DISCHARGING A PRIMARY OR SECONDARY PARTICIPANT

How to use this PDS Section: Programs must create a discharge record for all individuals that had an active Outcome of Contact (Assign Service Level, Re-Enroll or Transfer). Discharging a participant is a supervisor function; only staff with supervisor level rights or higher in PDS may discharge primary participants.

All records in PDS become read-only once a discharge is completed; they cannot be modified. Ensure that all home visits, secondary activities, supervisory review, etc., are complete before discharging a participant.

There are two sets of instructions in this PDS manual section:

I. Discharging a Primary Participant

II. Discharging a Secondary Participant

Why this information is important: Participants may leave home visiting programs for many reasons. All participants will eventually stop receiving services when their child turns three years old. Keeping accurate discharge records helps programs understand when and why participants stop receiving services.

HFM policies related to this section: Service Transitions Policy

Step-by-Step Instructions

 Fields with an asterisk (*) are required.

I. Discharging a Primary participant

1. On the Participant Profile page, click Discharge at the top of the screen.

2. Click Discharge Current Referral.

3. Enter the following information in the “Discharge Record” section:

3.1 *Discharge Date: Enter the date you discharged the participant.

3.2 *Reason for Discharge: Select the reason you are discharging the participant from the dropdown menu.

• Child’s age: Select when a family graduates from the program at target child’s third birthday.
• Foster care/adoption: Select if the participant’s eligibility ends because s/he is no longer parenting and there is no plan for reunification.
• Transferred to other Healthy Families: Select if the participant has agreed to be transferred to another HFM program. Once selected as the reason for discharge and saved the record immediately becomes available to the new program. To protect confidentiality programs must not select this reason without signed consent. If a participant moves away before a program before the consent is obtained the program must contact the new program to refer the participant and facilitate the transition.
• Transferred to other program, specify: Select if the family/child is moving to a different program and select the program the family/child is moving to in the field below: What new program, if any, is the family moving to?
• Moved within state: Select if the participant has moved out of the program’s catchment area to another area within the state but does not want to transfer to another HFM program at this time.
• Moved out of state: Select if the participant has moved out of the state.
• Lost to follow-up: Select if the program is unable to re-engage the participant in services despite creative outreach efforts for at least three months while on the Engagement or Re-Engagement service levels.
• Family no longer desires services: Select if the participant indicates that he/she does not wish to continue to receive home visiting services.
• Infant/child death: Select if the participant’s eligibility for Healthy Families ends because s/he is no longer parenting due to child’s death.
• Miscarriage/termination: Select if the participant’s eligibility for Healthy Families ends because the pregnancy ends in a miscarriage or termination.
• Stillbirth/fetal death: Select if the participant eligibility for Healthy Families ends because the pregnancy ends with fetal death or a stillbirth.
• Did not Respond to Outreach: Select if the participant accepted services at first contact but never received a home visit.
• Primary to become a secondary: Select if the participant no longer wants to participant in services as a primary participant and would like to continue services as a secondary participant. See the “Adding an Additional Primary or Secondary Participant to a Family” section of the PDS manual for information about how to add a participant to a family as a secondary after discharge.
• Other, specify: Select if the reason for discharge is not an option in the dropdown menu and describe the reason for discharge in the field below, “Other, Specify” field.
• Inactive options: Moved out of area, Secondary to become primary, and Discontinue services as secondary

  

3.2.1.    Other, specify: Indicate the reason for discharge if Other, specify was selected for the Reason for Discharge. This field is required if you selected Other, specify.

3.3 *HFM Consent Signed? If you chose Transferred to other Healthy Families as the for Reason for Discharge, indicate if the participant signed an HFM consent form at any time during his or her current enrollment. This field becomes required if you chose Transferred to other Healthy Families.

• Yes: Select if the participant signed the HFM consent form.
• No: Select if the participant didn’t sign an HFM consent form. If the participant did not sign an HFM consent form then Transferred to other Healthy Families Program cannot be chosen for Reason for Discharge.

3.4 *Verbal Consent Date: Enter the date the participant gave verbal consent to transfer.

3.5 What new program, if any, is the family moving to? Document the program the child/family is moving to from the dropdown menu.

• No Program: Select if the child will receive no services.
• Head Start: Select if the child is moving to a Head Start program.
• 766 specialized preschool: Select if the child is moving to a preschool designed to meet the special needs of the child.
• Other preschool: Select if the child is moving a preschool program other than Head Start.
• Other, specify: Select if the child is moving to another program not listed here and document the program in Other, specify below.
• Other Healthy Families: Select if the family will be served by another Healthy Families program.
• Unknown: Select if it is unknown whether the child is moving to other services.

  

3.6 Other, specify: Enter the name the new program the child will be moving to in the field if Other, specify was chosen for What new program, if any, is the family moving to?

3.7 Service Referrals at Discharge:  Select from the dropdown menu the referrals that were made at the time of discharge. Press the Control (Ctrl) button to select more than one referral.

• Child Care/Day Care/Respite
• Clothing and Other Material Needs
• Counseling, Mental Health
• Early Intervention
• Economic Assistance
• Employment/Job Training
• Family Planning
• Family Violence/Abuse Services
• Food/Nutrition Support
• Health Insurance
• Housing, Shelters
• Legal Assistance/Advocacy
• Medical Specialist Services
• Other Healthy Families Program
• Parenting Education/Support
• Primary Health Care- Adult
• Primary Health Care- Child
• Smoking Cessation
• Substance Abuse Services
• Transportation to Care and Services
• VNA Home Health Care
• Other, specify: Select if the participant had a service referral that is not in the list.

 

3.7.1 Other, specify: Enter the referral the participant had at discharge. This field is required if you selected Other, specify for Service Referrals at Discharge.

3.8    Discharging Site: This field will auto populate.

3.9  Transfer Site: If the Reason for Discharge is Transferred to other Healthy Families select the site name for the program to which the participant is transferring from the dropdown menu.

3.9.1 If you select a Transfer Program that is not currently active, you will get an error message like the one below. Confirm that you have selected the correct site. Some current HFM sites are marked as “NEW” to differentiate them from older inactive sites with similar names.

3.10  Transfer Site Code: This field will auto populate based on the program selected for Transfer Site.

4.  Save: Select save to complete the discharge.

4.1 After clicking Save, a pop-up box will ask if you are sure you want to discharge the participant. Click OK to continue with the discharge. Click Cancel to return to the Discharge Record page and edit the information or exit the discharge process.

5.  Cancel: Select cancel to leave the discharge record without saving.

6. After saving the discharge, you will see a message that the discharge record has been saved successfully.

7. On the Discharge tab, you will see the discharge details. Click Edit to make changes to the discharge record. Click View to view the discharge record.

 

8. You may encounter pop-up and error messages while discharging a referral.

8.1 If a Transition Plan is documented in PDS, the Reason for Discharge must match the Reason for Transition field of the Transition Plan (see Creating a Transition Plan for instructions). If they do not match you will see an error message when you try to continue with the discharge. Programs may still proceed with the transfers by selecting OK.

8.2 If you are discharging a participant who is transferring to another Healthy Families site, you will see an error message if you have not recorded at least two co-visits with the participant prior to discharge. Programs may proceed to complete a transfer by selecting OK without completing two co-visits, but co-visits are strongly recommended to help support participants transitioning to a new location and program.

8.3 If you are transferring a participant and have selected No to HFM consent signed? you will receive an error message that the consent form must be signed prior to transfer. The program will not be able to complete the transfer without the completion of an HFM consent form.

II. Discharging a Secondary Participant

1. Secondary participants must be discharged when they:

• Will begin receiving services as a primary participant
• Will discontinue receiving services as a secondary participant while the primary participant in the family continues to receive services.

2. To discharge a secondary participant, go to the participant profile and click the Discharge tab.

3. Click Discharge the Current Referral.

4. Enter the following information in the “Discharge Record” section:

4.1 *Discharge Date: Enter the date you discharged the participant.

4.2 *Reason for Discharge: Select the reason you are discharging the participant from the dropdown menu.

• Lost to follow-up: Select if the program is unable to re-engage the participant in services despite creative outreach efforts for at least three months while on the Engagement or Re-Engagement service levels.
• Secondary to become a primary: Select if the secondary participant is going to be re-enrolled as a primary participant.
• Discontinue services as secondary: Select if the secondary participant will no longer receive services but will not become a primary participant.
• Other, specify: Select if the reason for discharge is not an option in the dropdown menu and describe the reason for discharge in the field below, “Other, Specify” field.
• Inactive: Many reasons for discharge are grayed out and inactive because these are discharge reasons for primary participants.

4.2.1 Other, specify: Indicate the reason for discharge if Other, specify was selected for the Reason for Discharge. This field is required if you selected Other, specify.

4.3 HFM Consent Signed? Indicate if the participant signed an HFM consent form at any time during his or her current enrollment.

• Yes: Select if the participant signed the HFM consent form.
• No: Select if the participant didn’t sign an HFM consent form.

4.4 *Verbal Consent Date: This field is grayed out and cannot be edited. .

4.5 What new program, if any, is the family moving to? Document the program the child/family is moving to from the dropdown menu.

• No Program: Select if the child will receive no services.
• Head Start: Select if the child is moving to a Head Start program.
• 766 specialized preschool: Select if the child is moving to a preschool designed to meet the special needs of the child.
• Other preschool: Select if the child is moving a preschool program other than Head Start.
• Other, specify: Select if the child is moving to another program not listed here and document the program in Other, specify below.
• Other Healthy Families: Select if the family will be served by another Healthy Families program.
• Unknown: Select if it is unknown whether the child is moving to other services.

4.6 Other, specify: Enter the name the new program the child will be moving to in the field if Other, specify was chosen for What new program, if any, is the family moving to?

 

4.7 Service Referrals at Discharge:  Select from the dropdown menu the referrals that were made at the time of discharge. Press the Control (Ctrl) button to select more than one referral.

• Child Care/Day Care/Respite
• Clothing and Other Material Needs
• Counseling, Mental Health
• Early Intervention
• Economic Assistance
• Employment/Job Training
• Family Planning
• Family Violence/Abuse Services
• Food/Nutrition Support
• Health Insurance
• Housing, Shelters
• Legal Assistance/Advocacy
• Medical Specialist Services
• Other Healthy Families Program
• Parenting Education/Support
• Primary Health Care- Adult
• Primary Health Care- Child
• Smoking Cessation
• Substance Abuse Services
• Transportation to Care and Services
• VNA Home Health Care
• Other, specify: Select if the participant had a service referral that is not in the list.

 

4.7.1 Other, specify: Enter the referral the participant had at discharge. This field is required if you selected Other, specify for Service Referrals at Discharge.

4.8    Discharging Site: This field will auto populate.

4.9  Transfer Site: Leave this field at **Inactive Sites Only**. Secondary participants are not transferred between Healthy Families sites.

4.10  Transfer Site Code: This field stays at Select because Transfer Site should remain on **Inactive Sites Only**.

5. Save: Select save to complete the discharge.

6. Cancel: Select to leave the Discharge Record without saving.

7. After clicking Save, a pop-up box will ask if you are sure you want to discharge the participant. Click OK to continue with the discharge. Click Cancel to return to the Discharge Record page and edit the information or exit the discharge process.

8. After saving the discharge, you will see a message that the discharge record has been saved successfully.

9. On the Discharge tab, you will see the discharge details. Click Edit to make changes to the discharge record. Click View to view the discharge record.

10. If you have discharged a secondary participant with the Reason for Discharge as Secondary to become primary, you can now return to the participant’s profile page and create a new referral for him/her to be enrolled as a primary participant. See the instructions for Creating a Referral.

 

 

 

Discharging a Primary or Secondary Participant (Sept 2019)

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