E-NEWSLETTER APRIL 2009 | WALTER W MARSTON LLC |
616-304-2337 | Walt.Marston@att.net
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This month, we want to tell you about some recent client projects that get to the essence of what we do and how clients benefit from our services. Our clientele reflects our passion for supporting organizations and ventures that help to transform people’s lives. This results in many projects in the areas of education, social services, social justice and healthcare. We provide these clients with simplified processes and tools to easily and cost-effectively manage key data and ensure successful outcomes. The following projects are primary examples of these types of projects.
Children’s Healthcare Access Program (CHAP) Catholic Charities West Michigan (CCWM) Grand Valley State University – College of Education Grand Valley State University – Continuing Education Regional Centers Children’s
Healthcare Access Program (CHAP) We were very pleased to be able to do this project, especially because this is the kind of pioneering approach to providing healthcare services that ensures primary and preventive care for those in greatest need. This is how the client describes the project: “[Walter W Marston LLC] was hired to create [a]
database for the Children’s Healthcare Access Program (CHAP), an initiative
that provides case management and ancillary services to approximately 14,000
children on Medicaid in Because CHAP is a demonstration project that is constantly undergoing changes, there was a need to make significant revisions as the database development progressed; Walt was always thorough, accommodating and timely about addressing that need. The database meets our documentation needs, and is very user-friendly.” – Maureen Kirkwood, Manager, CHAP Benefits: · Costs greatly reduced (to patients, families and the community) · Improved healthcare access o Reduces health risk o Minimizes cost of crisis treatment (such as ER visits). www.firststepskent.org/what-we-do/childrens-healthcare-access-program Catholic
Charities Another project, actually part of a long-term client
relationship, is with CCWM. Over several years, This began with a system to manage “demographics” data on families and individuals served by the agency – in a centralized system with unique user interfaces for various programs (E.g. Adoption, Foster Care, Behavioral Health, Early Impact, Families First, Family Reunification, and Pregnancy Counseling). Besides having an easy way to gather this info, an automated report generation system was provided to easily produce stats for reports to funding agencies and agency’s and programs’ own performance tracking. Additionally, key tracking and “case outcomes” data is managed and reported in the various program areas. More recently, in support of both “performance and quality improvement” and accreditation review, a new scorecard system is being developed. The database links to many sources of data (demographics, case and program outcomes, client satisfaction data, staff performance, etc), allowing the leadership to select a date range and automatically calculate values (usually percentages attained vs. goals) and push this out to a nicely formatted scorecard report. Benefits: · Reduced operational, planning & management challenges and costs · Improved efficiencies · Demonstrated performance success to funding sources · Easier access to info for better decision-making · Reporting achievement of strategic, program and case objectives Hopen Therapeutics is a private equity investment and management company focused on investment in development companies, particularly in health service products. We provided a database solution for easily entering info on products being evaluated, tracking the review process, checking criteria, making decisions and then quickly producing status reports and timely stats as needed. “About a year ago I approached Walt to help us
organize and manage the opportunities which resulted in an elegant database
design that provides all the data and makes it retrievable whenever needed.
Now our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) can see where each active project is
in the process. Additionally, Walt provided a format for the ad hoc retrieval
of information and reports that was not available from our paper
reports. Walt built the database and
reporting module and made sure the reports met our needs…” – Paul Simon, VP,
Marketing and Development, Hopen Therapeutics. Benefits: · Easy access to key project tracking data · Reduced costs of operations · Quick generation of status reports · Effective decision-making What I enjoyed most about this project was being onsite for several hours a week for several years, working as part of a team of faculty, administrators and staff. This continuous contact greatly enhanced effective communications and minimized errors or misunderstanding. The result was a very successful team outcome. “I worked with Walt for a period of three years,
during which time I served as Dean of the Needless to say, our accreditation review was
successful and we were commended on our sophisticated assessment system.” –
Elaine Collins, Ph.D., Dean, Benefits: · Efficient, low cost data management systems · Ongoing access to key faculty and “student teacher” placement data · Effective generation of performance reports · Successful accreditation review process This was one of several additional projects at GVSU. It was exciting to be able to work with a team of highly professional people who also care so much and provide such a high level of service for the students they serve. “Two years ago, [Walt] developed a database for the
regional centers at In working with Walt, I was especially impressed by
three characteristics of his work. One, he was extremely patient with my lack
of understanding of things related to the technical aspects of the project.
He was able to tell me what I needed to know, but didn’t confuse me with all
that he knew. He translated what my goals were for the project into the
computer language to build the structure. Then, he simplified the access
points to make it usable by all members of our staff.” – Marty Litherland,
Ph.D., Director, Benefits: ·
Affordable and
easy to use system ·
Managing data
for “inquiries” and student advising ·
Effective
analysis and reporting of performance stats These are just a few of the recent projects that Walter W Marston LLC has provided to its clients. (See more extensive client list at the bottom of the page) In future issues, we will be discussing new services and capabilities that we believe you will want to hear about. To discuss issues of interest or concern to your organization, please contact us. Or if you know of others who might benefit from our services, referrals are appreciated.
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