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Look familiar? It doesn't have to. All too often the ability to locate documents (hard copy and/or electronic) quickly and easily can be a very difficult task...
Not any more. |
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Testimonial |
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Rick Beneton,
IT department:
“The first appeal of an imaging system to our users is the thought of getting rid of ‘all that paper.’ DocuWare users acclimate to the system right away, but it is not until they start using it that they see the big picture and realize that a time/work constraint has been removed. It’s like having an extra hour a day, which results in a positive ‘Can Do’ attitude.” |
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The Task |
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 Process a large volume of records
Operate in a multi-site environment
Database has full-text search features
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Home > Products > Document Management Solutions > Government
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Douglas County has significantly improved the time its employees have available to spend assisting residents, by dramatically reducing document storage and retrieval time. Implementing DocuWare has positioned the County to process more records without adding personnel, giving the County the flexibility to meet budget constraints and growing needs simultaneously. The ability to search the records within the database will allow the Juvenile Justice department to perform early intervention programs, the Health department to provide better medical care, the Sheriff’s department to identify crime trends and the Assessors department to provide better access to public information.
The County’s IT department began looking for a document management system to better store over 30 years of records. During their search, the County realized that a document management solution could be utilized as a research tool; therefore, the County expanded its focus and chose to implement DocuWare in the Sheriff’s department first and then expand the system to other departments.
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| Solution Requirements |
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Documents
The County needed to manage many different types of documents, criminal case reports, medical records and a mountain of current and historical assessment and ownership records.
Work Processes
In the Sheriff’s Department current case reports are stored electronically, but the department had years of old case reports stored on paper and microfilm. With thousands of dead files that could only be accessed one at a time by hand, the department’s vast reservoir of information was essentially useless because it wasn’t searchable.
With patients able to stop by three different remote clinics, located 60-70 miles from each other, along with mobile immunization clinics, one challenge the Health Department faced was that original documents were stored in several locations. Medical records were frequently sent back and forth between clinics. The staff could never be 100 percent sure where each document was stored and this forced them to reschedule appointments because needed information was not immediately available. Additionally, the lack of a centralized document management system made complying with HIPAA privacy requirements very difficult. It also limited the quality of care they could provide patients.
Every year the Assessor’s Department receives 100,000 multi-page personal property forms, and that is the volume of only one of their many forms. As a result, retrieval time for any document in the department was as long as 20 minutes per request.
Solution Requirements
Douglas County wanted to find a system that could handle a large volume of documents, operate in a multi-site environment, could automate indexing and possess advanced search features.
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| Work Process |
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Douglas County implemented DocuWare in the Sheriff’s department and later expanded the solution to the Health, Assessors and Juvenile Justice Departments. To date, the County has invested in a DocuWare Server and the DocuWare RECOGNTION, AUTOINDEX, INTERNET-SERVER and LINK modules, as well as decentralized scan stations. Most of the employees using DocuWare are accessing it through the Web.
With an archive containing millions of records dating back to 1969, the Sheriff’s department is now scanning their backlog of paper and microfiche case reports. Indexing is automated by capturing the index card information from the microfiche and using it with DocuWare.
By using barcodes and OCR or Optical Character Recognition, the Assessors department is able to rapidly scan and automatically index an entire stack of different document types. The barcode signals the start of a new document. A RECOGNITION template is applied to each document type and the software fills in the index fields, automating the indexing process and aiding in quality control.
With DocuWare, the Health department has scanned and indexed patient records back to the 1980s. Once the staff became comfortable using DocuWare to manage older medical records, live medical records were added to the system. The department continues to use Microsoft Word to create their medical records and then stores the document as an unchangeable TIFF image using DocuWare’s standard feature TIFFMAKER. Remote clinics have Web based access to all medical records.
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User Benefits
On an individual level, DocuWare has reduced document retrieval time and improved efficiency. The solution’s full-text OCR search features allow employees to not only find the right document quickly, but find the needed information within the document much more efficiently, reducing job stress and increasing job satisfaction.
Sheriff and Juvenile Justice Department Benefits
Since implementing DocuWare, the research possibilities in the Sheriff’s department have multiplied exponentially with the use of multiple index fields and DocuWare’s full-text search feature. The cold case squad now has an incredible research tool to assist them in locating crime trends and new leads. The Sheriff’s DocuWare solution was so useful that the Juvenile Justice department essentially implemented the same system to manage their case reports. The two departments now use their databases to perform cross check searches.
“We are just at the beginning of possibilities DocuWare can open up for us. We will be able to search our database of case reports for trends and attempt early intervention with troubled kids in our juvenile system. Our ability to track and monitor this information will allow us to apply for grants to help this effort,“ said Rick.
Health Department Benefits
Today with DocuWare, original medical records do not move from site to site, but are stored electronically in a central repository, allowing the department to establish quality control points for each document before being assembled into a master file. The new system is faster and more secure than working with paper documents and patients no longer need to reschedule their appointments because of missing information, resulting in faster and better medical care and increased patient goodwill. Web based access to medical records stored in DocuWare allows the department to meet the requirements established by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA law. DocuWare’s ability to securely store Microsoft Word documents in a secure unchangeable format allowed the staff to continue working in a familiar format and keep within budget.
Assessor Department Benefits
The biggest benefit the Assessors department has seen is that the reduction in document retrieval time from 20 minutes per request to 15 seconds. This has resulted in more time being able to be spent with the people of the County and increased efficiency. The solution’s scanning and indexing capabilities have proven to be just as efficient. For example, the conversion of the County’s map tax lot records finished months ahead of time because of the speed and accuracy of the solution’s automatic indexing process. Furthermore, DocuWare’s ease of use allowed the department to set up a few public DocuWare terminals in order to provide self-serve access to public records, freeing additional time for the staff. With more time, the staff can focus on their core duties and become more proactive in solving government issues.
County Benefits
The County is now able to expand and process more records without adding personnel, providing more flexibility to meet budget constraints and the growing needs of the County’s residents simultaneously.
As each department implements DocuWare, the County’s return on investment continues to improve. However, for any government entity, the true measure of return on investment is in the ways it helps the public they serve. The people of Douglas County can now receive services in a fraction of the time, in some cases improving a citizen’s quality of life and making Douglas County a better place to reside.
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