St. Vincent De Paul Database Best Practices

St. Vincent de Paul Database Best Practices

Search for clients diligently to ensure there aren’t existing records before adding a new client record.

Confirm the caller information before searching the database. Call the client if necessary and ask for:
correct spelling of first and last name
last 4 digits of SSN
current phone number
current address
aid requested
Use the wildcard character * (SHIFT + 8) immediately before and/or after a known letter to enhance search results for the above categories of information. This will give you the best chance of finding multiple id’s for the same person and patterns of “obfuscation”.

Examples:

Last Name: / T*o*s*n
First Name: / T*r*
Phone Number: / *1303
Address: / 48*9 Holdrege*

If more than one Client ID matches the caller information:
Select the record with the most “Contacts” and most complete demographic information to add your case.

Example:

Notify an administrator or your Conference President of the Client ID’s that need to be merged. You might discover you have made a client id for someone already in the database.

Search for clients diligently to ensure there aren’t existing records before adding a new client record.

If you create a new client record, then discover there is an existing Client ID, notify an administrator or your conference President of the Client ID’s that need to be merged.

Enter details in the “Comment” field such as:Check #, # of bags of food, or specific items purchased if “Aid Type” is “Other”
For In-Kind goods or services be sure to check the “In-Kind” box in the “Aid” listing area of the case record. In-Kind goods or services are those things provided or paid-for by groups, business or individuals outside of conferences. Enter a dollar amount in “Aid Provided” field for In-Kind good or services, such as for food from CSS. This may be an estimate of the value, if no exact figure is available. Enter the price of furniture from the CSS Price List for furniture from CSS.
“Co-Pay” box should be checked if one conference reimburses another conference when they are teaming up on things like rent. Be sure the box is checked and the paying conference is selected. If goods are directly provided by the other conference or the other conference pays directly (check to landlord for instance), don’t check the “Co-pay” box.

Put ONLY the First Name of the person that the SS# belongs to at the 'First Name' space and the Last Name in the ‘Last Name’ space in the entry form. If you know the name of a“significant other” who is living with the client, then put that name in the Comment section of the demographic area. You can include information on others in the household in the Comment area too. If you put more than one name in the first or last name field, then it makes it more difficult for novice database users to get the right person when they use the client search function. As you can see, the example above violates this concept. If you use the search techniques demonstrated at the training, then this should not be a problem. It is, however, best not to add more than one name in each box.

The Comment area under Client Demographic Information is ONLY for information that relates to descriptive information about the client’s household, income and their immediate household members, e.g. Client is disabled, has 5 kids, significant other's name etc. Except for income and expenses, this is information that is long term and not likely to change often. Except for income and expenses, any time sensitive or circumstantial information related to working a specific caseshould go under the Comment area in the case record you have created for the latest home visit. The case record is for current information related todiscrete temporal instances of service as gathered from to the recent home visit, so comments relative to the specific services provided and request for help should go in the case record area. As alluded to above the ‘Client Financial Information’ portion of the demographic information area is the part that has more frequently changing information. The client’s income and expenses may change more frequently, since our clients tend to change jobs more often or their government benefits change more often than the rest of the information in the demographic section. The income and expenses area is optional, but it should be updated if there is outdated information there.

If in doubt about a client’s name or other information: DO NOT EDIT UNLESS YOU HAVE CONFIRMED THE VERACITY OF THE INFORMATION YOU ARE CHANGING. You should verify any information entered in the demographic area. The database has undergone extensive editing due to poor record keeping and data entry by conference members. If you see the phrase “CONFIRMED NAME, SS#, DOB” in the Comment area within the demographic information section, DO NOT change those things. These have been confirmed using reliable information. Jean Fung has done the vast majority of this editing. She typically types the confirmed names in all capital letters. It is possible that a woman has gotten married/divorced and her name has changed. In this case it is fine to edit the last name, but be sure to put an appropriate explanation of the edit in the Comment area.

BEFORE ADDING a NEW client to the database, make sure to use proper search techniques to thoroughly search under each of the following categories separately: 1) SS# ,2) Last Name using * and as few characters as necessary, 3) Same for First Name when you know it for sure, 4) Address using *, 5) Phone Number using *. If nothing is found after searching under all these, then add New Client. You may not know it, but some clients have had more than 10 different client id accounts because of different spellings and/or SS#s. Often the name spellings are the product of our own sloppiness. Sometimes it is deliberate obfuscation by the clients themselves. It doesn’t matter. We should be diligent and get it right the first time. We should also be slow to edit someone else’s work unless we are absolutely sure it is in error or outdated. Ask for positive identification or at least ask to see a utility bill or other such document that would show the name of the person being served.