As you plan for your organization’s future technology needs, it will be useful for you understand exactly how HHS-Connect will work, and how you can prepare for its arrival. Tech News recently spoke with Kamal Bherwani, HHS-CIO and Executive Director of HHS-Connect, to learn more about this innovative system.

How HHS-Connect Came To Be

Over the years, each New York City health and human service agency has developed its own proprietary case management systems to meet its service delivery and reporting needs; often in response to unique, often contradictory funding source mandates.  While these disparate systems have fulfilled the agencies’ reporting requirements, they were never designed to communicate with each other. “Each agency has grown differently, and independently, essentially in silos,” Bherwani says, “Some of the systems in place are now over 20 years old.” 

Practically, this means that it isn’t easy to compile a holistic view of the services that a client is receiving.  An applicant for assistance from more than one City agency is essentially required to provide the same information repeatedly each time he or she interacts with a new agency.  A case worker serving that client has very little information or insight readily available into that client’s history: what other services he or she is receiving, or what other needs he or she might have.

The absence of a comprehensive picture is compounded when delivering services to a family.  It is difficult to get an accurate understanding of the family’s overall needs and condition and as a whole.  As a result, the overall efficacy of the services provided may be impacted.

The HHS agencies involved in this initiative service a population of approximately two million people. Among the challenges created by multiple, disparate case management systems, is an increased level of worker frustration. Case workers do not have ready access to critical client information and must spend valuable time entering basic client information instead of providing assessments and services. The lack of sufficient information and supports causes unnecessary worker dissatisfaction and may be a contributing factor to high turnover rates.  In turn, this reduces the City’s capacity to provide a trained workforce to deliver the appropriate level of services to the City’s diverse client population.

To address these issues, the City created HHS-Connect to rationalize and integrate the way the City provides services across multiple agencies.  Many of these improved processes are possible given recent advances in technology and the Administration’s willingness to embrace those technologies to solve long-term business problems.  “Our goal is to re-engineer how the City handles case management, so that we can deliver services more effectively,” explains Bherwani.

HHS-Connect will provide an ability to link client data across all City HHS and related agencies. This will be provide case workers, clients and oversight agencies with a single, unified client record upon which to determine the appropriate service delivery levels and methods.  HHS-Connect will allow agencies to focus on their core competencies, and allow case workers to concentrate on meeting the needs of the people they serve while simultaneously reducing their workload for repetitive data-entry tasks. 

One of the greatest differences under HHS-Connect will be the way a client file is organized.   Instead of information being maintained separately at each human service agency (silos), information will be organized around the client who’s receiving services (client-centric). Information about that client will span agencies, giving the caseworker a inclusive view of a client, including his or her needs and services outside the worker’s immediate interaction with that client. 

HHS-Connect will leverage the technology resources already in place at DoITT and other City agencies.   As DoITT Commissioner Paul Cosgrave has said: "Simply put, HHS-Connect transforms the interaction between New Yorkers and the agencies that serve them, by taking a customer-centric approach to the accessibility, transparency, and accountability of health and human services."

Of course, privacy and confidentiality are major concerns.  The basic tenets of HHS-Connect will require the highest levels of security and access control to all types of data.  The information will be managed to respect an individual’s privacy and provide greater accountability and tracking.  In fact, the very process of organizing and consolidating the information and its access points will help ensure that the appropriate levels of security are applied across all agencies and workers.  In addition, HHS-Connect will align with the security requirements and enterprise architecture standards set forth by DoITT; furthering the implementation of PlanIT, New York City’s first-ever comprehensive technology strategy for coordinated, effective and efficient citywide IT implementation.

What HHS-Connect Means For You – A Vision of the Future

When HHS-Connect is in place, your nonprofit organization will be able to interact with the City more effectively, and get faster access to the information your case workers need. 

Imagine being able to pull up a virtual case folder on any client and seeing all the information you need to serve that person effectively. When a client’s information changes, you’ll be alerted instantly. Your organization will have less paper to manage, and will save time locating and recording data for each client.

HHS-Connect may also provide you with better management and accounting tools and reports to help you better justify and demonstrate the value of the programs and services you provide.

HHS-Connect is a new system that will link more than a dozen city agencies so caseworkers can share client information without compromising confidentiality.

Paul J. Cosgrave was appointed Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in June   2006. 

Kamal Bherwani was appointed Chief Information Officer for Health and Human Services and Executive Director of HHS-Connect by Mayor Bloomberg in January, 2008.

Legacy Systems. Each Agency developed its own systems. Some of these older systems are mainframes, some are more modern web-based systems. HHS-Connect will develop standards to allow these systems to talk to each other so data can be shared.

NYC Health and Human Services Agencies include: Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), Department for the Aging (DFTA), Department of Correction (DOC), Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), Department of Homeless Services (DHS), Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), Department of Probation (DOP), Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), Human Resources Administration (HRA).

Other related agencies that may also participate in the program include the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Department of Small Business Services (SBS), the Department of Education (DOE) and the Department of Finance (DOF), among others.

Thin Client Computers have a fraction of the computing power of standard business computers. Most significant processing is done on the server, while the computer is focused on simply convening input and output from the user to the server and back.

Mayor Bloomberg signed Executive Order #114 on March 18, 2008 affirming his support for HHS-Connect and detailing the responsibilities associated with putting this concept into action over the next few years.