A law and technology challenge for human services

Overview

The information revolution continues to unfold and the contemporary human services world is daily being changed by it.  This heralds the alteration of previous relationships between agencies and clients and among agencies themselves.  Perhaps the single most important outcome of this process is the emergence of a more transparent human service world.  Aggregated personal information about clients is becoming more public, while simultaneously we attach great significance to information privacy, especially from government institutions.

During the past decade, vast sums of federal and state public funds have been spent to automate the human service infrastructure. Many of these information technology solutions are designed and implemented by companies that may have varying degrees of understanding of best practices. Many of these systems utilize propriety technology to create automated case management workflows with hundreds of screens, dozens of reports and custom programming.

Current Market Perspective    

The federal government has spent billions of dollars underwriting the planning, development, and operation of state-based information technology systems that support the Child Support Enforcement, Child Welfare, Medicaid, and Food Stamps programs.  We spend these considerable resources and time in trying to serve each client on an individual basis. Ironically, the more detailed these personalized databases are, the more concerned we are about privacy infringement.  There is an essential need for easy, effective workflow automation in the human services field that takes into account efficiency and privacy. An information technology solution must address four crucial requirements: (1) accurate information gathering; (2) timely dissemination; (3) quality control, and (4) pass legal muster.

Accurate information gathering and timely dissemination involve accumulating and processing data in order to arrive at discrete outcomes. For example, in the adoption context, a typical intake requires a field social worker to interview individuals and record observations and recommendations in order to create a document which forms the basis of a report which is then filed in court. This workflow involves, at minimum, accurate recording, supervisory approval, document collaboration, record review and information exchanges between social service agencies, legal counsel and the court.

Quality control includes supervisory and external monitoring of not only the process of information gathering and dissemination, but also the implementation and utilization of best practices in the workflow solution. Using this example, not only must the field social worker conduct an accurate and thorough investigation, but the worker’s supervisor and administrators must monitor the process along each step of the way. All must conduct their day-to-day operations incorporating an ever-changing body of rules, regulations, and policies stemming from federal, state and local legal mandates. Agency lawyers, judges and outside counsel must have varying degrees of access to data, reports and recommendations. Ongoing monitoring, strict timelines and systematic accountability are critical. Data security and integrity is essential.

Goals
An automated case management solution for the social service field must accomplish the following:
•  leverage existing technology investments.
•  be designed to enhance and support strategic alliances with external partners.
•  utilize and exploit open standards.
•  comply with current and future eGovernment initiatives.
•  adhere to government usability and accessibility standards.
•  facilitate the easy and affordable transition from paper-based to electronic-based workflows.
•  provide information technology value to our clients while maintaining end-to-end security.
•  efficiently and inexpensively capture current paper-based information.
•  supply data which can be used easily by a variety of users.
•  emphasize accountability and tie resource allocation and initiatives to the concepts of agency effectiveness.

Every new technology creates its own responsibilities and dangers, and information technology is no exception. Notwithstanding the dramatic advances in communication technology, rather than resolving our communication concerns, many new ones have been created, and in some cases, have increased the onerous nature of existing ones. As the information superhighway continues to accelerate it is not so easily defined, controlled, or understood. Its sheer size and speed makes everything appear anonymous, yet we know too well that it is filled with billions of bytes of private information – with each byte representing a precious reputation.

The above article originally appeared in Policy & Practice 64(4), 21.