LifeWorks NorthWest—Hillsboro`s

Success Story
LifeWorks Northwest—Hillsboro
At LifeWorks Northwest we support people who are working towards a better life. Through our
recognized, culturally responsive prevention, mental health and addiction services, our expert
team delivers the highest quality individual and group treatment—benefiting children, teens and
families, adults, older adults and the community as a whole.
Aims
This Change Project aimed to reduce waiting times from 5.3 days to same day service and
increase admissions and engagement in the Level I and Level II chemical abuse and
dependency treatment program.
Changes
In order to reduce waiting times and increase admissions, we made the following changes:
1. Created two new weekly intake orientation treatment groups.
2. Began double-booking intake/admission appointments.
3. Opened up referrals to non-DHS referents.
Results
After we added the orientation groups, there was a significant reduction in no-shows and an
increase in client engagement.
Retention rates doubled for contract clients, while retention through the first treatment session
for DUII clients dropped and then remained steady for the second through fourth sessions.
© 2009 NIATx and the University of Wisconsin – Madison. All Rights Reserved.
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Success Story
After losing revenue for several years because of no-shows and lack of client engagement, our
revenue almost doubled for contract services and fee for service revenue increased by
approximately $15,000 from the previous year.
Lessons Learned
During the course of this Change Project, we learned several things:
1. Changes can only occur with buy-in from all of the staff. Staff loyalty was put to the test
by the increase in direct services brought about by these changes. It’s better to let go the
staff members that do not want to see change.
2. Involve the clients by gathering feedback from them directly to learn what changes they
would like to see. Change must be customer-driven, not staff-driven, and designed to
improve services.
3. The PDSA model of rapid-cycle change works even when huge barriers exist. Change
may take longer than you expected and the change cycles may be longer, but ultimately
it will work if you keep trying.
4. More revenue benefits everyone in the end. More hiring and program materials benefits
the staff, which in turn benefits clients. Because we work more cost-effectively, we
continue to get state funding and remain competitive with private non-profit and for-profit
organizations.
Next Steps
This Change Project is in the sustainability phase. We continue to monitor waiting times and
admissions.
In addition, this Change Project presented several opportunities for further improvement:
© 2009 NIATx and the University of Wisconsin – Madison. All Rights Reserved.
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Success Story
•
The retention of DUII clients, which dropped by half at the first treatment session and
then remained steady through the fourth session, presents an opportunity for improving
engagement with this population.
•
Our relationships with our referral sources have improved, but we plan to continue to
build these relationships in order to better serve each population.
© 2009 NIATx and the University of Wisconsin – Madison. All Rights Reserved.
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