PITTSBURGH - Erie-based Lakeshore Community Services, Inc., is replacing its legacy information management system, with the goal of enhancing clinical productivity and quality, while rapidly expanding its services to those with mental retardation and persistent mental illness in Northwestern Pa. Lakeshore is installing TOTAL: Record, the highly adaptable and configurable billing and data management system developed by Esteam, which is part of the comprehensive human services software and consulting solution called TOTAL: Impact.

"We are very pleased with TOTAL: Record, not only because it will immediately make us more effective and efficient in our ability to use and manage client data - allowing us to provide better service - but because its flexibility will support our growth into the future," said Richard Ruedy, Lakeshore's CEO. "TOTAL: Record is a very important piece of Lakeshore's strategic development plan going forward."

Lakeshore Community Services, Inc., was established in 1986 to provide residential care for persons with mental retardation in Erie County. The organization has since expanded its services and its service area to include persons with mental retardation and serious and persistent mental illness in Cameron, Elk, Jefferson, Clearfield and McKean counties. Lakeshore started with a staff of 22 people and a budget of $250,000, but has grown to 275 employees and an annual budget of $9 million.

REPLACEMENT OF LEGACY DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WILL BETTER SUPPORT LAKESHORE'S GROWTH INTO THE FUTURE
Our previous system was complicated to use, made accessing data and running reports very difficult and didn't integrate well with our other information systems," said Alan Benson, Lakeshore's assistant executive director and manager of the installation. "TOTAL: Record will change that. As a Web-based system, it's user-friendly, will make training easy, and allow wider distribution and access to the information our staff needs. It will reduce administrative time, yet still provide us with better, more meaningful information. That, in turn, will allow us to make better decisions on behalf of our clients."

Esteam's President, George Pashel said, Lakeshore's installation shows the adaptability and scalability of TOTAL: Record and underscores our belief that it provides a solid return on investment for large, as well as smaller organizations. Lakeshore is a relatively small, but clearly a forward thinking organization, and they realize the value that the system can provide to their bottom line."

About Esteam
Esteam, LLC, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a collaboration of Innervate and Pressley Ridge, where the company is based. Pressley Ridge, serving clients in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Ohio, West Virginia, and Delaware, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1832 and one of the nation's oldest and most highly regarded innovators of best practices relating to human services for children and young adults. Innervate, based in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, is a for-profit technology provider that offers consulting and software services to health and human services organizations. For more information about Esteam, contact David Rumberger at 412-322-0629 or via email at drumberger@esteam.net or visit www.esteam.net