Technology Summit Washington, DC March 3, 2012 Analytics in Local Government IBM Cognos: Using Analytics to Improve Service Quality Eboni Washington Senior Management Analyst Clark County, Nevada
Technology Summit Washington, DC March 3, 2012
Analytics in Local Government
IBM Cognos: Using Analytics to Improve Service Quality
Eboni Washington Senior Management Analyst
Clark County, Nevada
• Our Mission Statement: “to protect children by building and supporting nurturing, stable families in collaboration with community providers”.
Department of Family Services
Family Services Overview “Vision Statement”
- Hotline - Child Protective Services - Foster Care/In Home Services - Clinical Services - Placement/Receiving Teams - Medical Case Management - Adoption Services
- Quality Assurance/Improvement - Fiscal Services - Foster Parent Recruitment - Foster Parent Licensing - Eligibility - Business Centers
Administrative Services Child Welfare
Facts and Figures • 800+ Full-Time and Part-Time staff • Operating budget for FY12 is about $126 million • In CY 2011:
Over 21,000 calls were received by the Hotline 8,200 referrals were assigned
for investigation
2,200 investigations were substantiated for child abuse/neglect
15,00 referrals were received by the Hotline
Changing Climate • State of Nevada Assembly Bill 1 (2001) mandated that Child Welfare
services in Nevada be integrated. • Leading up to 2005, there was a series of events that prompted major
systemic and administrative changes. • In 2006, new senior management developed the “Safe Futures” plan for
overhauling the troubled Child Welfare system. • In 2008, analysts began developing a series of performance management
reports that assist with monitoring compliance with policies and procedures.
Business Challenges Management Skill Set
• No alignment of measures to strategic plan • Lack of understanding how to interpret and analyze data • Very little use of data to initiate program improvement
Organizational Climate • Phenomenal growth within the Department as a result of the Child
Welfare integration of State and County entities • Organizational climate for learning and improvement not established
throughout the Department • New Senior Management and a subsequent influx of new staff to
accommodate new initiatives
Technology Drivers IT staff unable to meet Department reporting needs:
• Numerous ad hoc reporting requests to support various litigation • Lack of sufficient operational reports in Statewide system • Inability to measure organization and cost-effectiveness due to
primitive reporting capabilities
Fixing the current system is a cumbersome process: • Modifications are completed by the State and require a jurisdictional
change management process • Reporting requirements not always the same for each jurisdiction
Technology Challenges • Transactional system with limited reporting capabilities • Information silos (Source system, Access databases and Excel
spreadsheets) • Limited information about case management data/information required
significant programming time • “Rogue” systems attempting to be implemented in violation of Federal
Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) regulations
• Hand-counting conflicts • Immediate need for specific and real-time data
IBM Cognos: Family Services
• Implemented in 2005 • Using Cognos across all areas of business • Hundreds of users accessing outputs for decision making • 24x7 operation; daily updates • Over 100 reports available on demand • Dashboards customized to different business areas
Business Value • Increased productivity:
Pre Implementation 100% of reports developed by IT staff 14.3 hrs. average development time per report
Post Implementation Over 90% of reports developed by DFS management analysts 6.5 hrs. average development time per report
• Improved compliance
Business Value • Improved access to information and provision of services
Post Implementation
Ready access to information for decision making by staff helps to determine best course of action on cases
Post Implementation
Central data store helps supervisors and managers quickly track and ensure policies and procedures are followed
Post Implementation
Data is more readily available for the media, County Commissioners and Executive Management in desired formats
Pre Implementation
Reports available before Cognos had to be imported into Excel to create graphical representations.
No threshold alerting capabilities
Average Length of Stay in Child Haven (Days)
Decr
ease
CPS Response Time On Time Response Percentage
Incr
ease
Finalized Adoptions
Incr
ease
Targeted Case Management (TCM)
• Service paid by the Federal Medicaid program
• Generated over $10 million in federal reimbursement funds.
– Additional revenues were used to help offset State and County budget cuts.
Summary
• Single source of the truth
• Flexible, dynamic environment that provides user-friendly Web-based Zero-footprint interface
• Cost effective reporting solution for non-technical staff
• Reduction in reporting turn-around
• Evaluate and compare trends in caseloads across the spectrum of services
• Improved Quality of Service
Contact Information
Eboni Washington
Department of Family Services Clark County, Nevada Office: 702-455-5983