[AVAPL Members] Re: Psych Testing Software Questions
- From: "Worthen, Mark" <Mark.Worthen@xxxxxx>
- To: <members1@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 17:46:20 -0600
Man, am I glad I joined AVAPL! This one email from Kathleen will
probably save our psychologists countless headaches down the road now
that we know the what's and wherefore's of all things psych testing.
Kathleen - Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a
detailed and very informative email. I will get with our Psychology
Chief and start getting us up-to-date.
Very Appreciatively Yours,
Mark
Mark D Worthen PsyD
Department of Veterans Affairs
Texarkana Community-Based Outpatient Clinic
910 Realtor Avenue, Texarkana, Arkansas 71854
Office: 870-779-2732 | Cell: 435-647-6706
Fax: 870-216-2583
From: avaplmembers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:avaplmembers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lysell, Kathleen
M.
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 1:41 PM
To: members1@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AVAPL Members] Re: Psych Testing Software Questions
The Office of Mental Health Services is the business owner for the MHA
(Mental Health Assistant) software, and associated VistA Mental Health
package. It falls under my section, and you can direct specific
questions to me.
Just a little background information that I thought might be of value to
most on the mail group-
MHA3 is the current version of the automated assessment package. It is
a national "Class I" software package, meaning it is supported by OI&T.
The original version was in VistA, and there have been earlier versions
of the GUI (Windows based) application. MHA3 involved a major change to
the file structure, so as new tests get added to the package, they will
only be added in the MHA3 version. Tests that were administered in the
earlier version of the software can be viewed in MHA3, but not the
reverse.
All sites have installed the software patches for MHA3, but your IRM
shop may not have made the front end GUI available to you. I'd
recommend that you check with your IRM staff if you don't have the
current version, and you can send me specific questions if you are
having problems with this. No one should be using VistA for
administration of psychological tests, or older versions of MHA. These
will be removed as obsolete options in the near future, but in the
meantime, please make sure you have the current version of MHA available
to your staff.
OMHS contracts with several test publishers to include proprietary tests
in the MHA package. We pay for the test usage through the national
contracts. The contracts include scoring, but not report generation for
these tests. A number of facilities do purchase scoring packages from
the test publishers that include report generation. There are other
tests that are not a part of the MHA package that sites also purchase
from the test publishers.
Because this is an issue of common interest, a brief statement about
status of contracts-we are still working on getting the PAR contract
awarded. I've expressed optimism in the past only to have new
contracting requirements added on, so I will cautiously say that it is
continuing to move forward and I am hopeful the contract will be awarded
soon. I will notify this group when it is awarded. There are also some
desired updates to Pearson instruments as well. While we have gotten a
signed contract with Pearson, VA still owes them money from prior years
when the contract had lapsed. I have to get that resolved before we can
add the updates to the package, but those are in the plans.
With regard to IT issues with testing software, the primary issue is
related to security and allowing patients to use VA computers. The
informatics section of OMHS is working with our OI&T program manager,
Dan Carroll, to get a national waiver for the Secure Desktop feature,
which allows patient administration within MHA. It is in progress, and,
if it is successful, I will let you know via this mail forum.
Other commercial software may pose similar security concerns. In
evaluating those, it has been determined that we cannot pursue a
national waiver for the commercial software applications, and in fact,
many of them have disclaimers around computer security that are real
concerns for Information Security Officers in VA. Many sites have been
able to find local arrangements with their ISO's to set the software up
such that it can be used and still maintain computer security. However,
there is not a single solution, and much of this is dependent on local
relationships and resources. If you are having trouble addressing these
issues locally, you can send me a message independently, and I can try
to address. We can certainly help provide rationale for using software
beyond the MHA package, and depending on specifics of the issues, try to
connect your facility staff with IT resources that may be helpful in
addressing concerns.
Kathleen Lysell, Psy.D.
National Mental Health Director for Informatics
Office of Mental Health Services, VACO
808-433-0045
kathleen.lysell@xxxxxx
From: avaplmembers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:avaplmembers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Worthen, Mark
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 6:05 PM
To: members1@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AVAPL Members] Psych Testing Software Questions
The discussion about MH3 raised a couple of questions for me:
1) Do all VISN's use MH3? We have psych testing available on VISTA
but I don't know if that is what you all are referring to. I haven't
noticed any of the problems you all mentioned but if we're using MH3, I
want to be on the lookout for them!
2) We recently purchased some new psych testing software and our
local OI&T director had serious concerns about us using it (I
unfortunately do not know what his specific concerns were). This was
confusing for me because we already have a host of psych testing
software programs available to us through VISTA. There also seemed to be
a general lack of awareness about those psych testing programs (e.g.,
MMPI-2, PAI, Mississippi Scale, etc.) already available to us or how to
load new programs so that they would also be available via VISTA. Is
there any single individual or group to whom we could turn for
assistance? I'm hoping that there might be someone who could assuage the
OI&T director's fears about "those psych folks and their software." ;-)
Many thanks,
Mark
Mark D Worthen PsyD
Department of Veterans Affairs
Texarkana Community-Based Outpatient Clinic
910 Realtor Avenue, Texarkana, Arkansas 71854
Office: 870-779-2732 | Cell: 435-647-6706
Fax: 870-216-2583
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