Aetna Discharge Planning Report. The SME examined data specific to four factors: (1) total numbers of children served, (2) lengths of stay, (3) readmissions, and (4) discharge reasons. Figure 2 below provides a weekly, point-in-time count of children remaining in any residential level of care at the end of each week. FIGURE 1: RMHTF PLACEMENTS, JAN. 2021-SEPT. 2022 Data for the week of September 16, 2022, records a total of 787 children remaining in a placement, with 14 of that total parentally placed youth. This is below the target of 822 or fewer youth that DHHR must reach by December 31, 2022. Using preliminary data from the September 12, Internal QAPI screenshots, most of the children newly admitted to residential placements in the most recent 12 months (Aug. 2021-Jul. 2022) were ages 13-17 (84%), with 12% of new admissions ages 9-12, 2% ages 5-8, and slightly more than 1% ages 18-20. Most of the youth enrolled were male (59%). Length of stay was reported in both DHHR’s semi-annual, and in DHHRs internal working data sources shared with the SME. As available data increases, it will be necessary to clearly understand the different sources of information, the specific numerator and denominator used for each metric, and reflected timelines to move forward with understanding progress using consistent metrics. Table 17: Average Length of Stay by Facility Type, 2018-20217 FACILITY TYPE 2018 2019 2020 2021 Group Residential 204 223 223 218 PRTF 276 257 275 267 Short Term Acute Psychiatric 35 40 34 37 While understanding overall lengths of stay across all residential services is an important indicator, there are usually differences between types of care that can inform system issues and action steps. In examining data by service type reported in the Semi-Annual report, July 2022, data indicates that ALOS had decreased for children in psychiatric residential treatment facilities from 2018 to 2021 but increased for children in group residential and short-term acute psychiatric hospitalization (figure 77, p. 100). Figure 2: RMHTF Admissions by Age DHHR’s July 2022 semi-annual report reflects that the statewide capacity for RMHTFs is sufficient to serve the total number of children requiring placements but that the individual needs of children may not always be able to be met in-state. DHHR is in the process of developing a service model for small, community-based group homes to serve populations of children who are more likely to be declined by in-state providers due to their needs. DHHR is also...
