Collecting and Analyzing Baseline Data

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Collecting and Analyzing Baseline Data
Steve Gallon, Ph.D. NIATx Process Improvement
Coach
Reduce Waiting  No-Shows ? Increase Admissions 
Continuation
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Agenda

1. Brief review of last months call
2. This months topic Baseline data gathering and
   analysis
3. Q-A period
4. Sharing of walk-through experiences
5. Open questions and comments about process
   improvement

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The Walk-Through

• Decision-makers play role of clients seeking help
  for a substance use problem
• Seek services as a client might, from 1st contact
  thru 3rd appointment, including paperwork
• Follow the steps on the instruction sheet for
  Conducting a Walk-Through at NIATx.net (click
  the Process Improvement button)

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Baseline Data

• It is important to measure agency performance
  before making any changes to agency processes.
• If you do not measure how the agency is doing
  now, then there will be no way to evaluate
  whether a change is making a difference.
• This initial gathering of data is referred to as
  baseline data collection. It provides a
  comparison point to help assess whether a change
  you make is having the expected impact.

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First What to measure?

• What is important to the agency?
• What goals does the agency have related to client
  and business services?
• What processes would you like to evaluate or
  check?

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Next Define the measures

• Establish clear definitions
• Quantify the questions you are concerned about
• Make sure there is agreement that the measures
  will answer your questions
• NIATx initially identified four measures
• Time from 1st contact to 1st treatment
• No shows for assessment
• Continuation during 1st month of care
• Admissions

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Other measures to consider

• Time from 1st contact to assessment
• Treatment continuation rates during 1st 60 days
  of care
• Units of service delivered
• Length of stay in residential setting
• Time for transition from 1 level of care to the
  next (no. of days)
• Continuity of care ( of clients who complete
  residential and enter outpatient)

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The question you need to answer is

• If we measure this way, will we know how close we
  are coming to meeting our goal?

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How to collect baseline data

• Most often the data you need is already available
  or is easy to gather.
• You may have an internal management information
  system
• California has the CALOMS data system
• If you collect it yourself, simple paper and
  pencil logs often work well and dont take much
  time.

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How long should the baseline period be?

• Baseline data can be collected and analyzed for
  periods as short as 30 days or as long as several
  years
• Usually 30 to 180 days provides sufficient data
  to reveal trends of concern to management.
• It is often best to create a graph of the data
  that summarizes the frequency or percentage of
  what is being measured over time.

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Data can be surprising

1. Assumptions may have been made that are not based
   on objective information
2. Sometimes a different problem is identified
3. The baseline numbers provide an accurate
   comparison point for your improvement efforts

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In summary, here are some TIPS

1. Never start a change project without first
   collecting baseline data
2. Make sure the data you are gathering is an
   accurate measure of the issue the agency is
   concerned about
3. Make sure the data can be gathered consistently
   and accurately during the change process
4. The data needs to be immediately available to the
   Change Leader and others monitoring the change
   process

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August Calls28th at 200pm and 29th at 1100 am

• Establishing a Change Objective

Check out the NIATx web site at www.niatx.net
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