Executive Summary

For The Arc Western Montana, the need for a stronger system came from a clear operational challenge: information was spread across binders, emails, Excel spreadsheets, and separate systems.

The organization needed a better way to bring its data together across documentation, communication, medications, incidents, appointments, and care plans.

Before iCareManager, the team had been using another system, but when that system was no longer supported through the state, much of the work went back to paper and binders. This created more manual tracking and made it harder to look at information holistically.

With iCareManager, The Arc Western Montana moved toward a more cohesive and centralized approach. The system helped improve consistency across homes and departments, made information more visible and accessible, and supported stronger communication across teams.

As Kristi Kusche, Chief Operating Officer at The Arc Western Montana, shared:

“I think the biggest change is consistency and visibility.”

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About Kristi Kusche and The Arc Western Montana

Kristi Kusche has been with The Arc Western Montana for more than 32 years. She has served in her current role as Chief Operating Officer for about a year and has worked her way up through the organization over time.

Her connection to the IDD community began early in life.

“My mom was a special education teacher. So I spent a lot of time in her classrooms, volunteering and being around folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”

In high school, Kristi also volunteered with Special Olympics, including downhill skiing and track and field. Those experiences shaped her understanding of the field and the importance of meaningful support.

“All of that together kind of shaped who I am and those experiences have really taught me a lot about inclusion and patience and the importance of relationships.”

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The Challenge: Scattered Systems, Manual Tracking, and Limited Visibility

Before implementing iCareManager, The Arc Western Montana was looking for a better way to bring all of its data and systems together.

The organization needed support across many moving parts, including:

Documentation
Communication
Medications
Incidents
Appointments
Care plans

Kristi explained:

“We were really looking for a better way to bring all of our data together in all of our systems.”

At the time, the organization had been using a different system, but that changed when the state stopped paying for it.

“One of the big roadblocks is the state was paying for a different system and then decided no longer to do that. So we were losing our current system.”

As a result, the team had to return to paper-based processes.

“So everything went back to paper and in binders. So we were doing a lot more tracking, manual tracking.”

This created a need for a centralized data management system that would make it easier to run reports, view information holistically, and keep teams aligned.

“We needed to find a system that would go back to a data management system so that we could run reports easier. We could look at things holistically.”

The organization also needed consistency across locations.

“Rather than each location doing their own thing separately, we needed something that was cohesive and centralized.”

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Why iCareManager

The relationship with iCareManager began when The Arc Western Montana’s CEO at the time suggested iCM based on prior experience with the system.

“Our CEO at the time had worked with iCareManager in the past, so suggested we work with you guys and the relationship just built from there. It seemed like a really good match.”

For Kristi and her team, the goal was to move away from scattered processes and toward one system that could help their teams work more consistently.

“As we were continuing to grow, we needed something that would really help with all of those systems instead of having binders and different emails and Excel spreadsheets and different systems.”

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The Solution: A Centralized System for Documentation, Communication, and Daily Operations

With iCareManager, The Arc Western Montana was able to bring more information into one centralized location.

Kristi described the shift as one that improved both consistency and visibility.

“We can look at it 24 hours a day. Whenever we want. So we now have consistency across the homes and departments.”

The system helped improve:

Communication
Reporting
Trend visibility
Accessibility across departments
Consistency across homes and teams

Kristi shared that instead of staff having to look in different places for information, they can now access a person’s profile and eChart in one centralized place.

“They can look at their profile and their eChart and everything’s in a centralized location that everybody can see. And they all see the same thing.”

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Impact on Daily Operations

One of the biggest operational improvements has been helping staff know exactly where documentation belongs.

For direct support professionals, this means documentation is easier, faster, and more consistent.

“For the direct support professionals, they know where they’re documenting everything. It’s in one place. So it’s easier, it’s faster.”

Kristi also explained that this helps staff spend more time working with the people they support instead of documenting in multiple places.

“They can spend more time working with the clients rather than trying to document in 4 different places.”

The system has also helped reduce duplicate documentation.

“It has helped stop some of the dual or triple documentation that folks need.”

Instead of documenting in a binder and then sending emails or updating other systems, information can live in one place where the right teams can access it.

“If one department needs something, it can all be in the same location.”

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A Clearer View of Daily Trends

One specific problem iCareManager helped solve was the ability to look more clearly at daily trends and understand what is happening in a person’s life.

Kristi explained that before iCM, information was more segregated, which made it difficult to see the full picture.

“Before it was really difficult to look at a whole person’s life because everything was so segregated.”

Now, the team can focus on a specific person and better understand both challenges and successes.

“Now we can look at a specific person, really concentrate on if they’re having difficulties or their successes, we can see what’s going on in their environment much quicker.”

Reporting has also become easier.

“We can get those reports out a lot easier.”

Instead of calling multiple people or searching through different places to find answers, the information is more readily available.

“You’ll see exactly what’s going on, rather than calling a bunch of people or digging around trying to find different answers. It’s just really there.”

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Implementation Experience

Kristi described the implementation process as something the organization spent significant time on to make sure the system matched what they wanted and needed.

“We really spent a lot of time with that implementation, making sure it was what we wanted and what we needed out of it.”

Before training staff, the team focused on understanding the system themselves.

“I think really looking at making sure we understood it before we did the training.”

iCareManager also supported the rollout by providing trainings that could be shared with staff.

“iCareManager was able to push out trainings as well so that we could share those with staff and ensure that they’re ready for the rollout as well.”

Although building the system took time, Kristi said the process was worth it.

“Building the entire system, while it took a lot of time, it was definitely worth it.”

Weekly meetings with iCM were an important part of the process.

“With your help on the weekly meetings, walking us through it and teaching us, I think really helped because we could see in real time what we were doing and how to implement it.”

The team also appreciated being able to roll out the system in stages based on their highest needs.

“What was really important to us was the care tracker and incident reports, and then about a month later, we rolled out medication management.”

This phased approach helped the organization focus first on what mattered most, then continue expanding into additional modules.

“Us being able to work with you on what our highest needs were really helped so that you could concentrate on that, and then give us the next steps to roll out the next modules.”

Kristi also noted the importance of continued support after implementation. About every six months, the team does a larger review of what needs to improve.

“The continued support really matters, because I don’t remember all those steps that we took.”

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Partnership and Support

Kristi described iCareManager’s responsiveness and support as a major benefit.

“I think it’s been really great. It’s been very positive. The responsiveness is amazing.”

She shared that the support team is available when needed and understands how operations work in the field.

“The support team for iCareManager is there at any time that we need them.”

“I think iCareManager understands how the operations work in this field.”

That understanding has been especially helpful when the organization has questions around areas such as attendance, tracking, incident reporting, and medications.

“If we have issues or questions on attendance or tracking or incident reporting, those are things that you guys know well.”

Kristi also pointed to medication management as an area of improvement.

“Medications has really been an improvement.”

One of the strongest aspects of the partnership has been iCM’s willingness to work through problems directly with the team.

“One of the best things that you guys do is just willingness to walk through the problems with us and really do a deep dive and get in there and see what exactly is going on.”

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Flexibility for State-Specific Needs

Kristi also highlighted iCareManager’s ability to listen, adjust, and support state-specific requirements.

“Each state’s different. So really working with each state on what their guidelines are, and their legality is really great.”

She shared that label management and adjustable verbiage have helped The Arc Western Montana align the system with what they need.

“Your label management being able to adjust verbiage for what we need versus what different states need has really improved.”

Kristi also mentioned that several requested changes were made quickly.

“Several other things we asked for immediately were changed very quickly.”

This included updates related to ABC documentation and incident management.

“ABC documentation that was adjusted very quickly when we said we needed different things for incident management.”

The ability to adjust the system for state guidelines helped make the platform fit the organization’s needs more closely.

“We can adjust that for our state guidelines.”

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Favorite iCareManager Modules

Kristi named her top three iCareManager modules as:

Care Tracker
Incident Management
Medication Management

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Care Tracker

Care Tracker helps create consistency across teams and gives both leadership and direct support professionals a clear picture of what is happening day to day.

“Care tracker. It really helps with the consistency across all our teams.”

“It gives leadership, direct support professionals a really clear picture of what’s happening day to day.”

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Incident Management

As COO, Kristi works closely with operations, making incident management especially valuable.

“Incident management is kind of where I live in the operations world.”

She explained that it helps with looking at trends, improving follow-up, and identifying opportunities for more support and training.

“Looking at trends, improving follow up and identifying opportunities for more support and training has really helped with the incident management module.”

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Medication Management

Medication management gives the team a quick view of what is happening with medications.

“Medication management, again, it gives us a very quick look at what’s going on.”

It also helps the team look at medication-related information alongside incidents and care tracking.

“Now we can see it and we can compare if there was an incident going on, what’s going on in care tracker and what’s going on with the medication management.”

Together, these modules give the organization a fuller day-to-day picture.

“Gives you a really big full picture of what’s going on on the day-to-day with those three modules for us.”

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Looking Ahead: AI in IDD Services

Kristi also shared her thoughts on how AI may support the field in the future.

She described interest in being able to ask the system for comprehensive reports and quick summaries.

“One thing that we’re really excited about possibly seeing is someday leadership can just talk into the system and say, give me a full comprehensive report of this person. Give me the trends, give me the incidents, the medication, the appointments, everything that’s going on and give me a nice quick summary in a meaningful way.”

Kristi sees potential for AI in reducing administrative work, identifying trends, and improving efficiency.

“I really think it’s got a lot of potential in this field. I think reducing administrative work, identifying trends, improving efficiency.”

At the same time, she emphasized that AI should not replace people.

“I don’t see it replacing people.”

For Kristi, relationships and human judgment remain central to the work.

“This field, relationships and human judgment are so important.”

The best use of AI, in her view, is helping staff spend less time on paperwork and more time supporting people.

“The best use of AI is, I think, helping staffs just spend less time buried in the paperwork and more time supporting our people.”

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Advice for Other Providers

Kristi’s advice to providers considering iCareManager is to think seriously about how their current systems affect daily work and the quality of care they provide.

“Really think about how much your systems are affecting your daily work and the quality of the care that you provide.”

She also emphasized that implementation matters.

“The implementation matters because the more consistently a system is used, the more value you’re going to get from it.”

For Kristi, a good system should do more than support compliance. It should make daily work easier, strengthen communication, and support the lives of the people served.

“Organizations really need to look beyond just the compliance and what a good system should actually do is make your day-to-day work easier and help staff communicate better and really affect the client’s lives.”

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Conclusion

For The Arc Western Montana, iCareManager has helped improve documentation consistency, increase visibility, centralize information, and support stronger daily operations.

Kristi summarized the impact clearly:

“I think iCareManager has really improved the consistency of documentation.”

She also highlighted the value of being able to see what is happening through the system’s dashboard and visual tools.

“The visual aspect of being able to see what is happening and going on, the dashboard makes everything right there, so you can see it.”

Beyond the technology itself, Kristi pointed to iCareManager’s team support as a major benefit.

“iCareManager’s team support for us is a huge benefit that we don’t see with other management, data management systems that we have throughout our corporation.”

For Kristi and her team, the partnership continues beyond implementation through ongoing support, system improvements, and a willingness to listen to what the organization needs.

“Just having you guys there even after implementation, listening to what we need.”

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