Oregon Board of Licensed Social Workers

Results since implementation

Since implementing Thentia Cloud, BLSW has been able to elevate their level of focus and prioritize the higher-value regulatory work required by the board. The mass move to a cloud-based system transformed certain operational processes around licensing, compliance and continuing education.

An approximately 90% reduction in paper forms received

The ability to offer online applications and renewals as well as online record maintenance has meant that the agency has gone from receiving several hundred forms each month to only about a dozen or two for verification, transcripts etc.

Nearly 100% reduction in check payments  

For the young demographic BLSW typically serves when processing new applications, mailing in a payment by check felt like a burdensome and antiquated process. For the team receiving payments, checks also created unnecessary work. With Thentia Cloud, BLSW no longer has hundreds of checks mailed in each month.

Improved decision-making capabilities 

The licensing team at BLSW has three members, with one staff member focused on intake of applications. Since the automation of the licensing process, the staff are now able to focus on higher level functions. Randy Harnisch, Executive Director of BLSW, reports, “We’ve been able to achieve a higher level of decision making that I think has resulted in us doing a much better and more thorough job … I wasn’t expecting to see the effect on the quality of the decision making and we’ve been pleasantly surprised to see that’s been the case.”

Approximately 75% reduction of applications that need to be reviewed by Compliance  

Due to the automation of what was previously manual work, more of the background checks are now able to be handled upstream. Previously, anything that came up in a background check would immediately be moved to the compliance team for review before making a decision on the applicant, but now those decisions can be made at the point of intake, and oftentimes, that team member receiving the application can determine whether or not to process it. “The system holds not only the licensee members accountable for following the rules, policies and procedures, but also holds us accountable to be consistent with decisions,” Thatcher explains.

Improvements to management of Continuing Education

With the previous system, the team had to make renewal decisions based on affirmations from the applicant on completion of continuing education courses. With Thentia Cloud, the system will not let applicants proceed unless they have uploaded all of their certificates. The new audit system feature that was more recently put in place has also enabled them to revamp their entire Continuing Education process so that they can better ensure the courses being taken are appropriate. Harnisch reports, “Thentia Cloud has allowed us to have a much better sense that people are actually doing their required courses and meeting the statutory and administrative requirement for Continuing Education. So I think we’re doing a much better job.”