A Tribune Staff Report

The Florida Department of Children & Families has received national attention this month for its ACCESS Florida program, a state benefits program that was overhauled from paper to computer with a potential savings of $18 million a year for taxpayers, according to DCF.

A team of employees from DCF’s SunCoast Region, which includes Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, revamped the system that provides benefits such as food stamps, and won a silver medal in the American Society for Quality’s annual worldwide competition for team excellence. The group beat 22 other competitors from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Columbia, Mexico and the United States among other countries.

Known as “Team Scan It,” the group was created to study ways to save public funds by reducing paperwork and the time it takes to process applications. The team focused on the paper-driven manual filing system that included more than 950,000 pounds of paper with annual maintenance costs exceeding $300,000, according to DCF.

In 2006, the team won the Florida Sterling Quality Team Showcase, which qualified DCF for the award.

Access became fully operational about a year and a half ago, though DCF continues to make changes and improvements, spokesman Al Zimmerman said.

The program started in 2003 and grew to a paperless procedure in November 2006. The changes were made with existing resources and a declining budget, Zimmerman noted.

“There are 3,098 fewer employees now than before we began the changes,” he said.

DCF estimates a recurring savings of $83 million annually to the taxpayers, Zimmerman said.

Get Weekly Deals | Write a letter to the editor | Subscribe and get two weeks free | Place an Ad