A healthier compliance process

The New York State Department of Health is using an enterprise capture solution to comply with the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), which enables the public to access governmental records.

The department, which is responsible for public health statewide, has deployed EMC Captiva as the document processing foundation for its automated platform for FOIL compliance. With the solution, employees can transform paper into electronic information by batch scanning and indexing documents into a content repository. Also, individual departments can capture documents using a Web browser.

Jake Locicero, FOIL director for the New York Department of Health, says, "FOIL compliance is a huge concern not only for the Health Department, but for all the agencies in New York. EMC Captiva helps us establish a system to significantly increase processing efficiency and productivity."

The department receives more than 5,000 FOIL requests a year, representing more than 10 million pages.

According to a press release from EMC, the Department of Health has seen an increase in productivity with the new system. FOIL requests used to take 40 business days to resolve and now require fewer than 20 days. The process has also led to cost savings, EMC says. Paper and printing supply orders were reduced by 95 percent, and hard-copy communication decreased 75 percent.