Exchange Family Center (EFC) runs three unique social welfare programs for children and families in North Carolina. Each program can have multiple funders, treatment modalities, and reporting requirements. That made basic data management a nightmarish mishmash of spreadsheets, shared docs, and paper files — lots of paper files!
Recognizing the need for a change, Exchange Family Center made a significant investment in a comprehensive case management system. Yet after three months, dozens of training hours, and paying for extra “gold level” support, they still could not get the system off the ground. That’s when EFC reached out to us for help.
After conducting a thorough study, we determined that the architecture of the platform was too rigid to account for all the different programs and funders EFC had to deal with. Furthermore, automations were extremely limited, leaving staff with a lot of manual data entry, which would increase errors and reduce productivity.
Changing platforms was not an option, so we had to get creative. To get around architecture limitations, we removed the ways staff could navigate the system, allowing us to simplify workflows into easy to train, step-by-step procedures. We implemented validation rules to help protect data quality. Because there were no formula fields, we combined calculations and automations to create more complex algorithms that would ease data entry.
A year after implementation, EFC saw a 400% increase in the amount of data captured. Efficiency improvements have given staff an additional 40 hours per month. Quarterly reporting prep time has been cut by 75% and monthly reporting by 85%.
“The data is more accurate, and we can catch mistakes more easily. But because it’s more accurate, there’s less going back. Now we can really keep tabs on staff entering data and having it be accurate, thorough, and complete. We have more systems in place to help each other and help remind people what data might be missing, or what they need to enter, so that we have more complete data when it comes time to do the report.”
Leah Santibañez, Clinical Director, Exchange Family Center
With all the extra efficiencies, program managers have more time to monitor and coach staff. Case managers have also been able to increase their caseloads. Instead of hunting down paper forms and filling out spreadsheets, the Exchange Family Center team is able to dedicate more of its energies to its most important work: helping to strengthen families.
