• Site/Enrollment Definitions
• Service Level
• Participant Groups
• Immunization Schedule
• Well Baby Schedule

From the Site Definition Form, you will set some basic parameters, plus navigate to six other schedules.

Site ID
This should be a five character sequence beginning with your state abbreviation. This ID is provided to you by Healthy Families America and is used to uniquely identify your site.

Service Start
This is the definition for the participant's Enrollment Date.  HFA credentialing requires this to be set as “Date of First Home Visit”. You may use other definitions if you need to run reports for other funders who want to look at other windows of program services (e.g., from date of assessment to date of termination of services).

Service End
This is the end date for a participant to be considered active. HFA credentialing requires Service End to be set as “Date of Last Home Visit.”  Note that PIMS will estimate this date if you choose to track home visits only through the Monthly Contact Log. You may use other definitions if you need to run reports for other funders who want to look at other windows of program services (e.g., from date of assessment to date of termination of services). If the service end date is set as “date of last contact” or “termination date”, then these dates are used where available.  Otherwise, service end date is set as the Cutoff Date.

See Service Level Assignments and Home Visit Tracking for more information on the importance of these definitions.

Note that retention is calculated as each participant’s period of active service.  This is the difference between the defined Service Start Date (typically the first home visit date) and the defined Service End Date (typically the last home visit date).  It is important to understand that this is not necessarily the same service period portrayed in service level tracking reports, which track a participant from the time they are first assigned a service level until termination.

Enrollment Eligibility
This lets you specify which people are eligible for services.  This impacts whether you will have an option to add an intake record for each person, and also determines the options available in the Participant Search Menu.

Count Home Visits from Monthly Contact Log
Some sites choose to enter all home visit records for participants into PIMS; other sites choose to enter only the first home visit record.  If your site chooses the latter, then check this box so that PIMS can calculate the number of completed home visits from the Monthly Contact Logs.

Note that if you choose to tabulate home visits using the Monthly Contact Log, the date of first home visit will be estimated as follows:
If a home visit log form is entered, then date of first home visit will be the date of the earliest recorded home visit log

2. If  no home visit log form is entered, then the date of first home visit is approximated during the month of the first monthly contact log where a home visit is recorded.
1. If possible, the date of first home visit will be approximated as the 16th of the month.
2. If the date service level assigned occurs after the 16th or the termination date/last contact date occur before the 16th, the date of first home visit will be interpolated between these dates.

The date of last home visit will be estimated during the month of the last monthly contact log where a home visit is recorded:

1. If possible, the date of last home visit will be approximated as the 16th of the month.
2. If the date service level assigned/date of last home visit log occur after the 16th or the termination date/last contact date occur before the 16th, the date of first home visit will be interpolated between these dates.

Use the Service Level Form to define each level of service your site will use.  For each level of service, specify the name, the number of home visits expected each month, and its case weight. Following are typical service level assignments used by Healthy Families America.

If you are part of a state agency using PIMS, it is very important that you set service level definitions consistent with the rest of your state.  This is critical because state-level evaluations require that all data sets are analyzed the same way.

Following is a brief description of the check box options.

1. Creative Outreach designates that the service level is creative outreach.  PIMS will not assume that just because a level is called Level X, it is creative outreach.  You must check the Creative Outreach box for any service level which your site defines as a creative outreach level.  This is critical for reports such as Summary of Intensive Services for New Families.
2. Prenatal designates that the service level is for prenatal service.  PIMS will not assume that just because a level is called Level P, it is prenatal.  You must check the Creative Outreach box for any service level which your site defines as a creative outreach level.
3. Other Program can be used as a placeholder for participants that began service in another Healthy Families program.  If you use a service level for this, you might expect 0 visits per month and 0 caseload weight, because your program is not providing the service.  This is not currently reflected in PIMS reports.
4. Temporary Termination can be used as a placeholder for participants that terminated and then re-enrolled.  If a terminated participant re-enrolls, you would delete their termination form and assign them to a temporary termination level at the same date as their original termination.  When they re-enroll, you would assign them to an actual service level.  This is not currently reflected in PIMS reports.

The Participant Groups form allows you to define your own groups of people in your database.  These groups can be used to include or exclude people from certain reports in your database.  For example, you may want to create a group representing a county, or another group representing teen mothers.  This form displays the following information:

1. Group Name can be anything the user chooses
2. Group Created is the date on which each group was originally created
3. Created By is the user who was logged in when each group was originally created
4. # of Members is automatically calculated as the number of people selected for inclusion in each group

To add a new group, simply type in the group name next to the black arrow.  For information on how to add and remove people to a group, see Managing Groups.

When you create a new PIMS database, PIMS will define the default immunizations based on the AAP recommendations, allowing an extra month at the end of each window (unless it overlaps with the next immunization).

To make adjustments to the schedule,

1. In the PIMS navigation bar, click on Site Definitions.
2. From the Site Definitions menu, click Immunization Schedule.
3. Make adjustments to the immunization schedule, and click Update All Children.

Note that the Required for Children Born After field can be used to define which children should complete an immunization. For example, if you set Required for Children Born After to 1/1/07 for a particular immunization, that immunization will only be added to the schedule of children born on or after 1/1/07.

The box Is Reported is checked by default, as HFA credentialing requires that all immunizations appear in reports submitted for accreditation.  However, if you have another funder who wants you to look at a limited set of immunizations or you want to compare your immunization completions with CDC standards, you can uncheck this box.  All PIMS Immunization reports will only display immunization reports where this box is checked.

Following are the current AAP recommendations as of 4/21/08. Please see http://www.cispimmunize.org/ for up-to-date immunization information.

The Well Baby Schedule form provides space to specify up to 15 well baby visits.  It is up to the site to determine the required schedule of visits.  It is recommended that you consult with your health department or pediatric clinics to determine the recommended schedule for well baby visits, based on CDC and AAP guidelines.  From this schedule, PIMS will calculate a well baby visit schedule for each child who has a birth record entered, based on the date of birth.