[nfbmi-talk] Present MCB Data Elements Collected

Sun Oct 3 00:30:33 UTC 2010

Hi Geri,

First, my email address has changed.  It is now: f.wurtzel at att.net.  Please
change this in your computer.  Thank you.

Second, thank you for this start.  It should give a good profile of the MCB
clientele.  It will miss a lot of other work that the MCB staff does, such
as number of employers that were met with, BEP information, Senior and
Independent living data where employment is not an outcome. Training center
data such as number of hours of training provided, number of students
trained, etc.  For legislative and budgetary support, these items can be
extremely important. Another area ought to be staff training.  The MCB
operates under a plan for personnel development which is part of the federal
requirements.  We should measure how much blindness, labor market and other
relevant training staff receives each year and what the cumulative level of
training is for individuals and the staff as a whole.   

A few  things that would be good to be added in the list you provided are:

1.	Preferred form of communication at closure, as well as at intake.
This may not be the perfect question, but it seeks to find out if MCB has
made progress helping individuals learn to use Braille proficiently enough
for a change in preference.  There may be another way to accomplish the same
thing.  In any case it is vitally important to see if MCB is helping people
learn and use Braille, since we know that 90% of employed blind people use
Braille according to research.

2. In the education area, it would be good to determine if the client has
received special education services for blindness or low-vision.  A second
question to go along with this might be the age of onset of blindness.  This
could help in strengthening transition services and providing feedback to
the education system. As you are aware, many children are coming to MCB
inadequately prepared for work and/or vocational training.  The IEP question
may not get to this data, since not all blind people have had IEP's.   

2.	If the person has received special education services for blindness,
it would be good to know which ISD they had attended, at least for high
school.  I am not trying to create a gotcha game.  If we knew those ISD's
that were doing well, we could try to identify best practices, both
involving MCB and those which were only internal or with other entities that
improved student outcomes.

4 Along with preferred mode of communication, a preferred mode of travel at
intake and at closure (sighted guide, dog, cane).  Or, maybe a more
subjective question about level of independent travel like travels in home,
travels in neighborhood, travels in community travels everywhere
independently.  Again, this could assist in determining the effectiveness of
MCB's ability to improve mobility and travel choices for clientele.  All the
skills in the world are of little value if the person cannot get out of the
house to use them. 

5.  In view of the effort put into a college policy for  MCB it would be
good to know the education level of the client at closure.  I suppose one
could extract this from the services provided, but this would add to the
need for data manipulation, unnecessarily.

Again, thank you for beginning this important process.  I am a firm believer
in the axiom that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.  I applaud
your effort to focus on data as an important management tool and practice.
Along with collection, it will be necessary to consider its use and
availability.  As I have said in earlier posts to you on this topic, MCB
ought to be publishing data already collected.  It ought to be put on the
MCB web site so everyone can see the good work the agency is doing. Of
course, the law prohibits divulging any personal information of any client,
so this is not a topic for debate or question.

Again, thank you.

Warm Regards,

Fred

  _____  

From: Geri Taeckens [mailto:geri.taeckens at isahealthfund.org] 
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 10:04 AM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Present MCB Data Elements Collected

Belowis a list of data MCB presently collects. Please review and send me any
ideas you have for additional data you think MCB might collect   and the
reason you feel such data should be collected.  I need this info by Friday
October 15.

Thanks so much for your help.

Geri

MCB Data collection items:

1.  Basic demographic information:

a.  Name

b.  Social Security Number  

c.  Date of Application  

d.  Date of Birth

e.  Gender  

f.  Race and Ethnicity 

g.  Home address and mailing address

h.  Number in household

i.  Preferred means of communication

j.  First language

k. Source of Referral 

l.  Primary Disability and Secondary Disability 

m.  Significant Disability

n. Veteran Status 

o. Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker 

2.  Basic education information:

a.  . Level of Education Attained at Application

b.  . Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Date

3.  Employment information at application

a.  Employment Status 

b.  Weekly Earnings 

c. Hours Worked per Week 

4.  Public support at application:

a.  Type

b.  Monthly Amount 

c.  Primary Source of Support 

d.  Medical Insurance Coverage 

5.  Date of Eligibility Determination

6   Services Provided 

7.  Vocational Training Provided

8.  Vendors

9.  Cost of Purchased Services  

10.  Closure information

a. Reason

b.  Level of Education

c. Occupation 

d. Employment Status 

e. Competitive Employment  

f. Weekly Earnings at Closure  

g. Hours Worked in a Week at Closure

h. Type of Public Support at Closure 

i. Monthly Public Support Amount at Closure

j. Primary Source of Support at Closure  

k. Medical Insurance Coverage at Closure  

l. Type of Closure 

m. Date of Closure  

n. Supported Employment Status 

11.  Caseload manager