Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

1. Mecklenburg County, North Carolina A County Developed Interoperable System A County Developed Interoperable System JANUARY 20, 2009 Presented by:Richard W. “Jake” Jacobsen, Jr., Executive in ResidenceInstitute for Social CapitalUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC)

2. Mecklenburg County, North Carolina • Land mass is 546 square miles. Its county seat is Charlotte. • 2008 City Population 695,995 • 2008 County Population 902,803 • MSA 1.7 mil. • 100-mile 6.9 mil. • 1st most educated workforce • 1st America’s most livable communities • Cost of living below national average • City, County and State AAA bond rating www.charlottechamber.com

3. The Competitors County Services funded through property taxes, federal and state revenue, local sales taxes, fees and other sources are provided to meet the community's priorities as defined by the Board of County Commissioners. • − Board of Commissioners • − Elections • − Sheriff, Courts, and Jails • − Taxes • − Property and Real Estate • − Environment • − Park & Recreation • − Building Code • − Employment • − Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools • − Central Piedmont Community College • − Social Services, Health, Mental Health, Indigent Hospitalization, Vital Records

4. Department of Social Services • August 4, 1919: The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners and the Board of Education organized the County’s Department of Public Welfare. • The department was located in the Charlotte City Hall. The staff included the superintendent, Mr. Lucius H. Ranson and a secretary. The budget for the first fiscal year was $2,239.76.

5. Department of Social Services • 1921: NC General Assembly enacts first Welfare Law, proscribing the duties of the Superintendent, including: • Care & supervision of the poor, and administration of the poor funds • Monitor the condition of persons discharged from hospitals for the insane and other State institutions • Oversight of all prisoners in the County on parole and probation (adult and juvenile) • Oversight of all dependent and delinquent children, especially those on parole or probation • Promote wholesome recreation in the County and enforce laws regulating commercial amusement • Assist the State board in finding employment for the unemployed • Creation of a 3-member Black Advisory Board to study welfare problems of Blacks and assist the County in serving them Lucius H. Ranson,Superintendent of Public Welfare

6. Department of Social Services • Currently, North Carolina General Statutes 108A-14:Act as an agent for the Social Services Commission and the NC Department of Health and Human Services to: • Administer programs of public assistance, • Investigate reports of child abuse and neglect and take appropriate actions to protect children at risk, and • Investigate reports of abuse, neglect and exploitation of disabled adults and take appropriate actions to protectthese individuals.

7. “DSS, THEY WILL DO ANYTHING” QUESTION: WHO PROVIDESMASS CARE & SHELTERING? • To: The NCDIRECT Mailing List • Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 • From: A DSS Director • Subject: DSS Requirement to Provide Mass Care? • Can anyone point me to the legislation and/or policy that MANDATES DSS to be the agency that provides Mass Care and Sheltering in a disaster? I can’t find it. • Reply: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 • From: An Old Time DSS Director • “it is under the same legislation that basically reads…. Let’s get DSS, they will do anything – unclaimed dead people fall under that one too.”

8. Services provided by the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services: • Community Resources • Adult Medicaid, State /County Special Assistance, and Food Stamps • Adult Social Work • Bilingual and Special Needs • Child Welfare District Operations: Intake, Investigations, Family Intervention and Permanency Planning • Child Welfare Non-District Operations: Intake/After Hours/Conflict of Interest/ Facilities, Sex Abuse, Nursing Unit, Interstate Requests, Foster Care, Court Ordered Visits and Adoption • Citizens Information and Referral Call Center • Community Resources Office • Compliance and Quality Assurance • Contracts Administration • Customer Service Group Call Center • Facilities Services • Family & Children’s Medicaid • Finance/Accounting • First Floor Service and Information • Food Stamps • Fraud Investigations • Graphic Services • Human Resources Liaisons • Information Services • Just1Call • Low Income Energy Assistance • Mecklenburg Transportation System • NC Health Choice • Organizational Development • Refugee Assistance • Senior Nutrition • Transportation Scheduling Call Center • Work First • Work First Employment Services 45 different businesses!

9. Department of Social Services Public Assistance Caseloads FOOD & NUTRITION SERVICES: November 2008: 39,971 cases (11.6% increase since November 2007) MEDICAID & NC HEALTH CHOICE: November 2008: 87,685 cases (12.4% % increase since November 2007) UNDUPLICATED CUSTOMERS: November 2008: 155,071 customers (11.2% % increase since November 2007)

10. Department of Social Services • Approximately 17.16% of Mecklenburg County residents were receiving public assistance in November 2008. This includes 38.2% of children and 9.9% of adults residing in Mecklenburg County.

11. Department of Social Services DSS Call Centers • The DSS Call Centers answered 602,664 calls, or an average of just over 50,000 calls per month from July 2007 through June 2008. • This resulted in 157,003 transactions completed by the Call Centers, or an average of over 13,000 transactions (customer address changes, etc) per month.

12. Since the late 1980's Mecklenburg County has aggressively pursued automation within Health and Human Services with these specific benefits in mind. • Improved service delivery to customers • Improved staff productivity • Improved management competence

13. DSS Wide Area Network

14. To improve case management software systems, Mecklenburg County’s Department of Social Services partnered with the County’s Information Services & Technology Department (IST) to develop an Integrated Social Services Information (ISSI).

15. ISSI Background • ISSI is a full featured case management system developed by IST for the Department of Social Services. • ISSI was developed as a collaborative effort between DSS Supervisors, ISD, IST, and most importantly front line staff. • ISSI has replaced 4 legacy applications. • Fraud • AIMS (Automated Income Maintenance System) • SAMII (Services for Adults Management Information) • CWII (Child Welfare II)

16. DSS – Suite of Integrated Applications The integrated applications suite includes the Front Desk Registration System (FDRS), the Mecklenburg Interviewing Tool (MIT), MealBytes, TransWeb, Just1Call, and the pinnacle of our automation efforts, the Integrated Social Services Information System (ISSI).

17. ISSI Implementation • Fraud: November 2002 • Adult Social Work: November 2003 • Adult Medicaid: March 2004 • Economic Services: June 2004 • Child Welfare: July 2007

18. ISSI – Current Usage • Classic ISSI and ISSI-Child Welfare have over 1,100 users at Mecklenburg County. • ISSI-Child Welfare is also being used in Buncombe County. • ISSI can be run on a users desktop or remotely via Terminal Server.

19. Benefits of ISSI • ISSI provides total integration for the main service areas at DSS. • Data is entered once and is available to all service areas that use ISSI • ISSI provides a holistic view of DSS Clients • Workers can view information on line and are not as dependent on the physical folder • Without ISSI the creation of the Call Center would not have been possible

20. Classic ISSI Costs • More than 50 DSS and IST staff were involved in the development of Classic ISSI • Took over 4 years to develop • Cost was $6 million

21. ROI Figures for Classic ISSI(From the Estimated Return on Investment for ISSI compiled by the Office of Planning and Evaluation at DSS)

22. ISSI – CW Costs • More than 40 DSS and IST staff were involved in the development of ISSI – Child Welfare • Took 3 years to develop • Cost was $2.6 million • 8 contractors • 22 County Staff

23. ROI – ISSI Child Welfare(From the ROI - Labor and Benefit Study completed by theIST Project Management Division/BPM Group)

24. ISSI-CW Intangible Benefits • Shared Common Database • Improved Service • Newer and Better Technology • Standard for future Application Development • Easier to Deploy • Easier to provide remote access

25. ISSI – CW Project Expectations • Accommodate federal benchmarks where possible • Include the Intake Referral form • Have a history of investigations • Include elements of MRS (Multiple Response System Tracking) • Incorporate necessary Structured Decision Making Language/Data Elements

26. ISSI – CW Interfaces • Upload to the state for Day Sheets • Export data for upload to the County Finance System for Adoption Assistance and Foster Care Board Payments.

27. ISSI–CW and How We Did It… • Project manager from IST and a Customer Sponsor from Both Counties • Management Team with representatives from both counties • Design Team made up of supervisors and end users from both counties • System Architect and development team with resources from both counties • Contract staff provided expertise and supplemented existing IT staff • Data Base Administrator and a Technical Services Project Manager • Utilized teleconferencing tools for meetings between the two counties • Utilized web based code sharing tools • Vendor developed computer based training (CBT) • Very importantly - We followed our System Development Life Cycle throughout all phases of the project

28. Automation…In July 1994 DSS had: Automation…In July 2007 DSS has: • 40 dumb terminals, no PCs, no networks,no file servers, no E-mail, and no voice mail 1,200 FTEs • $54 million budget • 2 major business sites • State planned to add 297 terminals; • DSS planned to add 278 personal computers • a fully integrated case management system w/ CWS being added in 8/07 • 1,099 FTEs • 4 major sites and over 50 satellite offices within Mecklenburg County • 1,423 desktop PCs and 198 laptops • 72 County owned network printers • 60 IKON Multifunction devices • 226 desktop printers • 15 custom developed software applications programmed by IST • $79 million budget • 35 custom applications by ISD • 1,093 voicemail boxes • 6 Call Centers (CIR, CSG, MTS, CPS, ESD Managed Care, and APS)

29. Automation… Today, DSS Has Gone From: • coax cabling, to Arcnet, to Ethernet, to wireless LANS and WANS…. From hard wired PCs to air cards… from Daytimers, to automated calendars, to PDAs, to Blackberries….. From Index Cards…. to siloed systems…. to full blown integrated Case Management systems. • no nets…. to Internets…. to Intranets ….to Extra Nets. From calendar hunting for Conference Room... to automated reservations… • FoxBase, to Fox Pro, to Visual Basic, to .Net • SYSM (Mainframe E-mail), to GroupWise, to Outlook… • modems, to microwaves, to fiber….. • being completely tethered… to partially un-tethered…. and soon to be completely un-tethered through teleworking and mobility.

30. Terminal Server It is the blue blades!

31. Internet Future untethering

32. Integrated Social Services Information (ISSI) Child Welfare August 2007 • Web-based Child Welfare system • Designed in collaboration with Buncombe County, leveraging best practices from each county • Integration of agency data through a shared common database • Improved coordination of services • Future worker mobility • Framework for future development • State-mandated tools

33. Impact of ISSI (BEFORE) • Separate databases for: • Economic Services Division (AIMS) • Adult Medicaid (AIMS) • Adult Social Work Services (SAMI) • Fraud • Youth and Family Services (CWS)

34. Impact of ISSI (NOW) • One database that includes: • Economic Services Division • Adult Medicaid • Adult Social Work Services • Fraud • Youth and Family Services • Sophisticated, state-of-the art system • .Dot Net, teleworking and mobility

35. There is no production downtime! • All Letters and Forms can be faxed or emailed from your desk! • Forms will be preformatted for window envelopes • Narratives have Spell Check, BOLD, ITALIC, and Underline capabilities • You can view/sort Narratives from newest to oldest or by other criteria while you are typing in a current narrative

36. Narratives will not be lost should you need to exit the screen (to answer a phone call, etc.) • You will be able to bookmark screens in ISSI much the same way you mark a favorites on the internet • ISSI will keep track of your MRU (Most Recently Used) cases • ISSI will send automatic notification (alerts) of significant changes, to all associated workers

37. ISSI-CW Design Team

38. FUTURE • Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) • Imaging • Virtual Office • Virtual People • RepRap

39. “There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.” - Niccolò Machiavelli

40. Mecklenburg County, North Carolina A County Developed Interoperable System A County Developed Interoperable System JANUARY 20, 2009 Presented by:Richard W. “Jake” Jacobsen, Jr., Executive in ResidenceInstitute for Social CapitalUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC)