Law enforcement professionals, from cops on the beat to administrative and dispatch staff back at the station need fast and accurate information about individuals and their situation when they are rendering services to members of the community.
In order to make this information more easily available, the whole community needs to be involved, from police, fire/EMS, behavioral health, social services and healthcare providers.
Before going forward with deploying such a system, there are some privacy considerations to keep in mind. As you know, information about patients is sensitive and must be collected, stored and shared in a safe and responsible manner. The government establishes standards and protocols to fortify protection of this data, including the requirements of HIPAA. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act mandates keeping patient information secure, so that only authorized individuals can access it. Privacy protection becomes a major challenge for any community where different organizations want to be more proactive about sharing useful data.
But problems with the computer systems used by different agencies, from EMS/fire to health care and social services makes it harder to share useful details. For example, the fire department uses one software setup, while local hospitals and clinics are on entirely different systems that were not designed to communicate with one another, and your police department uses something else as well.
That’s a shame, since computers and high-speed internet makes it easier than ever before to connect databases and give people access to actionable information. This is why so many communities have decided to deploy a cloud computing solution known as Software as a Service or SaaS, for a platform that enables easier sharing of patient details. Julota’s platform connects different organizations in a community so they can use resources more effectively and avoid unnecessary duplication of work.
Supporting Law Enforcement Actions With Julota’s Cloud-Based Data Sharing Solution
It’s of vital importance for law enforcement to be able to track and share case management details with other entities, from fire/EMS to social services and health care providers. For example, if cops have instant access to a message concerning the mental health status of a person they are encountering during a police stop, they will be better prepared to apply the right tactics and resources to the situation.
As a co-responder to the scene with a mental health clinician when mental health disorders are suspected, you will enjoy faster access to your counterpart because your work will be coordinated via the same platform in real time.
Another example of law enforcement using Julota’s SaaS would be to manage diversion programs, to give them easier follow-ups so they can analyze how well jail diversion tactics are working in the community now.
With SaaS, law enforcement professionals can access community data using a portable device such as their smartphone or a tablet or laptop while out in the field, or a desktop computer while at the station. Julota’s platform runs on servers through cloud computing, meaning that your organization does not need to maintain systems locally to share information with other community agencies. If one organization puts out a message for all responders, the information will come through the same source, the platform, making communication more efficient and helping reduce the risk of data falling through the cracks
You do not have to worry about connecting directly to another agency’s computer in the face of compatibility or interoperability issues. Law enforcement will connect to the cloud, just as social services and other community organizations do, eliminating the need for them to come up with a plan to install new local computer and software systems that are of the same age and type.
Furthermore, a problem with an organization’s local server undergoing catastrophic failure will not impede ongoing information sharing, since a fresh backup copy of this data is stored in the cloud. This adds an additional layer of security to your operations, since a local crashed computer will not impede access to important information for the community responders.
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“We run a co-responder program called PACT (Pitkin Area Co-responder Teams) pairing mental health clinicians with police to prevent unnecessary criminal justice involvement for low-level offenders with behavioral health symptoms or diagnoses. Since we are rural, we must coordinate services over a large geographical area, and we work with three different law jurisdictions. Julota has provided a central platform by which to collect vital data and statistics about the efficacy of our program. Julota is highly customizable, so we were able to tailor workflows to the specific needs of our partners, and consequently, there is no aversion to using it. The Julota staff have been very responsive and patient with our development process and change requests, and while we currently use the platform mostly to track law data, our mental health clinicians will soon be entering their information into it, as Julota is a HIPAA and 42CFR compliant technology. We look forward to exploring the potential of this platform in the coming years!”
— Jess Beaulieu, PACT Program Manager Mental Health Program Administrator