Sharing office resources

In February, the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHSA) announced that it replaced printers in 45 county offices with new equipment that can reproduce a variety of reports generated by the agency’s case management software. The printers were delivered to the offices and installed within 30 days of purchase to eliminate downtime for social workers.

CHHSA supports California’s nearly 36 million residents with health care, social services, public assistance and rehabilitation. Because the agency’s case workers need consistent and rapid access to work tools, CHHSA regularly assesses its programs and resources to identify areas for improvement.

Recently, CHHSA decided to upgrade the printers in its Child Welfare System to deliver services more quickly. Because case workers needed to print reports faster than their existing desktop printers could handle, the agency chose to replace printing equipment in its offices across the state with larger units that several case workers could share to process reports and case studies.

The printers needed to integrate with the state’s Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS), which is a legislatively mandated software that automates case management, services planning and information gathering. Until the late 1990s, those functions required manual processing by county social workers. Now, county social workers throughout the state rely on CWS/CMS for access to child, family and other case-related information so they can make timely decisions. As such, they cannot afford any downtime from new equipment purchases, deliveries or installations. Any downtime or lack of integration with CWS/CMS as the new printers were installed, would impede the delivery of services to residents.

In June 2005, CHHSA contracted with Vernon Hills, Ill.-based CDW Government to help select technology to replace the agency’s legacy equipment. Following a competitive bid, CHHSA purchased laser printers manufactured by Lexington, Ky.-based Lexmark. The company delivered the equipment directly to county offices throughout the state within 30 days, with no service interruptions.

The new laser printers can print as many as 40 pages per minute, increasing worker productivity and speeding delivery of reports to supervisors. Staff members can print reports in a variety of formats — letter, A4 and legal paper sizes — and each printer has a one-year, on-site warranty and an extended three-year service and repair warranty.

With the new equipment installed, county social workers can produce reports, case studies and related documents for everything from client intake and case notes to adoptions and licensing. State and county administrators now can access the information they need to administer programs, as well as monitor and evaluate the achievement of program goals and objectives.