Freemed-YiRC 1.20

Freemed-YiRC is based on Freemed, but for Youth in Residential Care centers (YiRC).

Freemed-YiRC project runs on a web server, and the client can be ANY computer running a decent web browser with good table support.

FMYiRC is web-based!

- It is loaded on a Linux server at your agency.
- Your data is stored on your server at your agency.
- You own your data.
- All that is required to access FMYiRC is a computer with Internet access and a web browser
- Clients/workstations can use Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc...
- The Mozilla Firefox web browser is highly recommended
- With additional networking setup by your agency, one FMYiRC server can be used by many multiple off-site locations and mobile users.

FMYiRC was designed with security in mind

- Anyone in child care circles will tell you that all types of security are important when it comes to information relating to youth.
- For one, much consideration has to be paid to the HIPAA privacy rule!!!
- Access to FMYiRC can be restricted to the HTTPS protocol. This uses encryption (SSL) to ensure sensitive information is not intercepted by 3rd parties during transit across your network or the Internet.
- A properly configured FMYiRC Linux server will have it's own firewall, in addition to the main Internet firewall at your agency.
- FMYiRC itself has a very fine-grade access control system. The administrator can control exactly what individual users have access to.

FMYiRC was designed to be reliable and fault-tolerant

- The entire design of FMYiRC was created by taking into account years of previous information system designs.

FMYiRC is easy to backup.

- There are only two major pieces to FMYiRC to backup:
- The database... very easy to backup with MySQL
- The FMYiRC software itself... contained in one place, very easy to backup using operating system utilities
- FMYiRC includes utilities to back itself up!

FMYiRC can make use of MySQL server real-time replication.

- You can set up two FMYiRC servers for a high level of fault-tolerance.
If one server goes down, users can switch over to the second server in very short order.
- Using a dual-server setup, downtime due to server maintenance or upgrades becomes next to nothing. You can switch your users to the secondary server, take the primary server down, perform the maintenance/upgrades without the pressure of a down server situation, bring it back up, switch the users back to the primary server, then do the same cycle with the secondary server if necessary.

FMYiRC is modular

- If you would like to add functionality to FMYiRC, you can do so by creating new software modules.
- Creating new modules for use with FMYiRC is relatively easy, documentation for this process is available.

Product's homepage

Requirements:

· Apache
· MySQL
· PHP

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

Base System:

· Keyboard navigation shortcuts/hotkeys!
· Users can now use Alt key combinations to navigate quickly to certain parts of Freemed-YiRC. For more information, please see the keyboard shortcuts article. This is selectable per user via the My Preferences menu option at the bottom of a users main menu.
· Major core code upgrades. A lot of work has gone into updating some of the core Freemed-YiRC source code, as parts of this date back to 1999. A major focus of this has been to prepare for the future release of PHP version 6.
· Support for Internet Explorer 8.
· The newest version of the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser attempts to adhere much better to established web standards. However, in order for it to do this properly, web application designers have to explain to Internet Explorer 8 that their application expects IE8 to do this properly! Freemed-YiRC V1.20 does this and should reduce and/or eliminate any issues users who were using Freemed-YiRC with IE8 were having (i.e., premature session ending, being logged off).
· All agencies and users are still highly encouraged to switch to a web browser which has much better support for web standards such as Mozilla Firefox.
· The Group Menus now have a selected resident option.
· Previously, if you were to switch between modules on a given group menu but were still working with information relating to the same resident, you had to select that resident's name each time you entered a module. No longer! Freemed-YiRC V1.20 introduces the ability to select a resident right on the group menu. Then, when entering a group menu module which relates to specific residents, the resident selection screen will be bypassed. For users upgrading from Freemed-YiRC V1.10, this may require changing a new module setting (group_menu_use_selected_res).

E-Mail:

· Added a new Trash folder. Any deleted e-mails will be automatically placed into this folder and automatically removed 30 days after an e-mail has been deleted.

BASE SYSTEM:

· Added a new feature to allow users to change their own passwords.
· This is done via the new module setting allow_users_pass_chgs for the User Administration module. This is Enabled by default. If you do not wish to allow users to change their own passwords, this can be set to Disabled
· Users can changes their own passwords by accessing the My Preferences link at the bottom of their main menu.

Contact Database:

· Dates integration with the User Calendar 2 module.
· Dates entered into the Dates section for Staff contacts (and also newly for Resource contacts too) can be set up to generate calendar events and/or e-mail alerts via the User Calendar 2 module.
· Added the ability to break down resident census per diems into Title IV-E Maintenance and Administration categories.
· This must be enabled by changing the new module setting enable_perdiem_iv_e_breakdown to Enabled.
· Added the ability to add a Per Diem for foster parent pay calculations.
· This must be enabled by changing the new module setting enable_fos_par_perdiem to Enabled.
· The actual ability go generate a report showing foster parent pay info did not make it into Freemed-YiRC V1.20. It will be included in a future release. However, this will allow you to start collecting this information.
· Added the ability to automatically inactivate contacts (Residents/Resources/Staff) if they have been marked as terminated for a certain number of days.
· This must be enabled by changing the new module setting auto_inactivate_after_dot to something greater than zero. This number is the number of days AFTER a person is terminated (Date of Termination) that they will automatically become inactivated. It is recommended this be no lower than 30-45 days. This allows for final documentation and reporting to be created.
· Added the ability to temporarily re-activate contacts which have been marked as inactive.
· This can be done in the same location where you'd edit a contacts name and/or status.
· Added a new user Security Database permission to restrict access to sensitive areas of the Staff section of the Contact Database (Demographics, Accounting, and Salary Sheet).
· This is the Access Staff - HR Info permission in the Contact Database section of User Administration - Security Permissions for a user.
Added new sections for Resource Contacts in the Contact Database:
· Prospective Tracking
· Internal Investigations
· Abuse/Neglect Investigations
· Training Hours
Added new sections for Resident Contacts in the Contact Database:
· ADD ONs. - This lists any children a resident may have.
· NOTES - For generic notes on a resident.
· This must be enabled by changing the new module setting enable_res_notes to Enabled.
· Level of Care - This is used to keep a history of Level of Care changes.
· REFERRAL INFO
· Service Plan Info
· NOTE: This section is intended to record information to be used by the new Report Generator module, which may not make it into version V1.20.
· Medbill Self Pay Rates - This is used by the MedBill module.
· NOTE: The functionality may not be in place in V1.20 to make use of this information yet via the MedBill module.
· Modified the process of adding a new contact to double-check existing contacts for first name/last name matching. This is helpful in situations where a contact may be inactive and someone tries to re-create them, creating a duplicate contact.
· Also modified the process for resident contacts to check Social Security Numbers to ensure there are no duplicates there.
· Added a new report in the Contact Database - Staff Pay Rates Report.
· Modified contact types Resident, Staff, and Resource to display a warning if they are active and NOT associated with a group. This is very important, and sometimes a frustrating/confusing aspect for new Freemed-YiRC users, as unless a contact is associated with a group, they may not show up on reports and/or data entry screens.
· Also, modified to check and ensure that one group is marked PRIMARY.
· Also, modified Resource contacts to display an error if they are not associated with a Resource Location.

Contact Database Reports:

· Modified to add many more fields relating to all contact types.
· Added the ability to generate CSV (Comma Separated Values) export files from reports.
· This allows the ability to import these files into things like Open Office or Microsoft Word/Excel to create custom reports.

Calendar (User Calendar 2 / Group Calendar 2):

· Added the ability to import calendar events using the iCalendar format.
· NOTE: This feature may not adhere 100% to the iCalendar format, you must perform small-scale testing to ensure it works the way you expect it to.

File Storage:

· Added the ability to move files between folders.
· Added the ability to upload multiple files at once.
· This must be enabled by changing the new module setting pload_files_num to a value greater than zero.

Incident Report System:

· Added new module for IRS-Reports - This contains several reports useful for Incident Reports.

Ohio Scales:

· Major revamping of the Ohio Scales main menu.
· Added new report - Changes Over Time - Integrated
· Added new report - Changes Over Time - Ind. Questions

Phone & Vistation Log:

· Added ability to specify a contact from the Contact Database for the Visitor/Contact name.
· Added ability to do batch entry of records.
· This must be enabled by changing the new module setting enable_batch_entry to Enabled and changing enable_batch_entry_number to a value greater than zero.
· Added ability (via module setting) to print individual PVLs (after creation and from PVL menu).
· This must be enabled by changing the new module setting enable_ind_note_printing to Enabled.
· Added ability to link PVL entries with a Domain/Client Need. This list comes directly from the Service Plan Goals (SPG) Module list of domains
· This must be enabled by changing the new module setting enable_spg_domainlist to Enabled.
· Modified the PVL system to import dates from the Clinical CaseNote System.
· This can be disabled by changing the new module setting enable_alt_ccn_import.
· The category name for imported records can be changed by changing the new module setting alt_ccn_import_catname.
· Non-billable CCNs can be imported too by changing the new module setting ccn_import_nonbill_too to Enabled.

Resource Locations:

· Added a warning to display when a location is not associated with a group. This is very important and can be confusing/frustrating for new users of Freemed-YiRC. All Resource Locations MUST be a member of at least one group!

Training Hours Menu:

· Modified to allow Resource Contacts to be included now.
· Modified so the person who presented the training can be added at the same time as the attendees. Previously this required two different passes through the same data entry screen to accomplish.