Information
Windsor
Negotiations
with the CCAC
December
16, 1997
The following information
was provided to us by Cal Little of Information Windsor. (Many thanks Cal
. . .) You can contact Cal if you need further information by clicking
here
.
If you have information
you would like to share which is too lengthy for the bulletin board please
contact
the webmistress and I will be pleased to arrange to receive and post
your material.
Some Background...
Last spring Information Windsor
organized a meeting with the local offices of the CCAC, LTC, United Way,
District Health Council and the Essex County CICs...At that meeting representatives
shared a mutual concern that the London LTC office was attempting
to develop a regional service for all CCACs in southwestern Ontario...
Consequently, there was immediate agreement that the framework for a local
solution should be developed ASAP...Also, we were reminded that there were
no funds allocated for information services and that the expected demand
for pure I&R was not very great (this has become fact)...
The Process...
Information Windsor then agreed
to develop call transfer protocols with the CCAC, based upon the Ministry
guidelines which categorize incoming CCAC calls into four types...information
only, information and referral, assessment, and emergency...Our agreement
is that calls in categories 1 and 2 will be transferred to Information
Windsor...Conversely, calls to Information Windsor that indicate the need
for a CCAC assessment are transferred directly to the intake department
at the CCAC ...
Appropriate staff from both
agencies met to develop the protocols...The CCAC agreed to assume the monthly
cost an additional phone line, and the one time cost for an upgrade to
our phone system...
Current
Situation...
The agreement is working well
for both sides, but as expected, the number of information calls is very
small...1 or 2 per day...Although the CCAC is extremely busy most calls
are for assessment and are from other health care providers, especially
the hospitals... They get very few calls that are general I&R...However,
we transfer at least as many, often more, per day to them for assessment...
This has worked very well as
it takes pressure off their main line and provides their staff with an
initial background which expedites the assessment process...We have agreed
to review the arrangement in January and to discuss training opportunities
for their case workers (as they have come to realize that their staff understand
the medical system very well, but not other ancillary community services)...As
part of the start up, Barb McLachlan made a presentation to each of their
teams summarizing our services and ways that we could be of help to them...As
a result case workers have called directly for specific information related
to a particular client...
Other Related
Stuff...
Concurrent with the above activities
Information Windsor converted all of our phone lines to Centrex (due to
the deregulation of local calling services Centrex is now competitively
priced in comparison to standard business lines)...And, we approached the
City of Windsor Social Services to ask if they would be interested in an
agreement similar to the one we had with CCAC...As the single largest destination
for referrals from IW they were very interested...We have subsequently
developed a comprehensive screening process which enables IW to transfer
all WSS calls directly to the case worker or team clerk that will ultimately
deal with their case...This has shifted hundreds of calls each week from
the WSS main number to one of over 150 direct lines...
Conclusions...
Information Windsor has been able
to dramatically enhance our service to clients, we have developed two very
important and strategic partnerships, and were able to upgrade our telephone
system at no cost to the agency...Both the CCAC and WSS speak widely and
positively about our agency and our services, and both groups have made
a verbal commitment to purchase a networked version of our Blue Book as
soon as we are able to produce one (they are two of our best customers
for the hard copy book)...We have also made extensive use of the centrex
technology for calls transfers to other service providers...And, we have
strengthened our position with United Way at a time when we are undergoing
a regional CIC system review...
Finally, some would view these
developments as not generating dollars for the agency...We view this as
an evolving process, and not a money grab or windfall opportunity...And
if nothing else, IW has gained a couple of good friends and you never know
when you might need a few good friends...
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