New Fairfield County Child and Adult Protective Services time study released today

DUBLIN, OH—April 3, 2014—Social workers at an Ohio human services agency have an extra hour every day to spend with families thanks to mobile technology that reduces the time they spend on paperwork.

A time study conducted by Colburn and Associates shows that using Northwoods’ Compass® CoPilot on a mobile tablet enabled Fairfield County Child and Adult Protective Services social workers to shift about one hour per day of time spent on documentation to direct contact with clients, which include children and the elderly who are at risk for neglect or abuse.

During the study, social workers tracked their time for one month before they started using Compass CoPIlot, and again for one month after implementing the mobile solution. Colburn and Associates analyzed the average time per day social workers spent on specific activities including client contact, documentation, wait or travel time and administrative duties.

Key findings include:

• On average, each social worker spent 63 more minutes with families every day, a 9.3 percent increase
• Documentation time decreased by 58 minutes, a 11.7 percent drop
• For every hour spent with clients, social workers spent 1.33 hours after implementing Compass CoPilot compared to 2.38 hours on documentation before implementing the mobile solution

The study also found that wait time and travel time increased by 5 percent. Social workers attributed the increase to having more time to help families with transportation to doctor or other important appointments.

In a focus group with the social workers at the end of the study, participants said that Compass CoPilot helped them save time, improve the quality of client visits, improve the quality of their documentation and improve their ability to find necessary documentation in the field, all of which helps them better protect families.

View the full Compass CoPilot time study online

About Northwoods 
Northwoods’ only focus is helping state and county human services agencies increase client service levels and productivity while cutting costs — allowing them to do more with less. Northwoods’ human services software solutions are designed around caseworkers and social workers, not simply data collection. Our Compass®products automate the flow of client and case information based on how caseworkers throughout the agency need to use it. Northwoods is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio. For more information, visit teamnorthwoods.comor follow Northwoods on Twitter @teamnorthwoods.

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Contact:
Tiffany Himmelreich
614.408.8772