Post on 18-Aug-2020
CaseTrac™ Case Management Functionality
Roles and Case Access – User roles provide the functionality needed to support clients’
organization structure and processes for managing concerns – i.e. available reports,
investigation rights, related cases access, search and query functions, etc. The combination of
user role settings and the notification matrix setup allows clients to restrict data access by
geography, business unit, locations, concern categories, severity, etc.
Intake Methods and Forms – CaseTracTM offers a variety of intake methods that can be
configured to best support each program and its targeted constituents. In all case, the reporter
is given a User Confirmation Code, known only to the reporter, following the submission of
his/her concern. Using this confirmation code, the reporter may call back or log back in to
check the status of his/her concern, provide additional information or respond to questions or
comments from a CaseTrac™ user (anonymously if desired).
• Call Center – In Touch offers hotline reporting support from our best-in-class call center.
Our call center truly stands out from the industry standard for their heritage in offering
employee crisis assistance services to organizations throughout the region. All of the
approximately 100 call center specialists at have graduate level degrees in some area of
the behavioral science. Thus, callers to our client’s hotlines experience an interaction
with highly trained, tenured professionals. If you’ve been to any other industry call
center, you’ll quickly appreciate the difference in the years of experience between the
specialists, their level of training, expertise, tenure and the overall quality of service that
our call center provides. Our center is also CARF accredited, acts as a National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline and participates in the National Safe Place program. The call center
utilizes CaseTrac’s Call Center Module to log concerns for the client’s constituents.
Functions available to Call Center Specialists include concern type selection, priority
designation, custom dialogue script, multiple intake forms, spell check, field validation,
hold call and other features that make recording the incident as seamless as possible.
• Web – Web forms can be custom tailored to meet the client’s program specific needs.
Depending on where the web forms may be accessed (on the client’s site or a program
landing page), each web form can be targeted to a different external (non-user)
constituent base representing different reasons for reporting – i.e. a web form for OARS
incidents, Report an Ethics Concern, Ask a Question etc. They can also be targeted as
the intake method for numerous internal programs available via the client’s intranet.
Available field types include concern type selection, dropdown options, radio button
choices, checkboxes, text boxes, name fields, calendar date fields, etc.
o IVR – The Interactive Voice Response system offers excellent opportunities for
multi-language deployments where constituents prefer to report in their native
language without having to speak to a call center representative.
o Email – In Touch provides an email box (intouch@getintouch.com) for
constituents to communicate information.
o Client User Intake – In most organizations, a significant number of concerns are
actually reported to various members of management. Often, these concerns
are not included in any formal concern reporting solution. One recent InTouch
client noted that 56% of all concerns reported to the company came through this
process and were not included in reports to the Board. The reporting of
concerns by users is fully supported by CaseTrac™. In addition, you may have
different intake forms to accommodate different issue types and resolution
processes.
New Case Routing and Notifications – Roles and user permissions work in combination with
the system’s notification matrix to determine “who” gets “what” cases. Factors for
determining case routing may include geography, business unit, concern categories, priorities
etc. New cases can be routed automatically via the system’s rule based notification engine or
manually by users depending upon the client’s process. Any time a new case has been
submitted from any intake method (web, call center, IVR, email, etc.), the appropriate users will
receive an email message with an encrypted PDF attachment of the case detail.
Similar to new case submissions, the distribution of tasks and reminders to the appropriate
parties is managed through the systems Notification Matrix which automates the delivery of
the cases, appropriate updates, alerts and ownership activity to the individual as specified.
Notification may go to a single user or to a group of users for a single event depending upon the
concern type, organization unit, priority level, location, etc. Email notifications are also sent to
Administrators when additional information has been added to a case by a reporter – i.e.
comments, follow up answers to questions, attached documents, etc.
These notifications are delivered via the application’s messaging system which utilizes the
client’s standard Outlook email services. When a new case has been submitted or the
ownership of the case, for “next steps”, moves from one individual to another, the messaging
application notifies the next step owner and, if applicable, the delinquency/alert timer for that
step is activated.
When a case is initiated or moves to a next step, the email notification contains an encrypted
PDF of the case detail. The concern can be reviewed without signing into CaseTrac™. See the
Dashboards – Provides an overview of new case information, new system generated or User created
messages and client defined reports. The case list generally displays the system generated case number,
color-coded priority level, concern type, step in the resolution process, date created and current case
owner. Clients may quickly review and access new cases to begin the management process without
pulling information from other sources or emailing back and forth. The data contained in each user’s
dashboard is restricted to the level of access assigned to his/her role (geographic areas, concern types,
severity levels, etc.) and notification matrix setup.
“Email Notification” Screenshot below.
The Reporting Dashboard generally contains a management view of the number, type, status
and processing of all concerns for which a user has access. Below is an example of a Reporting
Dashboard.
Case Searches and Queries • Query tool – CaseTrac™ ’s Query tool allows Users to search for cases that meet a variety of
defined selection criteria. Common query variables include selections based on Business Units,
Geographic areas, Locations, Administrators, Case Owners, Date Ranges, Concern Types,
Severity, etc. Clients often use this tool to determine, for instance, the number of HR
Harassment Cases currently in investigation in the Western part of North America. Queries can
be saved and named for reuse.
• Related Cases – CaseTrac™ ’s powerful “Find Related Cases” tool assesses the relationship
between cases to identify commonalities among key data points that may uncover associations
between cases. These relationships are commonly found by searching for related cases based on the people reported or involved in a case, concern type, locations, etc. This tool works to
bridge gaps between organizational silos when two cases involve a common person, but one
case belongs to HR and the other belongs to Finance, for example. Ordinarily, the related cases would go un-discovered by each Department. Now, each Department knows the related cases
exist, and if permission is granted, each Department may be able to view the corresponding
case.
Applicable related cases can be selected and attached to the current case providing valuable
insight into potentially related incidents. If a related case has a lock beside it, it means the case is owned by another Administrator and may not be accessed. The current administrator may
click the lock icon, prompting an email message to the owner of the locked case to request
access to the case detail.
• Key Word Search - Used to identify cases that contain a particular word or phrase. For
instance, an industrial supply company could use this function to generate a list of cases that
may involve the theft or misuse of a certain product.
Case Workflow and Process Support – CaseTrac™ contains a flexible workflow engine allowing each
client to define and instantiate their specific process into the system and then utilize the system to
insure that each concern is managed per the Company’s policies. Workflows typically include a review
of the reported concern, a determination of the need for investigation of the report, conducting the
investigation, determining a resolution based on the findings, finalizing the resolution and closing the
case.
• Checklist – Workflows are managed via the system “checklist” functionality to guide
Administrators through the management process, working in combination with role privileges
and the notification matrix. Each step is automatically recorded in Case History and time and date stamped with the Administrator who performed the action.
• Delinquencies – The system uses a concept of delinquencies to establish timeframes for each
step in the resolution management process. When those timeframes are exceeded,
delinquencies are set off and can be viewed using the delinquency report. A large online
education company requires that all cases be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt. The
client checks a delinquency report every day to determine which cases haven’t been
acknowledged and who is the responsible owner of the cases. These delinquency timeframes
can be customized by the client for any step in the workflow process to keep Administrators in
compliance with company defined processes and to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
• Priorities – Custom-defined severity levels can be defined and applied by the client. Users
assign severity levels by changing the priority of the case. See the “Change Priority” screenshot
below. The new priority (or severity level) is assigned a color code which can be seen from the Case List. See the “Case List” Screenshot below.
For example, a large property management client’s Inside Council assigns a “privileged and confidential” severity level which is shown on the Case List as Green. When cases are marked a
specific Priority level, they can by be auto-routed to a different user(s) for review and approval
and may utilize a different case workflow.
• Case Load/Work Distribution – Many clients use the Case List (first figure shown below) and
Case Status Screen (second figure shown below) to monitor workload. Each column of the case
list can be sorted to understand how many cases each user currently owns. When a user is out
of the office or has an excessive workload, his/her cases can be routed to another user via the
“Re-assign Case” functionality on the Case Status screen. This is the process a large postal service client uses to monitor workloads and ensure all cases are addressed in a timely manner.
Users with the proper permissions can also run reports and search queries to find the number of
cases currently assigned to a specific user.
• Custom Case Status - May allow users to select from a list of pre-defined tasks to designate an
action to be performed on a case. These tasks may initiate a different process or set of tasks to
complete for a case. For example, a large client utilizes Custom Case Status to commence a
process for a case to be designated “privileged and confidential” by an Inside Legal Council
member.
Investigations – Clients can specify and automate the investigation work (by type of concern) along
with establishing the list of required documentation for each type of case. These steps can be as simple or complex as the client’s process requires—consistency is the key. The client can establish templates
for creating and conducting interviews and site visits before recording the results of their investigation in
Investigation Summary. A resource library of best practice investigation forms is included within the
application; clients often choose to keep their own required investigation documents in this library as
well. The below screen shots demonstrate the process of setting up and completing an interview.
Case Investigators can be assigned to complete the investigation process under the oversight of a Case
Manager. Case Managers have the option to accept an investigation or to assign another investigator to
the case if the prior was not sufficient.
Resolutions
Clients have the ability to specify their own resolution types and utilize a resolution templates for each resolution type to record resolution information. See the below screen shots for examples of selecting a
resolution type and completing a resolution template. Often times, resolutions are processes within
themselves. For example, the software may allow for resolutions to first be recommended by an
Administrator and then be confirmed by a higher level Department or Administrator. Resolutions, like
“Litigation” may be open for an extended period of time as more data is collected throughout the
litigation process, and then closed once the process is over. Additionally, multiple resolutions may be assigned to one case. If an individual receives disciplinary actions as a result of a reported concern and
then must follow up with training, the data and processes required to handle both resolutions are
supported through the resolution functionality.
In a different way, a large school District in Massachusetts, uses the resolution functionality in order to
assign students to an outside organization for support (glasses, tutoring, etc.) and to record the services provided by the agency and the outcomes of those services.
Case History – A single online, printable report that identifies all of the actions, processes, data and
activity timing associated with the review, investigation, and resolution of a case. The below screen shot
is one small piece of the Case History report. It is essentially a cross-section view of everything that has
gone on to bring a case to resolution including the original report, investigation summary, case
summary, follow up comments and question to the case submitter, the submitters responses to those comments, a time and date stamped audit trail of all workflow activities, changes to priority or concern
type, messages that have been sent, resolutions and attached documents. Clients have often presented
Case Histories in court to demonstrate that like-cases have been managed similarly and that the
company has processes and software support in place to ensure the compliant and efficient management of each case.
Reporting and Analytics - The system is delivered standard “out-of-the-box” with a customizable dashboard and several customizable standard reports. For example, reports come with the ability to
select date ranges, concern categories, locations and many other variables to generate adhoc reports.
These selection variables are located across a "ribbon" on the top of the reporting page where print,
zoom and export tools are also available. Reports can be generated on a scheduled basis and sent to the
desktops of those with the proper authorities. Access to report types and data contained in reports are
determined by the parameters defined in a User’s role and Notification Matrix setup. For example, a US
HR VP may only be able to access data in reports that are associated with HR concern categories from
the US. Each report type contains its own unique combination of charts, graphs and tables to display the data. All reports can be printed or exported in the following file formats: xls, pdf, csv, xml, tiff and web
archive file.