The human element in a computerized filing system.

Paper #646 presented at #husITa14 in Melbourne, Australia, July 2014.

Presenter

Brian Auslander (Community Services Administration, Social Services Department, Israel).

Abstract

A key element of evidence based practice is the ability to collect the “evidence” and evaluate outcomes.  The only way to do so on an ongoing, timely basis within the agency is with a computerized record keeping system. There are two important elements to the success of such a system – the system needs to collect the necessary data and the workers need to enter the data accurately.  One of the major lessons we learned in our pilot 3 years ago is that you can buy the most advanced system available, but if the workers are not on board implementation will fail. The first stage of the process, developing the computerized record keeping system and making sure that it collected the necessary data to measure outcomes, took several years and was completed three years ago.  Since that time, we have successfully piloted and implemented the system in 70% of our service delivery system and over 400 social workers are recording their treatment goals, treatment plans and outcome evaluations in the system on a daily basis. In this presentation I will describe the process of implementing a computerized record keeping system in a social service agency employing  over 600 social workers and serving 40,000 families each year.  The process we developed includes teaching social workers and managers the use of the system, the process of establishing the baseline information on families already receiving treatment services (which data needs to be moved from the physical file to the computerized one), the role of the supervisor in implementing the system, overseeing treatment goals, treatment plans and the process of evaluating and recording outcomes.

Powerpoint

[to follow]

Audio

[to follow]

Comments

Please use the reply section below to comment and discuss this paper.

Back to programme

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *