March 2023

The Sacramento and Yolo County CoCs require that every client in HMIS has an active Release of Information (ROI) on file. Historically, the ROI categories have included options like Attached PDF, Electronic Signature, and Signed Paper Document. We have recently made changes to these categories.

HMIS ROI Refresher

To add or view a client's ROI in HMIS, you need to enter the client's profile by searching for their HMIS ID or name.

When you are in the account, simply click on the shield to the right of their UID and picture and above where it says "Household Members".

When you click on the shield, you will be able to see all ROIs that are already in the system. To add a new ROI, you use the + button on the top right of this section.

Changes to the ROI Categories

Below is an image of what will pop up when you are adding a new HMIS ROI. You may notice that two of the previous options - Verbal Consent and Signed Paper Document - are no longer available. Both of these options have recently been retired.

Signed Paper Document (retired)

Previously we had an ROI option called Signed Paper Document. This option indicated that the agency had a copy of the client's signed ROI on site. This option has been retired as of 3/1/2022.

If you have any active clients who have a Signed Paper Document ROI on file and this ROI was placed by your agency, please scan the document and edit the existing Signed Paper Document ROI, changing it to an Attached PDF ROI. Then you upload the scanned document. Note: The date of the ROI must match the date the client signed the document. If you are not the agency who placed the ROI or you cannot find the document, please obtain a valid ROI for this client as soon as possible and add it to the client's file. As always, please make sure that all documents you upload to HMIS are legible and professional.

In the upcoming months, we will continue to address the ROI data quality issues in our HMIS. We will be sending custom emails to the responsible staff listed for each program with a list of all Signed Paper Document ROIs in the system that need to be found and uploaded into HMIS.

Verbal Consent ROIs (retired)

The verbal consent option was turned on in March of 2020 in response to the pandemic. It was implemented as a temporary solution; verbal ROIs were meant to be replaced with valid signed documents as soon as we regained physical contact with our clients. Today we have hundreds of clients with only Verbal Consent ROIs and we need to begin obtaining valid ROIs for these clients.

Moving forward, only 211 will retain their ability to add Verbal Consent ROIs to HMIS, as they do not have any physical contact with the clients they are adding to the system. All new Verbal Consent ROIs will be valid for only 90 days and must be replaced as soon as a client is enrolled in another program. If you are enrolling a household, please make sure to add new household ROIs for all members of the family; all adults must have their own signed ROIs and all minors must have household ROIs in the system. For more information on how to correctly enter ROI information for minors, please see our new job aid, Adding New ROIs to a Household.

These new directions are valid regardless of how many Verbal Consent ROIs are in the client's file, who entered them into HMIS, or when they are set to expire. As stated previously, all Verbal Consent ROIs have always been temporary and must be replaced by valid signed documents to confirm that we have the client's consent to share their data in HMIS.

As always, we look forward to working closely with you as we collectively improve our data quality. Obtaining valid proof of client consent is a very important part of our work. Please address these issues promptly. If you have any questions or need assistance, please email us.

In Partnership,

HMIS Department

Sacramento Steps Forward

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