Description
The Executive Office of Health And Human Services (EOHHS) is the largest secretariat in the State with 24,000 employees across 17 individual agencies and a $13.5 billion annual budget, servicing 3 million people.
Dept. Of Social Services
Office of Child Care Service
Dept. Of Transitional Assistance
Office Of Medicaid
Dept. Of Youth Services
Dept. of Mental Retardation
Dept. Of Public Health
Dept. Of Veteran Services
Rehabilitation Commission
Commission for the Blind
Health Care Finance & Policy
Comm. for Deaf & Hard of Hearing
Dept. of Elder Affairs
Chelsea Soldiers’ Home
Office of Refugees and Immigrants
Dept. Of Mental Health
Holyoke Soldiers’ Home
Approach
This large-scale four-phased project involved the transformation of manual paper-based procedures into agency-specific processes that were automated, integrated, productive, and measurable. This multi-phased transformation reduced and eliminated repetitive administrative tasks, so employees had more time to focus on health & human services to more citizens. This project involved:
Defining and implementing data collection and analysis requirements
Interviewing subject matter experts and key stakeholders at multiple agencies
Developing an enterprise framework to facilitate the transformation
Establishing process control gates (for workflow governance) to ensure regulatory compliance with state and federal laws (and internal policies)
Performing gap analysis between the status-quo and desired outcomes
Establishing and meeting project timelines, milestones, and leading project management
Formulation and delivery of training and communication materials
Results
Results from this project included:
Increased productivity by 45%
Increased leadership visibility and control using real-time workflow dashboards
Significantly reduced errors and improved customer service
All project deliverables were achieved on time, on budget, and recognized state-wide.
The figure below illustrates one of the optimized processes used by 17 agencies, where we led the process improvement and change management effort affecting their employees, the processes, and the state-wide system.
Our firm also provided support and training to employees of EOHHS in process design, system configuration, and administration as well as end-user software training.
Project success was measured by the speed of adoption from each agency, increased governance and reporting, effectiveness communications to employees, cost savings, reduced hiring errors, and improved compliance.
Stakeholders and subject matter experts (employees) were engaged from the start of this project. Employees from all 17 agencies were involved throughout this transformation initiative. We listened and facilitated collaboration among every participant.
Compliance control gates were defined in collaboration with compliance officials, and we integrated the compliance controls into each recruiting process. Each compliance task was implemented simply and practically manner that did not burden any of the involved employees.
Deliverables
Led visioning sessions with participants from all 17 agencies
Defined data to be gathered and implemented data collection and analysis.
Customized training materials
User training classes
Process maps that captured the current workflows at the start of the project
Optimized process maps that identified opportunities for improvement
Train the trainer documentation and classes
Gap analyses that guided implementation
Weekly project meetings with agency leaders, program managers, and the Chief Information Officer
System functionality requirements
Project management services to ensure achievement of timelines and milestones
Interviewed key stakeholders and subject matter experts in each agency