Lariks Leusden about SmartDocuments improving document quality
Healthcare, welfare and upbringing are the core of Lariks,
social domain of the municipality of Leusden.
The inhabitants of Leusden can find the answers to all their questions related to these topics in the social domain of Lariks. In twelve years time, it has become a household word among the inhabitants of Leusden.
Lariks was established twelve years ago as an initiative of, among others, the Leusden housing foundation, home care and municipality. The goal was to be able to answer healthcare questions better and faster through cooperation between different parties. The initiative started with eight employees and has since then grown to the point where there are fifty employees. In the early days especially, the approach in Leusden was unique: one place for all questions concerning care. With the arrival of the Participation Act, the initiative has been followed by many municipalities, because especially in healthcare it is most important to work together and learn from each other.
Marjolijn Winter – Quality advisor, Lariks Leusden
Combining healthcare
Marjolijn Winter, Quality Advisor Lariks Care and Welfare, has been involved with Lariks from the beginning. “Actually, it's an obvious approach. When asked for help, it makes sense to take a broader look. Where does a question come from? When it comes to healthcare at home, the next step is to check whether more is needed. When it comes to debt relief, it's important to understand the social background. Through practice, we know that people usually wait too long. So, Lariks had to become a safe place to ask those questions. By looking across the board, you can combine healthcare, welfare, living and upbringing. And that’s what makes it possible to provide tailor-made care.”
“With the help of SmartDocuments, we’ve really been able to take steps in that direction. The system has reduced our administrative burden, and more importantly – and this's what it’s all about in the end – it has made it possible to give the people of Leusden unequivocal answers.”
Always listening
Lariks gained momentum when in 2015 legislation and regulations on healthcare, participation, youth assistance and appropriate education changed. Municipalities were given a central role in this. And because there was already a platform in Leusden, in consultation and in close cooperation with the Municipality of Leusden, Lariks was partly entrusted with the implementation of the Youth Constitution, the Social Support Law and the welfare policy. “One of the aims of the changes was to allow residents to participate as much as possible in society. We are for sure not the extension of the municipality, but more of a listening ear.”
“Forms and documents were often copied and pasted until we started to use SmartDocuments.”
Professionalization
With the changes in legislation and an increasingly important help desk, further professionalization became necessary. “There was an increased administrative burden on our employees. Forms and documents had previously often been copied and pasted. It made the need for uniformity and unambiguousness greater than ever. Since we work with applications and decisions, they have to be the same, but they also have to be filled with appropriate information. SmartDocuments was chosen to create and secure the documents. We’re also working on the further development of our customer monitoring system with MensCentraal, which also has a requirement for documents. The integration with SmartDocuments solves this problem easily. The funny thing is that it doesn’t even involve a lot of documents. In total, there are about 25, but for our organizations, and from a legal and regulatory point of view, it's very important that they have a clear format and contain the right information. With the help of SmartDocuments, we've really been able to take steps in this area. The system has reduced our administrative burden, and more importantly – and this is what it’s all about in the end – it has made it possible to give the people of Leusden unequivocal answers.”