WASHINGTON STATE

IMAGING SYSTEM

Goal: To reduce the costs and improve the timeliness of processing payments, court orders, and case correspondence.

Description: Since 1988, Washington State county clerks have been required by state law to send copies of child support orders to a central location within the Division of Child Support (DCS). Welfare reform expanded this requirement to include all child support orders, regardless of whether there has been a specific request for services or not. This not only substantially increased the volume of orders the clerks are responsible to send to DCS, but increased the DCS workload as well. The imaging system allows clerks to export documents from their local imaging systems. DCS provides scanners and scanning applications to clerks without imaging systems. These solutions help the clerks and DCS to be more efficient. For example, what used to be an all day process for the Pierce County Clerk's office is now a five-minute process. DCS also uses fax servers in the imaging system as a way for clerks with low volume to submit the orders to the DCS central location.

Prior to imaging these documents, DCS found it difficult to comply with federal and state law regarding the timely processing of payments and court orders. In addition, child support case workers were spending much time performing functions associated with handling paper documents and wrestling with the workflow restriction which paper imposed on the organization. For example, we would have had to double our processing staff to process the huge volumes of payments without this system

Results: The division can now process child support payments according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and deposit the checks in the bank within 24 hours. In addition, the division is able to process over twice the number of payments without increasing the number of payment-processing staff.

DCS now images all case correspondence, including all the paper case files previously maintained in hard copy. The paper has been recycled, freeing up more physical space. All child support paper documents are now digitized and available statewide; geography is no longer a barrier to caseworkers needing information about the cases. Documents are delivered much faster and are instantly available statewide, and missing documents are becoming a thing of the past.

Since the vast majority of our case workers no longer physically handle the original paper documents, they are reporting that they feel much safer from the recent biological threats. The Imaging System has also allowed the division to centralize all mail, which brings cost savings due to the benefits from economies of scale. Many clerical functions, such as filing and routing of mail, are now automated.

One of the most valuable aspects of the program is the improvement in customer service. DCS calls it the "No Wrong Door" benefit. All clients can come in or call any of the DCS offices statewide. The location of the case worker helping the client is not important since case workers have complete access through the imaging system to all documents they need to help the client. All DCS staff and all county prosecutors under contact across the state have instant access to the imaged documents. Since the file is not physical but virtual, location is no longer a restriction.

Funding: Regular IV-D funds were used.

Replication Advice: DCS recommends that child support programs wishing to take advantage of imaging technology first map their present workflow. The child support program should also become familiar with how the technology works. This can be done by site visits to organizations that employ the technology. The Washington State child support program continually hosts visits by other interested parties and would be happy to provide tours to staff from other states.

Contact:

Steve Spitzer, Imaging System Manager

Phone: 360-664-5361

E-mail: sspitzer@dshs.wa.gov