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Case Studies
Case Management Data Integration and Reporting System Creates Efficient Tracking of Costs and Services
Project at a Glance |
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RDA quickly developed a solution for HSC that integrated multiple data sources, automated data import functionality and added a security component, creating a comprehensive, cost-saving patient care and financial management repository for all services delivered to special needs pediatric populations in the District of Columbia. |
About Our Client
The HSC Foundation focuses on health care programs that are innovative in the financing, organization and delivery of medical and social services to children with special needs.
Historically, the Foundation has served as the parent organization for two nonprofit entities: The HSC Pediatric Center, and Health Services for Children with Special Needs, Inc. In partnership with these entities and other community agencies and organizations, the Foundation is dedicated to maintaining the highest standard of service while striving to improve conditions for children with special needs. The HSC Foundation serves children and families affected by the full spectrum of special needs, including physical, mental, behavioral and development.
The HSC Pediatric Center (HSC) is dedicated exclusively to providing rehabilitation and transitional care to children and adolescents from infancy through twenty-one years of age. The nonprofit hospital is one of only twenty facilities nationwide to offer such services. The HSC Pediatric Center is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organization (JCAHO) and CARF (The Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission).
Background
HSC uses an automated case management product called CaseTrakker to track costs and services that HSC either delivers or manages on behalf of patients or customers it is responsible for. CaseTrakker is integrated with HSC's RIMS claims processing system that is used by the Health Services for Children with Special Needs (HSCSN) HMO on the health insurance and managed care side of its business.
Other data sources needed be integrated, including: District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), District of Columbia Department of Health, District of Columbia Medical Assistance Administration (MAA) - D.C.'s state Medicaid agency, and from Caremark, HSC's pharmacy benefit management (PBM) partner. These data sources are updated on different schedules, and downloaded or delivered through various means, and in different formats. Additionally, these data are accessed by an end-user population of approximately 60 to 90 professionals.
Prior to this project, all integration was performed by a specific individual in an "ad-hoc" manner. There was no uniform system dedicated to this function.
To address these data management and reporting challenges, HSC asked RDA to develop a solution to uniformly integrate the various data sources, define a "gold standard" for the content and definition of specific fields, identify and standardize report formats and queries run against the data, and provide a front-end delivery reporting suite and/or tools to facilitate access to the data by the end-user community.
Solution Detail
The solution RDA developed for HSC involved integrating multiple disparate internal and external data from providers, pharmacy benefit management, case management, claims processing and state Medicaid sources. The RDA team was tasked with building a comprehensive patient care and financial management repository associated with all services delivered to the entire District of Columbia pediatric patient population with profound, special needs.
Our team defined the data dictionary, designed the data warehouse, created standard and ad hoc reports, and automated data import functionality. The system supports 80 users across the enterprise.
The solution was delivered in six weeks start to finish, and was brought in under budget. There is an opportunity for follow-on work to expand functionality by adding data sources and developing additional reports.
Our team began the project by conducting an analysis phase that focused on:- Identifying and documenting the various data sources.
- Developing "use cases" that describe the process of gathering the data into a central location and the reporting process.
- Defining the reporting requirements and alternative reporting tool options.
After this, our team defined the system architecture to determine the components that would be used in the system. The construction phase followed the finalization and approval of the defined systems architecture.
Benefits
RDA delivered a comprehensive data integration and reporting solution that enables HSC to more efficiently and effectively track its costs and services. The RDA solution reduced HSC's dependency on individual resources by providing a complete system accessible to multiple users within the organization. HSC also now has a security component to protect data, which was previously lacking.
Technically Speaking
The solution was built with Microsoft .NET, Active Directory, SQL Server, SQL Server Reporting Services, SharePoint, and Data Transformation Services technologies.
The architecture of this system utilizes several design patterns for communications layers as well as data mapping. The SharePoint GUI and Batch import Interface programs access the same interfaces; therefore, requirements and code are defined, built, and tested in one place. Furthermore, by utilizing application interfaces, the executed commands are independent of the calling applications, making them much simpler and easier to maintain.
We divided the architecture into four logical components: Data Source Interface programs, SQL Reporting Service, SQL Data Store, and SharePoint Web parts. The lines on the architecture diagram represent the following process flow:
1.0 - A scheduler job executes the command to import data from various data sources.
1.1- After the data is available in data interface programs, the data is then cleaned and mapped into the data warehouse domain model.
1.2 - The data warehouse domain model saves the imported information to a data warehouse data store.
1.3 - A SQL Server reporting services job is invoked to build static reports based on specific triggers such as "On File upload," "Each Sunday @ 9:00 a.m.", etc.
1.4 - The SharePoint Web part and SQL Reporting Services collaborate together to build a list of available reports for user logging in the SharePoint team website.
1.5 - Users then can select a link in the SharePoint portal to download/view report from their workstations.
The architecture described above is at a high level and the various layers that it encompasses may be compressed or expanded based on the complexity of logic.
