WIC working on new data system—and power source

The Department of Public Health’s Women, Infants and Children Program will soon be adopting a new computer system to expedite their services—if a reliable power source is available.

WIC is currently using a paper system, Program Director Josephine Tudela said, and a switch to the Arizona in Motion program, or AIM, would allow WIC to offer help to more people more efficiently.

AIM was developed in 1999 in response to Arizona’s growing WIC program. American Samoa’s chapter of WIC currently uses AIM.

“It will help immensely,” she said. “Right now we’re just doing everything on paper. With AIM, you get everything going in through their servers.”

But because the records from the CNMI will be tied to records in Arizona, a key requirement in order to receive the program is reliable power, Tudela said.

“They have real concerns because it’ll be connected to theirs,” she said. “It could potentially cause major problems.”

Tudela said there are power outages at the WIC Office on Navy Hill every day for two to four hours, sometimes from 2pm to the end of the day.

“So it’s very frustrating,” she said.

Nonetheless, representatives from WIC are continuing to train as if the switch will take place on Oct. 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year. Three WIC staff members are currently in Arizona learning to use the system, and two more are leaving shortly, Tudela said.

Representatives from Arizona are expected to visit the CNMI in October. Karen Sell, Arizona’s WIC director, was in the CNMI in May to conduct preliminary reviews.

“There are just so many pieces that will be affected if we don’t get AIM up and running,” Tudela said.

She said the Department of Public Works has been looking at alternative forms of power such as windmills.

“They’ve been really good and trying really hard,” she said.

Tudela has not sat down and totaled the cost of the different components that make up the system, but she said Guam’s WIC program had a price tag in the millions of dollars.

“[AIM] won’t be as much,” she said. “It’s very cost effective.”

The Food Nutrition Service is shouldering the cost of the new system, she said.

According to CMA, a Web-based system developer that devised AIM, the system cut Arizona’s contracted maintenance costs by 30 percent; overtime staff costs were reduced; and voided food instruments were reduced from 24 percent to 3 percent.