The official name of this project is “Development of Methods and Training for Assessing Personal Experience Outcomes for Adults with Developmental or Physical Disabilities and Frail Elders in Wisconsin’s Medicaid-Funded HCBS And Managed Long-Term Care Programs.”  For every day use, we have re-named this the PEONIES project. PEONIES stands for Personal Experience Outcomes iNtegrated Interiew and Evaluation System.

• Personal Experience means that each person judges the quality of his or her own life.
  
  
• Outcomes are conditions or circumstances that have value all on their own.  There are 12 personal experience outcomes that the State developed through the Quality Close to Home project.
  
  
• iNtegrated means that this project combines interview and evaluation into a system.  All the pieces work together. 
  
  
• Interview means that we learn about each person’s Personal Experience Outcomes by talking with him/her.
  
  
• Evaluation means that the Personal Experience Outcomes can be used to help learn how successfully each person is achieving the things they want.  It also means the Personal Experience Outcomes can be used to help learn whether people are receiving the kinds of supports and services that help them reach their outcomes. 
  
  
• System means the information about the Personal Experience Outcomes is collected, presented, and used in clearly defined ways.  Everyone can understand where the information comes from and what it means.

Peonies are symbols of happiness, prosperity, love, and affection.  These are outcomes that many of us wish for in our lives.  Peonies are a multi-layered, complex flower.  They are an appropriate symbol for the multi-layered, complex people that we all are. 

Project Purpose

This project is funded by the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services.  Its purpose is to develop a way of measuring and using Personal Experience Outcomes for people receiving long-term care services in the community. Through this project, we will develop ways of interviewing people to learn about the outcomes they want in their lives.  This information can be used for many purposes.  Some of these purposes are:

• Help Care Managers and Consumers work together to make sure services are supporting the things that are most important to the Consumer.
  
  
• Help Long-Term Care Programs (COP, CIP, Family Care, Partnership Program, other managed long-term care programs) monitor and improve quality.
  
  
• Help DHFS ensure that the programs they fund are helping people achieve the quality of life they desire.

Project Accomplishments

• Developed interview tools to guide Care Managers and Quality Reviewers in learning about Personal Experience Outcomes

• Developed a manual to help people use the interview tools

• Developed a training program to teach people to use the interview tools
  
  
• Conducted reliability tests to make sure that interview tools, manual, and training program work properly.
  
  
• Worked closely with consumers, family members, care managers, quality reviewers, policy makers, and other stakeholders to make sure the tools and approach capture their needs and perspectives.

 Current Project Activities

Currently, we are testing the validity of the measures that are created when external quality reviewers do PEONIES interviews. This means making sure that the measures are realistic reflections of the quality of life of people being served in Family Care or other programs. We will use these steps to do this.

• Train and certify external quality reviewers in the use of the PEONIES approach
  
  
• External quality reviewers from MetaStar will conduct PEONIES interviews at Family Care and Wisconsin Partnership Programs as part of their annual quality reviews
  
  
• Use PEONIES interview information from MetaStar to create a summary of results for each Family Care and Wisconsin Partnership Program site
  
  
• Review the summary of results with Family Care and Wisconsin Partnership Program staff to learn if measures are accurate and meaningful to them
  
  
• Conduct focus groups with other consumers to learn if measures are reflective of their perspectives and experiences
  
  
• Validate measures using record review to identify errors in data or reasons for potential problems

The validation activities will help us make sure that the information is meaningful and useful to service providers and consumers. It also will help us identify shortcomings in the approach and make any changes needed.

In addition to validation activities, we are developing two informational webcasts to provide background information to people interested in PEONIES. One webcast will provide detailed information about the 12 personal experience outcome areas: what each area means, the breadth of issues that can be included in each area, and challenges to identifying the outcomes in each area. A second webcast will provide information about some basic interviewing techniques. The PEONIES approach requires high level interviewing skills. The webcast will provide information about general skills that must be mastered before learning the PEONIES approach.

Project Timeline

The current phase of this project began on July 1, 2008. Validation work is expected to continue through June 2010, pending available funding. The webcasts will be developed by the end of 2008.