By Tina Paskert, IHSS
October 2017 | 2017 Fall Newsletter
In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) is pleased to announce participation in Santa Clara County’s Unit-Based Team (UBT) program. UBT is a new way for agencies to make positive changes to better serve clients through a group of managers, supervisors and frontline staff working together to solve problems and improve performance and quality of service to the community they serve. Teams create a Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Bound (SMART) goal and, with the support of a sponsor and various community agencies, work together to brainstorm ideas and reach that goal.
The IHSS UBT launched with the team name of “The Wait Terminators”, and created a SMART goal to address the phone wait time.
Specifically, to lower the phone wait time by 25% by October 31, 2017. The most obvious solution was allowing consumers, providers, and community partners to leave a voice mail. Callers no longer have to stay on hold to talk to a live person. They are able to leave a voicemail, with their name, case number, and reason for their call. The voicemail will be transferred to the appropriate staff to address their IHSS questions and/or issues.
On August 4, 2017 the IHSS voicemail option went live and is now averaging 100 voicemails per day. With the voicemail option, IHSS has not only met the goal of reducing the phone wait times by 25%, the goal has been surpassed!
Participating in the UBT has allowed IHSS the opportunity to see what changes can be made to better serve clients and the community. With the success of the voicemail option IHSS is looking at even more program improvements including improving the website, making changes to the phone tree, and improving the lobby‘s purpose and use.
The next change will be a general email address available to use to communicate with IHSS. This is still in the planning stages and will go live in the near future.
To contact IHSS call (408) 792-1600 or FAX (408) 792-1601.