Measuring Main Benefits/Outcomes

Why This Is Important to Your Office

Many funding sources are requiring more information than just closing codes. They want the grantee to provide information about how the case was closed and how many people were helped. They also want to know how the people were helped. Was an eviction prevented? Did the client get alternative housing? Was the child removed from a dangerous situation?

What Does Prime Track?

Prime tracks this information for you. A tab on the client intake sheet brings up a form to allow the entry of the benefits to the client. The following is what it gathers:

1. An unlimited number of benefits per case—Prime allows you to put as many benefits on a single case as you want
2. For each benefit, Prime tracks:
   1. The type of benefit
   2. Any lump sum of money received
   3. Any monthly award of money
   4. The number of months the award is likely to run
   5. Any lump claim avoided (such as an auto accident claim)
   6. Any monthly claim of money avoided
   7. The number of months the claim was likely to have run
   8. What a private attorney might have charged for the service rendered (this is useful for representation such as an uncontested divorce where there is no award of support but a private attorney would have charged $750 for the representation).
   9. The number of adults this benefit involves (defaults to the number on the main intake sheet).
   10. The number of children this benefit involves (defaults to the number on the main intake sheet).
   11. Whether this was a benefit that was planned to be received or whether it was unanticipated and arose during the representation
   12. A place for a note explaining the benefit
   13. The date of the benefit
   14. The number of the staff member who obtained the benefit
3. A running total of all benefits on the case

This shows up at the bottom of the benefit intake sheet. It shows the:

1. Number of benefits entered on the case
2. Total amount of money received
3. Total amount of claims avoided
4. The total of what a private attorney might have charged for the representation

Where Is This Stored in Prime?

There are two tables involved in tracking benefits. The first holds the list of main benefits that could be provided to the client. The second is where the main benefit(s) you select for cases are stored.

subMainBenefits

The list of benefits you can select from is stored in a table called subMainBenefits. You can modify the contents by going to Admin, Setup Functions, and then Setup Tables. As with all changes, if you have existing data, you may need to adjust them to the new codes before you start adding new benefits. For example, if you changed the code that used to mean "prevented eviction" to "stopped lockout," you’d want to change the old codes you entered to conform to the new ones.

Each benefit has a code associated with it. The first one or two numbers represents the problem code that the benefit is usually applied to. For example, a code of 6340 would normally be associated with a private landlord tenant case (Problem Code 63).

Prime allows you to assign a benefit that may not normally be associated with a particular problem code. For example, you might choose a benefit of "Kept the family together" from a list of family benefits and assign it to a landlord-tenant case. This would be appropriate if you prevented an eviction that would have shattered the family.

zMultiMB

This is the table that holds the main benefits for clients. Each row holds one main benefit, the contents of which are discussed above. It is associated with a case by using the case number field.

Other Information

There is also an outcome field on the client intake forms. This allows you to track whether you won, lost, had a mixed result, or whether this measurement doesn’t apply. These selections are stored in a table called subOutcome and are easily added to or modified.

What Is Necessary to Get Started?

Do any of your funding sources require benefit/outcome measurements? If so, gather these lists up. When you set up your list of outcomes, include these benefits in your list.

On the ribbon bar, go to:

Admin,

Setup Functions,

Setup Tables

Select Main Benefits

You can now add or modify the list.