Web:Interview System

The Interview System makes client intake easier and results in the gathering of essential information during the first contact with the client. The system comes with a set of questions and advice that are linked to words, problem codes, special problem codes, and national index codes but you can add your own. The questions can have Programmed Responses, which depend upon the client’s answers. The Interview System is best understood by looking at its parts: Interviews, Questions, Advice, and Management

Interviews

The client or another person can be interviewed

i) If the interviewee is the client, the interview begins immediately

ii) If the interviewee is another person, contact information is entered and a conflict check can be done

The basics of an Interview

i) Consists of Questions, Advice, Programmed Responses, and Comments

ii) A staff member has many options. They can stay with one list, or select only certain questions, jump to a new list or ask custom questions

iii) Comments are allowed on each question and the overall interview

iv) The interview is saved and can be printed and/or added to case notes

Questions

Questions are added to a pool, so any single question can be used anywhere

Questions are tagged as having a particular type of answer

(a) Memo

(b) Date

(c) Dollar Amount

(d) Yes/No

(e) Number

(f) Letter

A question can be part of multiple lists of questions. A question list is associated with one of four groups:

(a) LSC Problem Code - Example: 37 Domestic Abuse

(b) Specpcode, a subdivision of the LSC Problem Code – Example: 6300 Landlord/Tenant Lockout.

(c) NatIndx code, used to markup pages for statewide legal aid web sites – Example: 1630307 Guardian Ad Litum

(d) Custom List, e.g., Receptionist’s Questions

When doing an Interview, you pick your list of questions by selecting it from one of those four groups.

Programmed responses allow you to ‘prompt’ the advocate or interviewee to do something

(a) A programmed response is possible for all question types, except memo

(b) It pops up an instruction, depending on the interviewee’s response

(c) The interviewer can comply with the instruction or say why they didn’t

(d) For example, if the client is asked if ‘they have a safe place to stay’ and they answer ‘no’, the interviewer should give them a list of shelters with phone numbers and make the call for them

Custom Questions

(a) Include both the Question and the Answer in the Memo Answer field.

(b) Maintenance reports allow reviewing Custom Questions to see if they need to be made into formal questions

(c) For example, Custom Questions keeps containing the question about food stamps, a new food stamps question should be added to the pool.

Advice

Issues and Advice are added to a pool, so any single Issue and Advice can be used in multiple places

Advice can be linked to multiple groups, groups are based on three codes

(a) By LSC Problem Code

(b) By Specpcode, a subdivision of the LSC Problem Code

(c) By the NatIndx code, used to markup pages for statewide legal aid web sites

When doing an interview using a list of questions linked to one of the above codes, the Applicable Advice tab shows the advice linked to that code

Users can look up advice on any other topic they desire

Pushing a button adds the Advice to the comments section of a question’s answer.

Management

Add questions, link them to codes, order them and build programmed responses

(a) Add an unlimited number of questions

(b) Link them to any topic under any of the four groups

(c) Pull up the group and change the order of the questions to fit your preferences

(d) Build programmed responses, so the staff member is prompted when a certain answer is entered to a particular question

Add custom list, put questions in the list and order them

Add issues and the advice to deal with the issue, then link them to codes

Print reports about overall interview usage (not just for one case)

(a) Error reports

(b) Lists of tables

(c) Usage reports of questions

(d) Lists of questions based upon group

(e) Lists of advice based upon group

Starting or Editing An Interview

Before investing time in setting up an interview, it would be a good thing to make sure that it does what you want it to do. To understand that, it would be useful to see how it works so you can understand its potential and see if it would work in your office.

Interview System Use

The Interview System is located on Intake Page 2 of the Client Intake

Click on Start-Edit Interview to start a new interview. This presents the user with five tasks they can perform:

1) Start a New Interview

2) Resume an Old Interview

3) Show Old Interviews on Case

4) Relate Other Interviews to a Case

5) Print List of Interviews on a Case

Start A New Interview

Let’s start an interview.

1) Decide who you are interviewing. If the person being interviewed is not the client, you are prompted to enter contact information. Conflict Check Interviewee before starting.

2) If the person being interviewed is the client, select yes from the pull down and it will immediately take you to the Start Interview screen.

3) The Start Interview screen is where the user starts asking questions. First they search for a list of questions. The Search by pull down allows them to search for questions by word, problem code, national index code, special problem code, or a custom list.

i) Let’s first search for questions based on Problem Code 37 (Domestic Abuse)

ii) You can search for questions based upon

(a) Pcode (problem code)

(b) Special Problem Code (your division of the problem code)

(c) National Index code (used to markup web sites)

(d) A Custom List (such as Receptionist or Consumer)

(e) Word in the Question, for example ‘custody’

iii) Here we:

(a) Choose Pcode

(b) Select 37, Domestic Abuse

(c) Click on the first question so it appears in the green box

(d) Click the Start button

iv) Each question appears at the top of the screen

v) Enter the client’s answer in the Answer section together with any comments.

vi) After each question is answered, you press Save/Next to save the answer and proceed to the next question. You can skip questions by choosing a different question in the "skip to a different question" box.

Resume An Old Interview

This is not shown, since it is similar to conducting a normal Interview. The user selects the old interview and is taken to the Review Interview tab so they can review what was already asked. They can then go to the Conduct Interview tab to ask more questions from whatever list they select.

Show Old Interviews on a Case

Use the dropdown box to select an existing interview and to show its entries.

Relate Other Interviews to This Case

A user may wish to relate an interview with another client to this case. For example, the client has a divorce and this is a landlord tenant case. You may wish to relate the interview from the divorce. You might want to relate the interviews with another tenant from the same apartment complex.

Print List of Interviews on This Case

The user can also print a list of all the Interviews on this case

Setup

Some initial investment of time is essential. The System includes over 800 questions, over 800 pieces of advice, and over 150 programmed responses. However, these may need to be made state specific. They might also be on topics you don’t need

Management

1) Management – The Interview Management requires administrative rights and can be accessed by going to Administration, expanding the Interview Management container, and clicking on Interview Management. This is where you are presented with the simple Manage the Interview System screen that allows you to work with Questions, Custom Lists, Issues and Advice, and overall reports.

Add/Edit Questions

i) The Add/Edit Questions button brings us here. First we select a list of questions based upon Problem Code, Specpcode, NatIndx Code, or Word. If you are going to add a new question, use the Word choice and search to see if the question is already in the System.

ii) If you want to add a new question, click on the arrow asterisk button at the bottom of the screen. This allows you enter a new question by entering the answer type (yes/no, memo, etc.), the question, and a unique number. The unique number isn’t significant, as long as no other question has it. You might use a range of numbers to mean different things, such as coming from your office, a particular unit, etc.

iii) To associate a question with any of the groups on the right, first click on the record selector next to the question (here the white arrow on a black background).

(a) Pcodes – 1 to 99

(b) Specpcodes – 100 to 9999

(c) National Index Codes – 1010000 to 1999999

If the question was already in the system, it will show what codes it is currently associated with. Pull down the combo box of the code or list you want to use and make your selection. The question will then be associated with that list or code. To delete a mistake, highlight the code and press the orange Delete button.

iv) If you’ve built a new list or added to an old one, go to the Main form and select "Order Questions" to change the order of the questions.

v) Add Responses to Select Questions - Here is where we can attach programmed responses to questions. These are prompts that come up when a question is answered a certain way. We’ll see this on the Interview later. This programmed response works when the client says they don’t have a safe place to go. The interviewer is prompted to provide a list of shelters and their phone numbers.

vi) Reports - This is the area where you can get print outs and reports that will help you when working with questions. For example, you can print a list of your Specpcodes for reference when linking questions to codes. Let’s print out the list of questions under problem code 1, Bankruptcy.

Notice that the list shows the question, the order it occurs, the type of question, and the linkage to not only the selected problem code, but the other Specpcodes and NatIndxes

Set Up Custom List

The next thing you might want to do is to build a Custom List of questions. There could be a list for the receptionist, the intake unit, etc. The interface is similar to the one for questions associated with Pcodes, etc. Click on a list and the questions that are part of that list will show up on the right

To add a new list, click on the "New List" button to enter a new list.

To add a question to your list, search for it above the list of questions, click on the record selector next to the question, and then push the Add Question button.

Once you’ve selected all the questions for your list, you need to order them. Go to the "Order Questions" button on the Main Management page. Select the list you want to work with and the list of questions will appear. Highlight the one you want, then choose the Up or Down arrow to change the order in which it appears. Be sure to save your resulting setup by pressing the You Must Save button.

You may want to print out your custom lists for review by you or others. You can do this from the Reports Tab. Let’s look at the testList1 list.

Note the printout shows the question that is associated with the list and the other codes the question is associated with.

Enter Issues and Advice

Add and Edit Advice is the area where you can add issues and the advice to answer them

Much like the other tabs, clicking on the record selector shows the codes the advice is associated with

Adding a new issue and advice is as easy as clicking on the arrow with an asterisk, then putting in the issue, the advice, any comment and the date the advice was added

You can now go to the Reports for Advice tab to print out the advice you have associated with a particular code

Note the Problem and Advice show up with the code you selected AND all the other codes the advice is associated with.

Choose Reports

Choosing Reports from the main Manage the Interview System screen provides you with overall reports.