MLSA's Program Administrator Tracie Poindexter was recently recognized by the Legal Services Corporation for her efforts to build a better online intake system for MLSA! As technology has evolved to become a part of our everyday lives, MLSA has worked to develop an intake system that takes advantage of different technologies in order to better meet the needs of our clients.
These changes have including making our online application mobile-friendly, creating a text messaging system to send appointment reminders and other messages to clients, and developing mobile-friendly digital forms that include electronic signatures to make it easier for clients to sign and return crucial release and consent forms. All of these changes help make it easier for clients living throughout Montana to access our services and help cut down on how long it takes to process someone's application.
Thanks to Tracie's hard work, these innovations are already seeing results. As Tracie told LSC about the impact of our new text message system,"In 2016, 5 out of 13 people (38.5 percent) . . . that we sampled kept their appointments. In 2017, in the same window and same clinic, 14 out of 18 participants (77.8 percent) kept their appointments because of the text reminders. So, that’s a definite increase in people remembering about their appointment and taking advantage of the time that’s been set aside for them."
MLSA is committed to continuing to work to make it easier for clients to access our services. To learn more about how Tracie and other MLSA staff developed these new systems, visit LSC's "Best Practice's Corner" to read Tracie's full interview.