Eliminating paper

The Lorain County, Ohio, Department of Jobs and Family Services (DJFS) has revamped the way its employees process and file welfare claims. Instead of filling out forms by hand and maintaining hard copies, workers now complete the applications on a computer and file them electronically.

Lorain County is a major port and shipping center and is home to 286,768 residents. The Department of Jobs and Family Services dispenses food stamps, medical assistance and child support monthly to those who qualify for welfare assistance. Each month the department handles between 40,000 to 50,000 cases.

Ohio requires anyone who applies for welfare to complete a common application form. Before installing the new system, DJFS’ manual process required caseworkers to conduct the client interview, print the 40-page application form, obtain the client’s signature and file the completed form in the county’s office.

As a result, welfare caseworkers were buried in paperwork, and the filing department was overwhelmed. When the filing room began to overflow and inactive cases became stacked in piles on the floor, the department decided to reconsider its claims processing system. Instead of looking for outside storage areas in which to file outdated records, the county began to look at document imaging, explains Joe DeTillio, assistant director of the DJFS.

The county proposed using a system that transferred data to microfilm, but the department decided against it because retrieving the material would be too cumbersome, DeTillio says. DJFS workers began to examine how other counties handled growing amounts of paperwork.

Nearby in Cuyahoga County, the DJFS has been working with a software system, designed by Cleveland, Ohio-based CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants, since 1998. The software system automates the processing and storage of the common application form required by agencies using Ohio’s Client Registry Information System — Enhanced. It allows the county to cut down on the paperwork and filing time required with a manual system.

Lorain County’s DJFS decided to hire the same software developer to design a similar, more advanced program than the one used in Cuyahoga County. In return, Lorain County agreed to help test the developer’s updated electronic common application form.

In June 2002, Lorain County purchased the software, along with new hardware. Under the manual system, the paper records were destroyed after three years of inactivity. With the new system, the county can leave the inactive files on the server indefinitely. “We’re saving time and money that would have been spent on filing everything away,” DeTillio explains.

In April 2003 DJFS began training employees to use the system. Now, each caseworker can access the state server, choose which form they need, fill it out electronically and send it directly to the electronic file, which is located on the county’s server. “[The form] is completed on the system, and now instead of printing out the form and having the client sign it, the client signs the signature pad and then the form is filed electronically,” DeTillio says.

Since June, the county has entered almost 10,000 cases in the system, and it is converting the paper files into the electronic system. “The transition may be adding a little more work onto the [caseworkers], but once the cases are in the system, it will be faster to access other cases and ultimately clean out the filing room,” DeTillio says.