Kent County Sheriff Department improves efficiency with WinScribe

Located in Western Michigan and home to 590,417 people, Kent County is the fourth largest population center in Michigan. The community benefits from the law enforcement and corrections programs and services to the community provided by the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.

The Challenge - Increased visibility of workflow

With Kent County’s increasing population, the past year has resulted in an increase of dispatched police calls of 3.8 percent. This has resulted in an increase in the number of police reports being turned out and more backlogs than ever before. On average 500 dictations are carried out weekly and an efficient system for turning around reports is a key component for delivering an effective service to the Kent County community.

Until recently, an old Dictaphone call-in digital system was used for the dictation and transcription of reports. The system was however dying and needed replacing. Dictaphone no longer serviced the model and a new dictation system was therefore needed.

With 8 full time transcriptionists and about 100 officers on the road and about 2000 dictations every month, work efficiency is vital. In a bid to make the dictation and transcription process more manageable, a key factor was a new system which would enable more efficient workflow management. One major deficit of the existing digital dictation system was that it provided no visibility, which made it difficult to locate and track reports.

The Solution - WinScribe workflow management

After an evaluation of several solutions, the WinScribe digital dictation solution, supplied by Van Belkum (provider of Voice and Data Technologies), came out top due to its flexible nature and ability to easily track work. “With the old Dictaphone machine we couldn’t see what was in the system, but with WinScribe everything is visual and in front of us, making it very easy to find reports,” says Joan Glynn, Transcriptionist.

Ease-of-use was another important factor in the decision and this was implicit by a smooth implementation and roll-out. “We experienced a wonderful and easy installation and were very pleased with the services provided by Van Belkum,” says Mindy Pierman, Office Administrator. “The whole transition to WinScribe went very well and it was easily accepted by all the users. I would never go back to anything like the old Dictaphone system after using WinScribe. It’s wonderful!”

The Results - Improved work visibility, user buy-in

Workload visibility, increased efficiency

Since installing WinScribe, work efficiency has been significantly improved. Typists and officers can now produce a whole report without needing to call on the Office Administrator to retrieve the files as was previously the case. In the eventuality of a homicide, for example, and needing an urgent report, the transcriptionists are able to simply search the system and ensure they have all the pieces typed up immediately to produce a complete report.

The ability for any specified staff member to enter the system and listen to reports before they have even been transcribed has also resulted in efficiency gains. For example, if there’s a fatal accident, the PR officer can listen to the report and get the details he needs as soon as an officer has dictated the report into WinScribe. “The fact that officers and supervisors can individually access the system to see and listen to pending jobs is very nice!” says Mindy. “Not only does this mean that we can finish with our other priorities first, but it means we also don’t have them breathing down our necks saying ‘Hurry up, Hurry up!” she adds.

The officers also benefit from the system’s ease-of-use and being able to dial into the system from wherever they are to check the status of their reports. “WinScribe is simply less complicated for the officers to use. They carry a simple cheat sheet showing all the WinScribe function and can easily check the system to see if their reports are pending and this makes them more efficient. Wonderful!” explains Mindy.

Furthermore, the workload visibility means that as the Office Administrator, Mindy is able to better monitor and control workload by routing the reports to available resource during busy periods.

Improved productivity

There have been significant productivity gains as a result of WinScribe have been obvious. The previous system did not have statistical and reporting functionality, meaning a true comparison cannot be made, but the department recognizes that despite officers calling in with more reports than ever before, the transcriptionists are keeping up with the increased workload without needing additional resource.

One reason the transcriptionists attribute to their increased productivity is that they are now wasting less time on report errors. “I absolutely adore this system. My productivity has probably gone up 45 minutes a day on top of what I previously normally did,” comments Joan. “We don’t have as many errors on the complaint numbers meaning we don’t have to spend time trying to find them as I can see the complaints I need right away and just pick them out.”

The system has also been well accepted by the officers who commend its security and consider that its ease of use has attributed to a reduction in report call-in time. “The system has been a wonderful upgrade to the previous dictation system we used,” explains Deputy Dale DeKorte. “It is user friendly, easy to run and works well. I particularly like the way in which it operates with User IDs and it also importantly provides a secure reporting system. With the ability to jump from a completed job to a new job and zip through the report call in setup, I feel that the system has significantly cut down on my report call in time,” he adds.

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