New TeleStaff™ FEMA module significantly decreases time and resources spent tracking and reporting hurricane staffing data needed for FEMA reimbursement
Orange, CA. - PDSI Software, a leading provider of staff scheduling and notification solutions for public safety departments, is pleased to announce the release of a FEMA module to assist organizations that are part of our TeleStaff™ family in completing FEMA reimbursement forms more efficiently. The new FEMA module is available at no additional cost to our customers, and is compatible with versions 2.1 or greater. This module will automatically pre-populate FEMA report data fields with necessary information exported directly from TeleStaff™ saving our customers valuable time and resources.
The City of Palm Beach Gardens has been using TeleStaff™ since 2003 to schedule staff and notify personnel of staffing needs. Palm Beach Gardens is the first city to utilize the FEMA module under the direction of Division Chief Evan Bestland of Palm Beach Gardens Fire. The department has had immediate and significant timesaving benefits as a direct result of using the FEMA module, especially important given the several hurricanes that have affected the Florida region this year.
Under the previously labor-intensive FEMA reimbursement process, numerous man hours were dedicated to manually researching, collecting and organizing data from several different sources and hand entering it on paper forms. Ultimately, this hand-written data was provided to the finance department from the various city departments, such as Fire and Police, where staff used other paper-based and manual processes for completing the FEMA forms. Information at times was hard to decipher, prone to errors and took an excessive number of hours to complete.
For Hurricane Wilma, Division Chief Evan Bestland devised a strategic plan to not only ensure rapid completion of the FEMA reports after the hurricane, but also to rely on TeleStaff™ to tightly manage the entire staffing process for Wilma including staff scheduling, deployment and notification. Bestland pre-built shifts and created new work codes unique to Hurricane Wilma with the foresight that the staffing data specific to the hurricane could be tracked and exported into the FEMA reports. Additionally, Bestland utilized TeleStaff’s Notification module to summon staff to work in preparation for Hurricane Wilma. TeleStaff’s Notification module automatically places outbound phone calls informing staff of their need to be at work on a specific shift. As a result, preparing for and responding to Hurricane Wilma was efficiently handled in an urgent, yet organized manner.