The Client: Youth Villages
Youth Villages is a national leader in mental and behavioral healthcare. The organization is committed to finding the most effective solutions to help children, families, and young adults live successfully. It leverages direct services, partnerships with public agencies, and advocacy to bring positive change to child welfare, children’s mental health and juvenile justice systems. With 4,500 employees across 27 states, Youth Villages relies heavily on technology to facilitate daily operations, from residential campuses to field-based community services.
The Challenge
Over nearly 40 years of service, Youth Villages has experienced a complete evolution in the way they record and organize the notes and documentation necessary to provide proper care and support. During the 1980s and 1990s, Youth Villages was one of the first nonprofit organizations of its type to move to electronic medical records systems, with those systems evolving to be more sophisticated over time.
Now, Youth Villages’ staff depend on digital tools to create essential documentation, ensuring accurate healthcare records and streamlined processes, all while abiding by the rules and regulations set by the states it serves and HIPAA. By 2020, the organization had totally integrated the ability for its workers to be remote. However, they were experiencing several major challenges at the time:
- While Youth Villages had a strong in-house IT presence, they needed more availability from agents to provide longer hours of support. The organization required a level of support that could keep caseworkers in even the most remote of areas connected and able to quickly deliver notes and documentation, rather than being delayed.
- When they partnered with an IT vendor to acquire more support, the provider pulled its services when it shuttered overall service desk operations. They needed a truly loyal IT service desk partner they could rely on both now and in years to come.
- Due to the nature of their service, some Youth Villages’ personnel work beyond typical business hours. Their IT service desk would need to be able to match the hours they kept, all without increasing internal staffing costs.
The Solution
After evaluating several IT service providers over a three-month period, Youth Villages selected Mechdyne for its competitive pricing, robust support plan, and proven track record. We offered a tailored solution that included:
- Level 1 IT support: Handling introductory troubleshooting, ticket documentation, and software/hardware assistance.
- Extended availability: Covering support needs on holidays, outside of standard business hours, and during staffing gaps.
- Process improvement: Actively incorporating feedback from tickets to refine documentation and optimize workflows.
The Results
The partnership between Youth Villages and Mechdyne provides ongoing and measurable benefits that positively impact both teams:
- Enhanced Efficiency: Specialists have enhanced, real-time support to ensure that their laptop is functioning properly.
- Cost Savings: By leveraging these services, Youth Villages avoided the expense of hiring additional IT staff to manage after-hours needs.
- Reduced Downtime: With support provided in a way that addresses gaps in scheduling, IT issues are addressed promptly, preventing disruptions to daily operations.
- Stronger Communication: Regular, transparent conversations between these two teams foster a proactive and cohesive approach to IT management.
Client Testimonial
“The individuals I’ve gotten to know at Mechdyne, throughout the proposal and implementation process, were professional and got the job done incredibly well. I felt like we were in good hands with Mechdyne. It’s clear they had history with providing this kind of service.”
— Adam Scheidegger, IT Service Desk Manager at Youth Villages