In addition to the epidemiology support described in the previous two sections, other MCH data capacity efforts are managed through the Early Childhood and Family Support Division’s (ECFSD) Business Systems and Operations (BSO) Section.
The BSO team is led by Chris Santucci who has a Master of Arts degree in Sociology; eight years of leadership experience gained in the military and private sectors; seven years’ experience in the technology field, specializing in cybersecurity practices; and is currently enrolled in a Master of Business Administration program. He directly supervises the following BSO team members (areas of focus included):
- Blair Hendricks: WIC M-SPIRIT System Lead
- Nathan Senn: Computer Support Specialist for WIC M-SPIRIT System and Child Care Under the Big Sky (CCUBS), and other Division programs as needed
- Lanny Wilbur: Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Database Administrator for CSHS HiTrack data system and the Child Health Referral Information System (CHRIS)
- Tom Wolff: MT Maternal and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MTmechv) Database Administrator
- Melody Olson: Child Care Under the Big Sky (CCUBS) Data Steward and Analyst
The BSO manages and offers technical support to most of the maternal and child health programs’ data information systems. The systems specific to the Family & Community Health Bureau (FCHB) are as follows:
- WIC M-SPIRIT System;
-
Title X Family Planning database Ahlers;
- NOTE: As of April 2022, MT was not awarded Title X funds. DPHHS was granted a no-cost extension and is maintaining the Title X database during the transition of the Title X program to a private non-profit. Upon final transition in the Fall of 2022, the State data will be archived.
- Maternal, Infant, Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) case management data system MTmechv;
- Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Child Health Referral Information System (CHRIS), HiTrack system for hearing assessment and management and newborn screening follow-up;
- Adolescent Health’s primary data management system REDCap, an open-sourced Public Health database and collection tool administered by the University of Washington Institution of Translational Health Sciences;
- The Fetal, Infant, Child, and Maternal Mortality Review (FICMMR) Prevention Program records the data for fetal, infant, and child mortality reviews into the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention, Child Death Review (CDR) System.
BSO staff are currently overseeing several enhancement initiatives for these FCHB-housed data systems. These enhancements, not funded by the State Systems Development Initiative (SSDI), include:
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
- The WIC M-SPIRIT system has been in its current form of operation since 2010 and is part of a multi-state consortium. It is being enhanced into a web-based system called SPIRIT Web. SPIRIT Web will provide real-time, quality data to local, state, and federal partners. Before release to the 85 WIC clinics within the state of Montana (MT), it will be beta tested by a select number. Training will be provided by both the consortium and MT state-level staff. The current anticipated date for release of SPIRIT Web is live by 2023.
The current EBT contract ends in 2025. Because the project to replace the EBT vendor has a large scope encompassing WIC, SNAP, and TANF, the Human and Community Services Division is leading the procurement with BSO Staff and WIC Staff serving as partners. Requirements have been gathered and entered into the Technology Services Division Project Intake process in preparation for the RFP process.
Title X Family Planning
- As of April 1, 2022, MT DPHHS is no longer the recipient of Title X funds. DPHHS has been granted a no-cost extension to facilitate the smooth transition of the program and all associated data to a private non-profit organization within the State. During this time, DPHHS and the ECFSD are working with the new recipient to transition existing data from the State servers by providing historical reports to subrecipients and actual data to the new awardee.
Upon conclusion of the no-cost extension in September of 2022, all existing State data related to Title X will be taken out of production and archived.
Fetal, Infant, Child, and Maternal Mortality Review (FICMMR)
- MT’s FICMMR program entered into a Data Use Agreement (DUA) with the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention in September 2012, for the purposes of allowing local FICMMR Teams’ review data to be entered into the Child Death Review (CDR) System. FICMMR Teams continue to enter the data for their fetal, infant, and child death reviews into CDR Version 6.0.
Work has begun with the MT Office of Vital Records (OVR), the MCH Epidemiologist, the FICMMR Coordinator, and the Title V MCHBG Director to proceed with a business process enhancement project. The goal is to mitigate errors by standardizing key data fields and keep death certificate numbers static across the system. These data fields include:
- State ID
- Child’s First Name
- Child’s Last Name
- Child’s Date of Death
- Child’s Age
- Child’s Age Category
After conversations within OVR and DPHHS Technology Services Division (TSD), an OVR database schema has been provided to ECFSD staff to identify the required tables to both satisfy the need, and maintain Least Privilege best practices. Once specific tables are identified, TSD’s Vital Statistics Database Administrator will provide BSO staff with read-only access to the identified tables so ECFSD can query directly against a copy of the database for the fields needed to upload into the CDR System, and the National Fatality Review Case Reporting System. Anticipated completion date of this project lies within Calendar Year (CY) 2022.
Healthy MT Families (HMF) Home Visiting Program
- HMF is federally funded by MIECHV, with limited support from state general funds that ensure implementation of the Montana Initiative for the Abatement of Mortality in Infants Act (MIAMI). Parents as Teachers, Nurse Family Partnerships (NFP), Family Spirit, and, SafeCare Augmented are the evidence-based home visiting models implemented within 18 agencies (3 tribal agencies) in 16 counties across Montana. The MTmechv Database Administrator created a HMF Administrative Database which collects the administrative and financial data for the four models. The data can be entered by program staff through forms that are included in the database within the Access application.
The Admin database is used by program staff to track all administrative aspects of the models and implementing agencies, including: budgets; expenses; contracts; and, personnel data. Budget, contract, and expense data have been updated through April 2022. Until staff are able to confidently enter data into the Admin Database, the System Manager conducts bulk uploads monthly. Anticipated date to hand off data entry to HMF staff is by the end of CY 2022.
In October 2022, HMF will update the NFP forms used by sites to ensure that the NFP data meets the annual HRSA/MIECHV Performance Report requirements. Currently, the MIECHV Database Administrator acquires the NFP HRSA data through a monthly export of text files from NFP. Having all HRSA required data within MTmechv will greatly improve the efficiency of completing the annual HRSA report. Currently, the System Manager has created the 3-, 9-, 15-, and 21-month NFP update forms. Those forms will collect injury and emergency room information on children within the program. The System Manager is waiting for HRSA approval of the data collection plan. Upon which the latest update forms will become available to NFP Home Visiting staff and some backfilling of historical data will occur for CY 2022.
The HRSA report is on an annual basis and required to maintain funding for HMF Home Visiting. In the past this project was a major undertaking requiring many spreadsheets and inefficient processes. Over the last year and a half, a SQL Server Report Services (SSRS) report has been in development for the automation of the Form 2 section of the HRSA report. Reports can be run from within MTmechv. It is the BSO’s goal to have this report completed by mid-summer and ready for the 2022 HRSA report.
In addition to reporting aggregations, each dataset within the report represents a Performance Measure from the HRSA report. Each dataset has both drill-down, drill-up capabilities, and groups the data by jurisdiction and home visitor. This report enables the user to easily find missing data and other data quality issues. For the Form 1 section of the HRSA report, R code has been developed to instantly aggregate and report on the many demographic aspects of the home visiting families. In addition, a SSRS report was recently completed and put into use which shows all Form 1 data. This report can be run by both program staff as well as those at home visiting jurisdictions. While this data report is quite wide, it is designed enable the user to easily find missing data through cell coloring and a missing data indicator field.
Children’s Special Health Services (CSHS)
The current Child Health Referral Information System (CHRIS) contract ended on June 30, 2022. CSHS and the BSO are working to address the path forward. In Spring 2022, DPHHS’s new Chief Information Officer (CIO) implemented a new Project Intake process. BSO and CSHS will follow that process in determining potential options. ECFSD has the option to engage in a one-year exigency renewal with the current vendor to allow for more time to procure a new system if needed.
- Because of frequent collaboration between the two programs, CSHS has engaged the Public Health & Safety Division (PHSD) Laboratory to identify Lab system requirements for consideration when procuring a new system to replace the CHRIS system.
- The CHRIS system is largely in Maintenance and Operations (M&O), with little enhancements or out-of-routine work being done. ECFSD is working to implement Okta authentication into the CHRIS System. The purpose is to provide an easier user experience when logging in to the system and provide industry-standard security.
- CSHS is exploring the option of consolidating systems and having Audiologists enter data directly into HiTrack for Newborn Screenings.
Also, within the Early Childhood Services Bureau (ECSB) in the ECFSD, there are three additional data systems:
- Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP): Currently designed to manage the food programs claiming and approval system. CACFP is exploring a cross-agency agreement with the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) to utilize the CACFP module in OPI’s existing system, aligning to the State IT Strategic Plan and enhancing inter-agency collaboration. The request for collaboration with OPI has been vetted through the CIO’s new Project Intake process and is now circulating within DPHHS TSD for approvals to move forward.
- Child Care Under The Big Sky (CCUBS): CCUBS is the primary data system used to manage childcare provider licensing, family eligibility for childcare assistance through the Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship Program, and contracts for professional services and staff support.
CCUBS is undergoing a large-scale modernization effort, which is focused on optimizing current infrastructure with enhancements designed to: streamline business processes; employ security best practices; and, better serve Montanans by replacing legacy processes and infrastructure with current technology.
- MedCompass: MedCompass is a care-management system currently under development to aid the Part C Early Intervention for Children with Developmental Disabilities program. The system is being developed in coordination with the MT Developmental Disabilities Program (DDP), and the MT Program for Automating and Transforming Healthcare (MPATH) Medicaid modernization project. It consolidates all program data, benefits, and care coordination for individual members into one place.
MedCompass aims to streamline and enhance Part C’s services, claims management, and the member experience while consolidating program processes and payment services into one system that directly connects with the MT Medicaid database. The member experience will be enhanced by providing members and their guardians access to their information and care coordination in one place through the member self-service portal. Current work focuses on creating and validating business reports through the MedCompass interface. Anticipated completion and deployment of these reports will occur in August 2022.
Other data capacity efforts include:
- Data Governance: The BSO Supervisor has been identified internally as the Data Governance Lead for ECFSD. In that effort, the BSO Supervisor, along with the Epidemiologist Supervisor and ECFSD leadership, are in the process of creating a Data Governance policy and procedure document. The Data Governance policy and procedure document will include data sharing policies, data release rules, governance guidance, and technical requirements for ECFSD. Anticipated drafting and implementation date is the end of CY 2022.
-
Agency enhancements: DPHHS has several enhancements in process that will aid non-SSDI funded systems and data.
- Snowflake: Currently, the State has various agencies which utilize Snowflake as a data repository and marketplace for easier data sharing and collaboration between internal stakeholders. This platform includes basic analytics, and facilitates easier transfer, connection, and access control for various data systems within an agency. The DPHHS Enterprise Data Warehouse (which contains MedCompass data and CCUBS data) is in the process of migrating to Snowflake infrastructure. DPHHS is currently analyzing further use cases to understand how the agency will be implementing the platform.
- Enterprise solution consolidation: To align with state strategic planning, DPHHS’s Technology Services Division is consolidating enterprise applications to provide a better service catalogue for all divisions. The consolidation and creation of a routinely updated service catalogue of both professional services and software will allow for easier collaboration of technology between divisions and allow for easier adoption of new technologies into ECFSD systems.
To Top
Narrative Search