Clay County social services staff warn fractured systems and rising caseloads are straining eligibility workers

County social services staff gave an extended department update April 21, saying fractured information systems and rising caseloads are creating significant administrative burden for eligibility workers and increasing risks of backlog and error.

Karen Amundsen and Mikaela Wideric walked the Board through a ‘‘day in the life’’ of an eligibility worker, describing multiple systems that do not communicate (named in the presentation as MAXIS, MMIS and others), frequent logins, time‑consuming manual calculations and case notes that must be defensible months or years later. Amundsen said the combination of frequent interruptions and unintegrated systems drives a workload that can exceed available staff hours on higher volume days.

Wideric provided performance numbers: the adult…