Implementing Tools for Data Quality and Reporting Data Iowas Digital Dashboard

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Implementing Tools for Data Quality and Reporting
DataIowas Digital Dashboard

• Joe Finnegan
• Iowa Department of Human Services
• March 24, 2005
• Reston, VA

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Session Objectives
After completing this session, you should be
prepared to

• Describe the important role administrative data
  can play in improving outcomes for children
• Know that presenting data in a compelling manner
  does not need to be expensive or time-consuming
• Have some good ideas on how you can easily and
  creatively highlight the data reporting
  capabilities of your SACWIS

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Iowas Digital Dashboard Home Page

• State View
• Iowas dashboard has
• started with the six
• federal CFSR
• Measures
• Child and Family Services
• Review

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Close-up View of Graph
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Graph Feature Highlights

• Federal and State targets are displayed for each
  measure
• Actual performance for each area is shown
• Vertical blue line displays each areas
  performance against State target
• Vertical black line displays each areas
  performance against State average
• Green bar graph indicates area performance
  surpasses State average and target
• Yellow bar indicates performance exceeds State
  average but is less than State target
• Red bar indicates performance is less than State
  average and target

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Drill Down Detail Service Area

• 1st Level Detail
• Service Area by County
• Notice that of cases
• included in measure is
• shown (helps in
• determining whether
• performance at this
• level of detail is
• statistically
• significant)

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Supervisory Level Detail

• Supervisors Within a Single
• County
• The next level of detail
• (not included in these
• slides) shows multiple
• workers performance
• within a single supervisory
• caseload

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Final Detail Level Client Information

• Clients Included in
• Measure
• This view displays all of
• the caseworkers clients
• that were included in the
• measure (client ID and
• age have been
• suppressed in this slide)

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Additional Dashboard Views

• Judicial District View
• Data can be sliced (viewed)
• by State, service area, county,
• decat area, empowerment
• area, judicial district, gender,
• age, etc. Data is accessed by
• clicking on map area. New
• slices are added on a
• regular basis
• Decat and empowerment areas are
• unique groups of Counties that
• receive State legislative funding to
• operate specific education and
• social services programs

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Additional Dashboard Features (cont.)

• Measure Definition
• Staff can click on a button
• to view detailed
• information regarding
• how the measure is
• defined. This information
• helps ensure a
• common understanding of
• what the performance
• means.

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Additional Dashboard Features (cont.)

• Data Sources
• The dashboard contains a
• button that explains to
• staff exactly where the
• measure data is drawn from
• (including displaying the
• actual SACWIS screen and
• fields). This really helps
• staff understand the
• importance of maintaining
• accurate entries.

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Other Current Dashboard Features

• Bookmarks. Any dashboard user can bookmark any
  number of graphs at any level of detail. On the
  dashboard home page, the user simply clicks on
  View Detailed Bookmarks, and only the specific
  graphs they have selected will display (see
  slides that display this button)
• Slicing Data. All dashboard data can be viewed
  at any level of detail by gender, age group,
  race/ethnicity, etc.
• View History. Dashboard graphs are generated
  every quarter. Staff can view a page that shows
  eight quarters worth of trend data. By clicking
  on a previous quarters graph, all functions and
  all levels of detail are accessible.

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Future Dashboard Enhancements

• Display redacted data to the public
• Display, within each bar graph, the purchased
  services costs associated with performance at
  each level of detail
• Adding additional slices to the data, such as
  performance by public assistance vs. nonpublic
  assistance recipient, parent receiving regular
  child support vs. not receiving, urban vs. rural,
  performance by specific service or group of
  service, etc.
• Display performance by provider
• Provide additional data analysis support to
  high-end users by displaying client info at all
  levels of detail (staff can then combine this
  data with other data sources and/or analyze it
  within easy to use software such as Excel,
  Access, SPSS, etc.

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Dashboard Technical Information

• Initial application took approx. 300 hrs to
  develop from scratch
• Iowa was already producing the outcomes data by
  creating its own CFSR syntax (via SPSS), so that
  work was already completed
• No individual desktop installation required to
  deploy (pure web app)
• Application written in .asp, programming
  languages used were HTML, Java, and VB 6.0.
• Application runs on Microsoft IIS 4.0
• Some features of this application (cascading
  style sheets and .png image files) require as a
  minimum browser IE.0

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Dashboard Technical Information (cont.)

• Graphing tool used was ChartDirector, by Advanced
  Software Engineering (www.advsofteng.com)
• Licenses cost less than 100 per developer and
  two server licenses (test and production IIS
  servers - also less than 100 each) were required

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For More Information

• Joseph Finnegan
• Phone [phone]
• Email jfinneg_at_dhs.state.ia.us
• Or
• Paul Casas
• Phone [phone]
• Email pcasas_at_dhs.state.ia.us