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

EboniW@clarkcountynv.gov