Client of the Month

Daniel Stark Injury Lawyers

Daniel Stark Injury Lawyers are located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas and serve the entire state. Comprised of twenty staff members and five attorneys, Daniel Stark Injury Lawyers have been Needles clients since 2005. Daniel Stark was picked as our 2nd Quarter Client of the Month due to their commitment to Needles and the innovative way they use the program. They were asked a series of questions regarding how Needles works for them.

What is your firm’s motto/mission?
Our purpose is to empower our clients using a uniquely effective process that insures they are informed, vindicated and compensated. 

How does Needles help your firm complete this motto/mission?
Needles is part of this uniquely effective process.  Needles helps our attorneys and case managers stay efficient and helps them keep the client informed.

Why did your firm decide to implement Needles?  Have you been happy with the results? 
Daniel Stark Injury Lawyers initially decided to purchase and implement Needles as a way of more closely monitoring the process of collecting medical records.  The delay in getting a client’s medical records after they had completed treating was so significant that the corresponding delay to demand and ultimately settlement was creating a cash flow problem.  Needles not only cut this process time by more than half, we have been able to address other “bottlenecks” in the claims handling process that we didn’t even realize existed prior to having Needles long enough to be able to evaluate the data.

How does the way that your firm manages its cases with Needles compare to your previous case management protocols?  
There is no comparison.  With Needles we are able to monitor every aspect of the claim; from initial case sign-up to disbursement.  With Needles, we know about issues that arise when they arise and are able to address them quickly enough to prevent case values from decreasing because of a delay in reaction time.

What has been the largest improvement in the way your firm manages its cases since the installation of Needles?
We are so much more efficient in the handling of our files, both in terms of time management and in terms of information management.  We are now able to collect much more information about our cases in less time than it previously took us to just get the basic information.  With this increased information, we are better able to quickly identify the great cases and the cases that need attention.  This has generally increased the average settlement value of all of our cases.

What Needles features, have contributed to these changes? 
We have found that the proper use of the Status Tab has, as much as any other singular feature, increased the efficiency of the firm.

What aspects of Needles are most consistently used? 
We have very strict Needles’ policies and procedures to ensure that ALL aspects of Needles are properly utilized. 

Do attorneys use any features that staff members do not use or vice versa?  If yes, what are these features and how are they used? 
No.  We have found that allowing everyone to see the same data and use the same tools creates a unified team approach to case management.  It also allows the staff to monitor themselves using the same tools that we will be using.  This creates an environment of employee self evaluation and improvement far more effective than a typical annual review.

What is your favorite Needles function?  Why?
This is almost impossible to answer as we have become reliant on so many of the features.  From a staff perspective, the ability to use coded documents is their favorite as it saves our employees countless amounts of time and ensures that the data is in the letters correctly.

How does your firm use Needles to support its marketing and management efforts?
Reports – We utilize the data that Needles captures to make management and marketing decisions.  We have developed a firm “dashboard” that automatically captures critical management numbers from Needles (cases open to date, settlements to date, demands sent to date…) and displays them in one place.  This allows the managing partner to quickly gauge the health of the firm and to access which areas require the most immediate attention.

How are Needles reports used within your firm?  Are there any specialized user defined reports that have made organizing data easier?  If so, what do these reports accomplish?
In addition to the use of reports described above, we have written many user defined reports that assist in untold ways.  Perhaps the most significant has been a report which looks at the Medical Records Tab and identifies cases that need medical records and/or bills ordered.  With a few clicks of a mouse, the information contained in this report is imported into a Word mail merge document thereby allowing one staff member to order all of the medical records and bills needed.  This usually amounts to 50-60 requests per day.  This has been huge in saving time for our case managers who now no longer have to order their own medical, but also has resulted in a decrease in the amount of time it takes to collect medical, thereby leading to demands being sent more quickly.

Are there any custom defined tabs that have been especially helpful?  If yes, what tabs and how have they been helpful?
We have created a Medical Records tab that has been instrumental in our creation of a Records Retrieval company.  This has provided a great service to our clients increasing the value our firm provides for them.

Of the available software integrations with Needles, which improve your office workflow? 
Currently we use the QuickBooks integration.  This allows us to export more than 100 checks per day, mostly for the payment of clients’ medical records, far more efficiently than hand entry into Needles and then duplicating that work into an accounting software program.

Why does your firm invest in and attend Needles training sessions, seminars and User Group meetings?
This training helps us get the most out of Needles and the database.

What differentiates your firm’s use of Needles?
Our unique ability to mine data from Needles has allowed us to automate the entire records request process.  This is just the first of many processes we can automate because of Needles.

How has Needles affected your firm's development, growth and efficiency?
Needles has not only affected the efficiency in which we can handle claims, but the staff at Needles have put us in touch with other professionals with whom we have shared ideas.  Through these relationships, we have become part of a network of injury firms that are creating new innovative processes that give us the competitive edge.

Finish this thought: “I love my Needles because…”
 I can know what is going on in any case, from anywhere, at any time.