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Chicago Department of Public Health Implements Cities Readiness Initiative with Help of Electronic Knowledge Interchange (EKI) and Datacap

Tarrytown, NY and Chicago, IL (PRWEB) September 7, 2007 -- Datacap Inc., the leading document capture and forms processing software developer, and Electronic Knowledge Interchange (EKI), a technology solutions provider, today announced that the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) has implemented Datacap Taskmaster software as part of its Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI), an important new element in urban disaster preparedness.

CRI is a federally-funded pilot program to aid cities in increasing their capacity to deliver medicines and medical supplies during a large-scale public health emergency. Such emergencies include bioterrorism attack, pan-flu epidemic or nuclear accident. The program is overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a worst case scenario, CDPH would have to dispense medications citywide to the approximately three million people in Chicago within 48 hours.

In order to capture and track the identity of individual recipients and their associated dispensed medications, CDPH needed a reliable, automated solution. The solution had to provide efficient and accurate analysis of medicine distribution and recipient coverage. It also needed a search capability for specific individuals to view an electronic copy of their CRI Information Form.

Steve Shimkus, Solution Advisor/Project Manager at EKI, recommended Datacap's Taskmaster automated information capture technology.

The full solution developed includes Datacap Taskmaster, Kodak and Bowe Bell & Howell scanners and an IBM/FileNet Enterprise Content Management system.

With this technology, Taskmaster's automated data capture would be used to scan completed CRI information forms, extract relevant information from each form with ICR (intelligent character recognition), and route that information to IBM/FileNet for rapid storage and retrieval. The data would then be used for reporting and searching as necessary.

Once installed, the challenge for the Chicago Department of Public Health was to make sure that staff was always prepared to use the system. "We hope to never have to use this solution for a large scale public emergency. However, we wanted our staff to be properly trained," said Steve Mier, Director of Administration for CDPH. "Therefore, we applied it to existing programs that enable us to regularly utilize the technology to maintain high levels of proficiency."

The two programs currently utilizing the application are the School-Based Oral Health Program, which provides free dental services to as many as 400,000 Chicago children in about 600 elementary schools, and the Immunization Program, which strives to increase resident immunizations and decrease the incidence of diseases that are preventable with vaccinations.

Even for these programs, capture plays an important role. The School-Based Oral Health Program generates many different forms, and in order for CDPH to bill the State and Federal health care programs for the children they serve, the system must contain relevant information. Additionally, Chicago's Immunization program involves distribution of immunizations and vaccinations to nearly 36,000 people per year and requires completion of multiple forms for each recipient, all of which must be registered and tracked.

With 120,000 immunization forms and 500,000 dental forms annually, in both English and Spanish, the data entry workforce cannot support the volume of paperwork using manual methods. Additionally, with paper records, reporting on the program's efficacy is untimely, and searching for historical records is labor-intensive.

Taskmaster software now automates input of both the School-Based Oral Health and Immunization Program forms, extracts the relevant information from each form and forwards data and images to IBM/FileNet. The system provides the appropriate reports to CDPH and the State of Illinois. More importantly, the ongoing use of Taskmaster for both programs ensures that CDPH staff is well-trained to support the CRI.

"EKI and the City of Chicago have put together an application with important implications for disaster preparedness and recovery. We are proud that Taskmaster can play a role in the time-critical gathering of data in the event of an emergency," said Scott Blau, CEO of Datacap.

About Datacap: Since 1988, Datacap Inc. has provided award-winning document capture and forms processing software solutions to organizations worldwide. Datacap Taskmaster software accurately transforms paper into information, increasing efficiency while reducing costs and document cycle time. A client/server, rules-based capture workflow platform, Taskmaster provides the industry's most adaptable solutions for both document image indexing and forms processing. Taskmaster also enables scanning and indexing from a browser and integrates with all leading document management solutions, databases and ERP systems. Awarded AIIM "Best of Show" for Forms Processing, Rulerunner Service provides the only complete capture solution for SOA. For additional information, visit www.datacap.com.

About Electronic Knowledge Interchange: EKI is an industry leading technology solutions provider, delivering integrated solutions that drive business performance, increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. EKI's innovative solutions help clients turn technology into a competitive advantage. Founded in 1997 by Robert Blackwell Jr. and Diego Ferrer, EKI designs, develops, implements and manages Large Scale Applications and Application Infrastructures for some of the World's largest companies. Based in Chicago, Illinois, EKI is a privately held company. For more information, please contact (312) 236-0903 or visit http://www.eki-consulting.com

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