The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) seeks to digitize paper records and automate a portion of the current paper-based records management processes to improve information accessibility and interoperability. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the inefficiency of existing paper-processes and made it more challenging for VDH to respond to requests from other government agencies, businesses, and the public. Physical office space is required for paper records, and there is a large amount of valuable office space dedicated to record storage that could be repurposed to better meet agency needs. Additionally, there is limited contingency planning developed if paper records were to be lost or damaged by fire, flood, or other natural disasters. Digitizing paper records and automating outdated paper-based processes will enable employees to work more effectively and efficiently, and better serve Virginians.

VDH has made progress across the three pilot locations, Office of Drinking Water (ODW), Office of Licensure & Certification (OLC), and Office of Vital Records (OVR). The scanning vendor for ODW continues to scan records for the Richmond and Culpepper Field Offices. Purging and document preparation continue across the remaining ODW Field Offices. Digital storage solutions continue to progress; ODW’s SharePoint site and an automation process for transferring metadata onto files will be complete by January 2023. OLC and OVR are finalizing the list of file types for digitization in preparation for scanning. VDH re-issued a scanning vendor Request for Proposal (RFP) for OLC, OVR, and future offices, with revised requirements and is expected to select vendors by January 2023.

VDH has established a reusable records digitization process flow, captured pilot lessons learned, and has a three phased approach to launch the initiative agency-wide. Planning resources and checklists by phase are under development to allow for rapid office onboarding. During this quarter VDH developed a draft spend plan and timeline, a playbook, and a Throughput Tracker to monitor document preparation and scanning progress.

In the next quarter, VDH will begin the digitization process in five additional Central Offices, initiate preparation activities within the remaining ODW Field Offices, onboard a scanning vendor, and establish digital storage options. Ongoing processes will be developed to support policies for the pilot offices to maintain digital recordkeeping and prevent the future buildup of paper once records have been digitized. VDH will continue to encourage records purging across all remaining Central Offices and sequence the next phase of offices for digitization. These accomplishments have set the Records Management Initiative on the path to successfully digitize VDH’s paper records within the ARPA SLFRF funding window.