Will County Health Department and All Our Kids Early Childhood Network to Celebrate Five Years of Iris Referral Network
WILL COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
The Will County Health Department’s All Our Kids (AOK) Early Childhood Network is celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Integrated Referral and Intake System (IRIS) Network.
IRIS is an online referral system created by the University of Kansas to connect families to services and resources in their communities.
The IRIS system allows for AOK Will County and its partner agencies to track referrals and make sure that the referral was followed up on. Will County’s AOK has established a standard to respond to a referral within three business days. This will also allow for the referring organization to receive notifications about their client’s referral process. In Will County, the IRIS system also tracks zip code data to find out where the greatest need for services are located and what types of services are needed.
“The IRIS Network has helped Will County residents because it allows them to receive a warm hand-off to a partner organization instead of just getting the organization’s phone number” said Rebecca Anderson, the All Our Kids (AOK) Early Childhood Network Coordinator at the Will County Health Department. “Having the IRIS Network ensures that referrals get followed up with. We know how all referrals were handled and what the outcome was. For example, if someone comes to the Will County Community Health Center and mentions that they need food assistance or help with a utility bill, the staff person can make a referral into IRIS to partner agencies that can assist. The partner agencies can either accept or reject a referral and they have three business days to let us know of the outcome.”
The IRIS system is HIPAA compliant and is free for agencies to use thanks to funding from the Illinois Department of Human Services. The IRIS system is being used across Illinois, Kansas, Utah, Missouri, Iowa and the Boston area. Since it launched on February 3, 2020, Will County’s IRIS Referral Network has handled over 9,000 referrals.
“When IRIS hits its 10-year anniversary, I’d like to see that we’re processing more referrals and have more partner agencies join us,” said Anderson. “Obviously, it’s important to make sure that our residents are getting what they need by receiving a referral and continuing to make Will County a great place to live.“
There are over currently over 200 partner agencies in the IRIS network. Agencies interested in becoming part of the network, can contact Rebecca Anderson at randerson@willcountyhealth.org for more information.
