Robin's Ruminations

The sequence of events over the past 24 hours has been very interesting and productive.  I've learned about some more things my office hasn't been doing quite right on our IVIPS record keeping and had a fascinating conversation with Hannah Fultz of the Department of Licensing.  

It turns out there was an "issue" (she didn't go into details) in the not too distant past where IVIPS information was used inappropriately.  This, in part, triggered the current round of audits and the results are not good.  They're finding a failure rate in excess of 80%.  Needless to say, DoL is taking this very seriously.

I was surprised to learn there are over 8,000 IVIPS users.  This tells me that process servers and PI's are a small fraction of the total.  Hopefully we are an even smaller fraction of the "issues".

In speaking with Ms. Fultz we both concluded a major reason for the current failure rate is a lack of understanding on the part of users as to the requirements in the contract.  I'm generally pretty good about reading and deciphering such things but obviously (since I now know I wasn't doing everything properly) I missed some important aspects of the contract and therefore failed to institute appropriate procedures in my office.  Now that my understanding is better I've instituted multiple procedure changes which address the problems.

Ms. Fultz also mentioned there are some changes being considered for the current contract.  More than anything they need to know the information is being used appropriately.  To do that they need to be able to conduct audits which result in accurate information and in a much lower failure rate.  So, as part of their process, they are going to explore methods of educating users about their responsibilities and record keeping requirements.

I told her that she and I are on exactly the same page.  Speaking for WSPSA (hope that was okay to do Madam President) I assured her the association would cooperate in any way possible to educate our members to improve our audit scores.  I mentioned WALI but explained I couldn't speak for them in the same way that I felt I could for WSPSA.  I urge any WALI member reading this to bring it to the attention of an appropriate person on the WALI Board.  Perhaps WSPSA and WALI can work together on this in some fashion.

IVIPS is an incredible resource.  We need to protect it.  We need to cooperate with DoL and we need to police our own.  My fear is that a loose cannon somewhere will abuse IVIPS and, as a result of their actions, I will lose access.