Investors
No Wrong Door is a Return on Investment
No Wrong Door is a wise investment for foundations, sponsors, corporations, and government partners because of its overarching goal: to help older adults and individuals with disabilities remain in their homes and communities.
The network of providers use No Wrong Door’s robust technology as a virtual long-term services and supports system. It allows partners to keep the priority on the preferences of the individual, all while expanding access, improving quality of life, and helping contain costs.
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An Essential Service
The 1999 Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C. recognized the right of individuals with disabilities to receive services in their community. The ruling held unjustified institutionalization was discrimination and helped shift the paradigm away from simply “warehousing” these individuals to finding resources in, or close to, home.
Prior to Olmstead, a combination of systems, policies, and practices slanted toward institutionalization created barriers for older adults and individuals with disabilities trying to obtain long-term services and supports in their communities.
With the new paradigm came new obstacles. The complex and often siloed support systems, due to differing policies segmented by both age and disability, left many without the information or ability to successfully navigate their way to the services they needed.
According to The National Health Policy Forum, “accessing long-term services and supports can be confusing, difficult, and frustrating,” as even those who can afford the services on their own “do not know where to get help, or may not know how to access preferred services.”
By 2035, one in three heads of households in the U.S. will be aged 65 or older, and there will be a 76% increase in homes that include individuals with disabilities, according to a 2017 Harvard University study. Additionally, the National Council on Aging found more than one quarter of U.S. adults in their sixties admit they are “not confident communities will have the resources and services they need to lead a healthy and independent life over the next five to 10 years.”
Accessing both accurate and complete information about available health and support options is essential to making informed decisions and can improve quality of life, prevent unnecessary hospitalizations, avoid institutionalizations, and reduce healthcare costs.
Built on the principles of the Olmstead decision, No Wrong Door is designed to eliminate these barriers to accessing critical, community-based supports.
Social Determinants of Health
An individual’s social determinants of health – the conditions in which someone is born, grows, works, lives, and ages, as well as the systems that shape their daily life – is a critical consideration.
When someone is discharged from the hospital, their chances of having better health outcomes increases significantly if they have nutritious meals, transportation to appointments, such as physical therapy, and take their medication as prescribed.
This is why No Wrong Door exists. Our system gives partners an up-to-date picture of an individual’s unique needs. This helps providers coordinate services like home-delivered meals, in-home care, and rides to follow-up appointments, which can be the difference between an individual living independently, or in a long-term care facility.
Leveraging Technology to Save Time and Money
Improving access to home- and community-based services not only aligns with the desire of most individuals, there is evidence it provides significant cost savings.
Features that help No Wrong Door lower costs include:
- An electronic network, allowing providers to send, receive, and track referrals.
- A secure system for sharing data, compliant with both HIPAA and Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General.
- Streamlined communication between providers to reduce turnaround time.
- A comprehensive provider database with more than 27,000 providers across the Commonwealth.
- An online, sharable Virginia Uniform Assessment Instrument (UAI) that gives partners quick access to an individual’s unique needs.
- Online enrollment tracking in home and community-based services to keep all involved providers on the same page.
Measuring Success
The long-term goal for No Wrong Door is to help individuals of all ages, incomes, and abilities realize their unique goals for community living by streamlining their access to supports and coordination between providers. More immediate outcomes include:
- Increased options for home- and community-based supports for individuals and their families;
- Increased person-centered support to help individuals remain in their homes and communities; and
- Increased access for providers (with consent) to secure information about individuals seeking home- and community-based supports.
No Wrong Door utilizes a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process that includes soliciting feedback from stakeholders, partners, providers, and potential users of the system on its responsiveness to their needs.
CQI processes include stakeholder and partner organization feedback, formal assessment of No Wrong Door end users, surveys of organizations that have attended a demonstration of the system but are not yet using it, and input from more than 50 advocacy organizations.
Virginia’s No Wrong Door Funding Model
No Wrong Door is built on the philosophy best outcomes can only be achieved through collaboration.
The number of available resources has not matched the steady increase in older adults and individuals with disabilities. Technology solutions like No Wrong Door help close this critical gap by providing its partners with the tools to work more efficiently, eliminate duplicative efforts, and streamline processes.
No Wrong Door is funded through a mix of public and private support. The public sector has been instrumental in consistently securing grants and providing licensing fees to help build and grow its infrastructure and integrate systems between partners. The private sector’s contributions include grants from Dominion Energy, the Centra Foundation, and the United Way.
Investment Opportunities
No Wrong Door has grown strong roots in Virginia through a combination of federal, state, and local funding, but long-term sustainability requires a wider base of support. Such a sustainable funding structure requires new partners to pay a one-time startup and training fee, as well as annual user license fees.
This is often feasible for medium and large organizations and agencies, but can be a barrier for smaller nonprofits. For that reason, No Wrong Door seeks funders to help offset the startup fees for nonprofits, and additional resources at the community level to build local capacity.
Through perseverance, creativity, and dedication, No Wrong Door has received national attention as a thought leader and model for best practices. And, while we have made great strides, No Wrong Door’s future relies on community partners investing their time and talents to ensure older adults and individuals with disabilities remain independent and valued contributors in their communities.
For more information:
- Contact your local No Wrong Door Lead Agency
- Email NoWrongDoor@dars.virginia.gov
- Download a PDF of this page to share
Special thanks to our investors
