State & Local Governments: Digital Transformation for Health & Human Services

Over the last decade, DMI has proven to be a trustworthy partner to state and local government authorities, assisting with just about every facet of digital transformation projects across cities, states and transportation systems.

An excellent example of the breadth of DMI’s experience is found in our ongoing work with the State of Maryland’s ambitious, state-of-the-art IT program called Maryland’s Total Human-services Integrated Network, or MD THINK.

DMI serves as a priority partner supporting the state government with program management, business analysis, QA/testing, application development, data conversion, information security, etc.

About MD THINK

Maryland Total Human-Services Integrated Network (MD THINK) is a technological endeavor in the state of Maryland (MD) initiated to modernize and integrate multiple state health and human services targeted toward the most vulnerable citizens. The platform is hosted on a cloud service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and contains a Shared Data Repository (SDR) for the centralized storage and retrieval of consumer data. 

“The creation of a multi-program, multi-departmental shared human services platform is a major undertaking that will require a significant degree of technical, legal, and policy coordination among the participating state agencies,” says the State of Maryland’s CTO, Subramanian Muniasamy.

Example Project Work: CJAMS

The legacy Child Welfare and Adult Services application is combined with the Juvenile Services application owned and managed by MD DJS to constitute the Child, Juvenile and Adult Management Systems (CJAMS).

This project perfectly exemplifies DMI’s contribution to digital transformation within a state and local government context. The modernization effort will improve the support provided to MD residents and increase operational efficiencies. The new system intends to serve the following programs with eligibility, case management, enrollment, cross-program referrals, and analytics, and to be scalable and modular for additional use cases:  

• Child Welfare: Intake/CPS, In-Home Services, Out-of-Home Services, Foster Care, Permanency Services (Reunification, Adoption, and Guardianship), and Independent Living Services
• Adult Services: APS, Social Services to Adults, In-Home Aide Services, Project Home, Respite Care Program, Adult Foster Care, Guardianship, and Registered Nurse Services 
• Juvenile Services: Intake, Pre-Court Services, Detention, Community Detention, Court Legal Action, Probation, Commitment, Aftercare, Permanency Services (out of home placements including foster care, reunification), Independent Living, Legal Age Youth, Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement (APPLA), and Restitution

Currently, all MD counties have CJAMS live in production. Previously, the counties used paper and Excel spreadsheets to manage their services. CJAMS will provide a fully functional modern Case Management platform for these users. CJAMS covers the entire welfare management ecosystem with Intake, Investigation, Assessment, Eligibility, Case Planning, Placement, Referrals, Licensing, Federal Reporting, and Financials – all bundled into a single platform.

CJAMS also has a rich, full-feature mobile platform enabling caseworkers to access their cases anytime.

DMI’s Accomplishments in Maryland

The following is a summary of the accomplishments DMI has provided to the State of Maryland:

1. Improved workflows and reduced manual processes
2. Reduced maintenance costs associated with the upkeep of legacy applications and supporting infrastructure environments
3. Deployed a scalable application with a modern and flexible user interface
4. Advanced reporting capabilities with standard, built-in reports and the ability to generate user-customizable ad hoc reports
5. Developed a modern graphical user interface with value-added tools that will improve usability and efficiency
6. Provided access to devices intended to eliminate workarounds and enhance business processes, thus resulting in increased productivity and service quality
7. Delivered an advanced system for processing and reviewing documentation, which ensures sufficient documentation is submitted and associated with each case. Additionally, the system will provide an audit trail for the review process of those documentations
8. Added notification and reporting features that ensure the delivery of inter-agency messages in an accurate and a timely manner
9. Helped optimize the number of needed staff and provide user mobility and access to applications from intelligent devices in a secure way, including a portal to submit and manage their cases online from anywhere and around the clock
10. Helped build a Business Rules engine that drives and decides Enrollment and Eligibility for each individually processed case in a traditional manner, ensuring equal and fair processing for each subject based on defined regulations and rules. This minimizes human errors, time, and the workforce needed to address complaints and case reevaluation requests.

About DMI

No matter what phase of the digital transformation journey you are on, DMI would love to share our expertise and help you understand where your public sector organization might need to go. At DMI, we help state and local governments leverage digital modernization to deliver improved citizen experience, process efficiency, and compliance through a holistic, human-centric approach.

Visit us at DMINC.com/state-local or email us at Engage@DMInc.com.