Canyon Oaks Youth Center Receives Provisional STRP License

On December 1, Canyon Oaks Youth Center received a provisional Short Term Residential Therapeutic Program (STRTP) license that will become permanent upon accreditation by the Council on Accreditation (COA), which must be completed within a year. 

“Attaining a STRTP license will ensure Canyon Oaks can continue operating at a level providing the highest quality of care and rigorous quality performance,” said David Young, BHRS Director.

Canyon Oaks Youth Center was previously licensed as a Level 14 Foster Care Group Home, a designation that was terminated by legislation passed in 2015 and is now referred to as a Short Term Residential Therapeutic Program.

BHRS Completes External Federal Quality Review 

Last month, BHRS completed their annual review as required by the federal Center for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS).  Each state is required to perform an independent external quality review for all medicaid health plans providing mental health and substance use treatment services. 

A California External Quality Review Organization (EQRO) conducts the annual site visit to examine access to care, timeliness of care, quality of services and treatment outcomes. The reviewers examine our manuals, policies and procedures, and description of services, including requests for data on the spot, and interviews BHRS clinic staff, community based providers, consumers, peers and family partners, and BHRS managers. 

“Preparing for the review required an extensive amount of work on the part of many staff members, above and beyond their day to day duties which we would like to acknowledge,” said Scott Gruendl, BHRS Assistant Director. 

The leaders responsible for ensuring BHRS quality standards are met and maintained include Jeannine Mealy, acting Quality Manager; Scott Gruendl, Assistant Director; Bob Cabaj, Medical Director; Karen Krahn, Deputy Director, Adult Services; Toni DeMarco, Deputy Director, Youth Services; and Janet Gard, Deputy Director, Finance & Administration.  Each had responsibilities within their purview to provide guidance and direction for their units/programs.      

Numerous people participated in the two-day sessions, including staff from the Pride Center, California Clubhouse, Office of Consumer and Family Affairs, BHRS consumers, and many other staff and managers. Staff on the MIS team, Avatar team, and BHRS Administration provided support by gathering data and generating reports. Our Quality Management team put in much work during the site visit and in the proceeding months to help prepare for the review. Claudia Tinoco (Program Specialist working out of class as the Unit Chief), and Tracey Yee Chan, both from QM, did an incredible job considering this was their very first review.

Special thanks to Suzanne Aubry for her extensive participation in organizing consumer involvement and the EQRO reviewer field trips; Hung-Ming Chu for his considerable involvement and research that informed our reports; Jei Africa for his presentation of our leading efforts in meeting cultural and linguistic access standards and our multicultural organizational development work; Kim Pijma and her staff for all the technology/data access support; Barbara Liang for her presentation on pharmacy services; Chad Kempel for his extensive and real time data support, providing on the fly answers to questions being posed by the reviewers and for his support of the Performance Improvement Projects; and to Talisha Racy, Terry Wilcox-Rittgers, Scott Peyton, and Pernille Gutschick for their passionate representation of the work.