting and software (CaseBASE for DATIS) to collect, manage and centralize DATIS's information and support services. For More Information
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