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McClendon Center Reaches Capacity

Written by Dennis Hobb Sunday, 23 August 2009 13:48

In March this year the McClendon Center opened its intake process with the goal to grow by 480 new clients at the Core Services Agency.  This process, once begun, roared ahead like a freight train.  In the matter of four months, almost 400 new clients had intakes at the CSA.  The net effect was the addition of enough clients to fill two new teams.  A secondary effect of this growth was that daily attendance at the Day Program jumped from about 38 before the expansion to 60 by the end of July.

This growth, though planned about as well as it could have been, has had two effects with which the Center is still dealing.  The first has been the dramatic increase in staffing from 20 or so pre-expansion to 55 full time equivalent employees by mid-August.  The additional space, equipment, supervision, and administrative oversight have all put a strain on the system.  However, the Center has not experienced any noteworthy problems as a result of having added all these new staff members.  The net effect, though, has been the recognized need to re-establish the agency's culture in terms of everyone not just wanting to go the extra mile for our clients, but knowing when and how to do that.  Team leaders acknowledge the need to reinforce the Center's high standard of care and are committed providing excellent supervision and oversight to ensure that this comes about.

The other effect of this rapid expansion on the agency has been the associated financial strain.  No business can expand without first spending money and then recouping it as staff members, once hired and trained, start to bill for their services.  The City is doing a far better job of reimbursing for services than in the past, but payment for claims is not instantaneous and at best happens with about a 30-day turnaround from claims submission to claims payment.  The Center is beginning to recover from the expansion's financial strain and soon anticipates the ability to rebuild and add to its reserves.

Once the Center has settled down from this phase of the expansion, the Board of Directors will determine if the Center will open for growth again.  Plans to open a service site in Ward 8 have not yet been realized, and the Board has not cancelled plans to establish a presence there; rather, plans to do so have been suspended.  This means that in addition to having added Team Two at the Center's North Capitol location (Team One was already providing services there), Team 3 and Team 4, each about halfway staffed, will continue to operate from the current CSA pending additional client growth.

The one exception to the suspension of the Center's expansion is in the area of Day Programming.  The Center is hopeful that very soon we can announce the opening of an additional Day Program location.  Word of a lease agreement is due any day, so stay tuned!