Reengineering WIC Services: Improving Client Access and Operational Efficiency

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Since 1999, the Dakota County Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program has experienced a 97% growth in clients resulting in a caseload that has nearly doubled in less than ten years. The program currently serves a monthly caseload of more than 7,000 pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants and children to age 5. In 2007, clients missed an average of 38 percent of scheduled appointments, resulting in less than optimum outcomes for new and returning clients, inefficient use of staff, and negative impact on the program budget. Faced with these challenges, the Dakota County WIC staff, assisted by planners from the county’s Office of Planning and Analysis, initiated a comprehensive process improvement project to reengineer the WIC client appointment process. After conducting an internal analysis and reviewing research literature on various service models, the planning team decided to implement an “open access” scheduling system that would dramatically cut down the time from appointment scheduling to service completion—in fact, transitioning to same-day scheduling. This system was designed to remove key barriers identified by WIC clients that contributed to the high no-show rate. After a year of examination and planning, the open access scheduling system was launched in 2008. The results from the first eight months find that the no-show rate has been reduced to 7 percent from the 38 percent rate in 2007. Staff FTEs are being used more efficiently to meet the increased demand for services while reducing delays in access to appointments.