Increase organizational efficiency, performance, and effectiveness

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Success Measure:  Complete 100 percent of HIPAA risk assessments on DSHS information assets by July 2019.

 

Action Plan: 

• Perform risk assessments on covered DSHS systems.
• Conduct risk analyses on Department information assets.
• Implement corrective actions that arise from risk analyses.

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CLIENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, SAFETY, and RISK MANAGEMENT

 

Ensure the protection of confidential client information and enhance data security.

Decision Package: 150 – PL – GE – Enterprise Security Modernization

 

Importance: DSHS manages many information technology systems that capture, store and provide access to data, including highly confidential and regulated information such as client and employee Social Security numbers and financial information, as well as medical and mental health information. DSHS must, by law, protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of this data. Improving information security reduces risk to the agency and clients we serve, increases regulatory compliance, and supports the mission of transforming lives.

 

The following success measures and associated actions are dependent on funding for staff and technical resources. 

 

Success Measure: Implement data recovery services that give DSHS the ability to recover from catastrophic disaster or data corruption such as ransomware by June 2020.

 

Action Plan:  

• Increase storage capacity at Quincy Data Center to improve disaster recovery capability.
• Hire one Information Technology Specialist 5 for management of the CommVault backup solution.
• Configure all remaining critical IT systems to back up databases and files to the CommVault solution at the Quincy Data Center to improve disaster recovery capability.
• Develop and implement a testing plan to periodically ensure restoration of the data is functioning as intended.

 

Success Measure: Implement an enterprise information systems tool and resources to detect malicious or harmful activity on systems that comply with regulations and secure our systems more effectively by June 2020.

 

Action Plan:

• Purchase licenses and hardware for a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool.
• Hire one IT Systems/App Specialist 6 to administer the SIEM tool.
• Hire three IT Specialist 5s to analyze, validate, respond to alerts and events generated by the Security Information and Event Management tool, and backup the administrator function.

Success Measure: Implement a software inventory tool that will allow DSHS to delete unneeded software; ensure that only authorized software can run; and ensure all software is current, patched and licensed appropriately by June 2020.

 

Action Plan:

• Procure software asset management tool.
• Hire two IT Specialist 5 analysts to administer the system and act on the information provided by the tool.
• Analyze agency software assets and validate license usage, identify insecure unauthorized software.
• Close corrective action plans identified as being satisfied through this implementation.

Success Measure: Develop a segmented DSHS network that will meet federal guidelines and achieve compliance standards June 2020.

 

Action Plan:

• Procure a micro-segmentation tool to help with security.
• Use design and deployment services to architect the environment.
• Implement segmentation based on design.

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Increase the security of customer information.

Decision Package: 060 – PL - Q3 – Critical Systems Risk Mitigation

 

Importance: Federal and state laws and agency policy require the protection of sensitive customer data. Our customers also trust we will safeguard their personal information. This is a challenging task in an era in which individual identities and their associated information are marketable commodities. We must continually protect this information through constant vigilance, proactive measures and anticipation of future threats without limiting the ability to share data in the pursuit of customer service and department goals.

 

Success Measure: Implement 80 percent of the prioritized mitigation strategies to decrease the display and/or inappropriate disclosure of Social Security and bank account numbers by April 2020.

 

Action Plan: 

• Continue to engage the interdisciplinary team and stakeholders to identify how to appropriately minimize the collection and exposure of sensitive customer data.
• Continue to communicate and collaboratively work with Economic Services Administration (ESA) Security team, Enterprise Technology Security team, Washington Technology Solutions, Division of Child Support Security team, Health Benefit Exchange Security team and participate in the development of enterprise security initiatives.
• Increase coordination with federal and state partners to maintain information security. In addition, regularly communicate with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Affordable Care Act Security team to ensure it is aware of project’s security initiatives and activities.

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Protect sensitive client data.

Importance: DSHS integrates sensitive, identified client data from multiple DSHS and partner agency data systems. Federal and state laws and agency policies mandate protection of this data.

 

Success Measure: Ensure there are no breaches of client confidentiality in the operation of any data system or application containing sensitive client data each year.

 

Action Plan:

• Follow policies and procedures that meet federal, state and agency data security and privacy requirements.
• Prioritize and mitigate high-priority security gaps; timelines will be developed for addressing lower priority gaps.
• Implement organizational changes in the handling of identified client data to use non-identified limited data sets for internal analyses not requiring access to direct client identifiers.

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STAFF TIMEINESS

 

Conduct timely assessments to ensure that services authorized are adequate in supporting identified health and welfare needs.

Decision Packages: 040 – PL – ET - CARE Modernization, 040 – ML – OU - Forecast Cost-Utilization, 040 – ML – 93 - Mandatory Caseload Adjustments, 040 – ML – 94 - Mandatory Workload Adjustment, 040 – ML – DQ - RHC - Compliance, 040 – PL – 4A - Financial Eligibility Capacity, 040 – PL – 4V - Critical Services and Supports

 

Importance: Assessments are used to identify a person’s health and welfare needs, determine financial and functional eligibility and the service(s) a person is authorized to receive. It is important to complete assessments timely because they affect a person’s life and because it improves service delivery.

 

Success Measure: Maintain a 95 percent on-time completion rate of initial assessments by June 2019 to ensure support needs are evaluated timely.

 

See Chart ADX.24: Percent of initial assessments completed on-time for clients with developmental disabilities requesting services

 

Action Plan: 

• Provide a monthly assessment timeliness report to regional leadership teams.
• Review performance data quarterly with regional executive management teams.
• Provide case resource managers training and ongoing support to better equip them with knowledge and skills to administer an assessment.

 

Success Measure: Maintain a 99 percent on-time completion rate of annual reassessments to review the effectiveness of authorized services and determine if support needs have changed by June 2019.

See Chart ADX.1: Percent of annual reassessments completed on-time for clients with developmental disabilities requesting services

 

Action Plan: 

• Provide a monthly assessment timeliness report to regional leadership teams.
• Review performance metric data quarterly with regional executive management teams.
• Provide case resource managers training and ongoing support to better equip them with knowledge and skills to administer an assessment.

 

Success Measure: Maintain on-time completion of annual individual habilitation plans of individuals residing at a residential habilitation center at 95 percent or greater each quarter by June 2019.

 

Action Plan:

• Provide a monthly report regarding timeliness of completing individual habilitation plans.
• Quarterly review a sample of individual habilitation plans at each residential habilitation center to ensure they are updated within a year of the individual habilitation plans.
• Provide residential habilitation centers with a quarterly report showing the trend of timeliness in completing individual habilitation plans.

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Increase efficiency and timeliness of background check services through continuous improvement.

Importance: BCCU processes thousands of background checks daily.  Many background checks have associated forms, phone calls, emails, legal documents and research BCCU must process in conjunction with the Background Check Authorization Form to ensure the most thorough and accurate results are reported.  BCCU strives to apply continuous improvement principles and process improvement techniques to deliver the most effective and efficient customer service. It is also important that BCCU assist applicants in removing employment barriers that result from unclear or outdated criminal history information.    

 

Success Measure:

• Decrease turnaround time for applicants submitting additional information (court documents and affidavits) from an average of three business days in June 2018 to two business days by June 2021.
• Decrease the average number of days it takes to process general name and date of birth background checks from an average of five business days in June 2018 to two business days by June 2021.

 

Action Plan:    

• Increase hours that processing staff are available to answer technical questions regarding court documents and applicant affidavits to four hours per day to decrease incorrect/incomplete records submitted and voicemails from applicants.
• Monitor monthly the average numbers of days it takes for BCCU to process general name and date of birth background checks and additional information (court documents and affidavits). 
• Hold stakeholder meetings with various programs to continually increase awareness of BCCU processes and identifying any impacts to both internal and external customers
• Conduct internal and external customer outreach via surveys or other methods regarding the new online background check system to identify future enhancements to processes.

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DATA

 

Strengthen and standardize behavioral health data collection and analysis to ensure consistent, reliable data reporting across the behavioral healthcare continuum.

Importance: By developing an integrated research, data and analysis process, Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) will improve accountability and increase transparency of information, management decisions and policy development. This effort also will strengthen the management of change, monitoring of service delivery quality and outcome analysis for the entire organization.

 

Success Measure: Implement standard and consistent processes for collecting and analyzing data across the behavioral health continuum by June 2019.

 

Action Plan:

The Behavioral Health Administration will work with DSHS divisions to:

• Develop an inventory of performance monitoring and reporting within the system, and working with primary stakeholders, identify system-wide performance and reporting requirements.
• Develop an overall accountability framework that outlines performance reporting requirements for key target audiences, including timing, indicators, and data collection responsibilities and creation of an action plan to implement the accountability framework and performance measurement system.

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Budget requests will be increasingly informed by the use of analytics.

Importance: Decisions grounded in well-researched, professionally analyzed data help the Office of Financial Management (OFM) and legislative staff make the highest value funding decisions on behalf of the state when creating operating and capital budget proposals.

 

Success Measure: 100 percent of DSHS decision packages will have analytic-supported data by October 2019.

 

Action Plan: 

• Align the capital budget process with the operating budget process to capture efficiencies, increase communication and leverage talent across the organizations starting in June 2018.
• Integrate the Behavioral Health Administration’s fiscal and analytical team with the Financial Services Division, Central Budget Office and Research and Data Analysis Division (RDA) to inform decision-making, increase communication and leverage talent across the organizations starting October 2018.
• Develop a vetting or review process for agency decision packages by January 2019.

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Develop and implement business intelligence infrastructure to support data-driven decisions and provide program self-service.  

Importance: The ability for programs to have real-time, self-service access to critical data, with analytical support as needed, will strengthen data-driven decision-making throughout the organization. 

 

Success Measure:

• Research and procure a business intelligence (BI) system that meets the needs of all user roles across the organization by August 2019.
• Fully implement a BI system to include automated reporting functions by June 2021.

 

Action Plan: 

• Establish a workgroup to research the functionality of available platforms and identify the needs of user roles across the organization, including technical/ security staff, report developers, and end users.
• Procure and deploy enterprise BI software that meets the business requirements for Economic Services Administration (ESA).
• Implement a data governance model to develop shared decision-making, define authority and management of shared data assets, and facilitate and support development of BI capacity at enterprise and division levels.
• Establish a Business Intelligence User’s Group to promote skill development in business intelligence throughout ESA.

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QUALITY ASSURANCE

 

Improve the behavioral health system through integration of health services and workforce development.

Decision Packages: 030 - PL - ESH/WSU - Psychiatric Residency Program, 030 - PL – RH Direct Care Nursing Staff Backup, 030 - PL - RW – Forensic Training Programs

 

Importance: Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) faces a shortage of medical professionals to ensure adequate and appropriate staffing, quality patient care, safety of patients and staff and staff retention.

 

Through residency programs, internships, fellowships and workforce development, BHA hopes to retain individuals when they complete these programs. Having had the opportunity to work for the units, new medical professionals will have a greater awareness of the work environment and the significance of the services they can provide.

 

Success Measure: Develop new and improve existing medical professional development internship and residency programs by June 2021.

 

Action Plan:

• Retain the majority of graduates from a BHA internship or fellowship program that teaches the practice of forensic psychology.
• Create a collaboration between Eastern State Hospital and Washington State University to create a psychiatric residency program.
• Begin providing in-house preceptors for new and existing staff creating an opportunity for education, career growth, and job success at Western State Hospital.

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Continually improve DSHS organizational performance through strong management practices and by building a DSHS quality management culture.

Importance: In September 2013, Governor Jay Inslee issued Executive Order 13-04 which stated, in part, that “Washington state and its public servants are committed to the continuous improvement of services, outcomes and performance of state government, to realize a safe, beautiful and healthy place to live and work.” 

 

Success Measure: By November 2019, maintain or improve DSHS performance by 2 percent on select DSHS Employee Survey questions.

 

Action Plan:

• Implement new training to support DSHS staff and leaders in providing quality services.
• Develop a graphic to include in the strategic plan, posters and other communication media to help DSHS staff understand how their work aligns with the agency’s and Governor’s goals. Publish this graphic on the DSHS main internal communications SharePoint site, Inside DSHS, in the Office of Communications’ This Week on Inside DSHS and on all administrations’ internal SharePoint sites.

 

Conduct quality assurance (QA) activities and comply with federal, state and program requirements.

Importance: Timely completion of quality assurance (QA) activities helps protect the health and safety of clients, secures federal funding and provides oversight of operations. Activities include completing QA reviews to ensure compliance with quality measures; data analysis to identify gaps in the processes being used based on QA review results; developing proficiency improvement plans using root cause analysis; and developing interventions/countermeasures to address the root cause using feedback from staff at all levels. Through this function, Aging and Long Term Support Administration (ALTSA) will get more predictable outcomes that will ensure access to client services is timely and responsive to assessed needs that providers and/or facilities are qualified to provide services, provider networks are adequate and federal assurances are met. Identified deficiencies are remediated and proficiency improvement plans are developed and monitored to ensure continuous quality improvement.

 

Success Measure: Maintain 100 percent completion of Home and Community Services Division case management, Adult Protective Services and financial eligibility compliance record reviews each calendar year.

 

See Chart AAH.9: Home and Community Services Quality Assurance – Timely Reviews

 

Action Plan: 

• Provide consultation to, review and approve Home and Community Services and Area Agency on Aging (AAA) office-specific proficiency improvement plans. Address areas in which proficiency standards are not met.
• Analyze statewide trends and adopt training, technical assistance, policy revisions or other action as necessary.
• Gather and evaluate feedback from consumer surveys.

 

Success Measure: Achieve 100 percent completion, within 90 days of the monitoring exit interview, of all final reports for the AAAs during each calendar year by December 2018. Maintain perfect record through 2021.

 

See Chart AAH.10: Area Agencies on Aging Quality Assurance – Timely Completion

 

Action Plan: 

• Streamline AAA monitoring activities, including early, consistent deadlines.
• Coordinate with the DSHS Office of Indian Policy and follow all steps included in the Tribal Communications Protocol.

 

Success Measure: Increase the percentage of audited Nursing Home Statements of Deficiency sent to the facility within the federal regulatory standard to 95 percent by June 2019.

 

See Chart AAR.6: Residential Care Services Quality Assurance – Nursing Home Statements of Deficiencies Sent Timely

 

Action Plan: 

• Use continuous quality improvement internal controls to track timeliness.
• Request state funding to replace expiring federal funding and sustain the Residential Care Services quality assurance team.

 

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

 

Partner to provide expertise and resource hiring, developing and retaining knowledgeable and engaged employees and leaders.  

Decision Package: 110 – ML – KF – Rightsizing HR Services

 

Importance: Employees are the most valuable asset of the agency.  DSHS can’t fully achieve our goals or deliver quality services to our communities unless we have knowledgeable, engaged and dedicated employees.

 

Success Measure: Improve agency access to Human Resources (HR) staff resources. A new HR model – Transform HR – will be operational within current budgeted resources by June 2019 and fully operational by June 2020 with additional employees.

 

Action Plan: 

• Design and implement Transform HR for increased efficiency, effectiveness and consistency to better align with DSHS’ business needs.
• Expand strategic partnerships with administrations that allow for flexible service delivery to support changes in administrations and strengthen partnerships with customers across the agency.
• Implement modern hiring/selection/and screening practices for expedited hire times, improved candidate quality and to ensure our clients are safe and well-served.
• Create a culture of continuous learning by partnering with customers at all levels to provide quality learning experiences that prepare and cultivate skilled leaders for the agency.
• Leverage HR technology solutions to automate processes and access to information/data for organizational effectiveness and sound business decisions.

 

Develop the DSHS infrastructure to support a modern and mobile work environment and create an organizational culture that empowers employees with choice, enables excellent performance and supports an environment of inclusion.

Importance: DSHS’ goal is to develop an organizational culture that supports the needs of employees, provides flexibility and mobility for staff, reduces impact on the environment, provides a supportive and productive work environment, attracts and retains talented employees and promotes work/life balance.

 

Success Measure: Design, develop and implement the modern and mobile work environment requirements in Governor’s Executive Order 16-07 and the Workplace Strategy Council no later than July 2019.

 

Action Plan:  

• Determine positions eligible for teleworking and flexible work schedules.
• Develop and implement plans to support a culture that enables a mobile workforce and creates a modern work environment.
• Foster the culture of a mobile workforce and a modern work environment.
• Services and Enterprise Support Administration (SESA) and Facilities, Finance and Analytics (FFA) will measure implementation of modern workplace strategies.

 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, SAFETY, and RISK MANAGEMENT

 

Ensure investments in modernization are aligned with agency business objectives.

Decision Packages: 150 – PL – GE – Enterprise Security Modernization, 150 – PL – GD – Network Modernization

 

Importance:  The rapidly changing technological environment and our desire to provide client services at the point and time of need in a secure manner require strong, foundational IT governance. IT governance provides the processes, policies, measurement methods and communication to help DSHS meet federal and state regulatory requirements and align IT strategy with business objectives to ensure work efforts and investments deliver value.

 

Employing industry best practices through well-thought-out success measures will improve DSHS’ ability to ensure quality service delivery, control costs and increase transparency. The following success measures will continue to improve critical aspects of IT governance.

 

Success Measure: Expand IT portfolio management capabilities in a phased approach to encompass the entire DSHS enterprise to increase investment awareness, provide investment decision perspectives and to aid in translating DSHS IT strategy into prioritized programs and projects by June 2020.

 

Action Plan:  

• Define, identify, and consolidate IT portfolios throughout DSHS.
• Build and improve the DSHS IT Portfolio Management Program using industry best business practices and tools.
• Institute a portfolio dashboard to accurately track assets and services.

 

Success Measure: Expand IT asset management capabilities and practices to effectively align fiscal, inventory and lifecycle components to enable investment decision-making by June 2020.

 

Action Plan:    

• Build and improve the DSHS IT Asset Management Program using industry best business practices and tools.
• Assess, select and implement a software asset management tool to improve licensing and budgeting, and to reduce compliance and security risks.
• Publish a concise IT asset management process framework outlining how DSHS will track IT assets from requisition through retirement.

 

Success Measure: Improve the DSHS Enterprise Architecture Program to enable the agency to increase the pace of modernization and identify and communicate enterprise IT requirements aligned with business strategy by June 2019.

 

Action Plan:    

• Complete the buildout of the DSHS current state architecture to visualize the administration’s lines of business, IT systems and the people who use them to assist in designing and building a future state.
• Develop agency information systems and technology flows and functionality to assist in defining the program of works required to develop and deploy the future state architecture.
• Build and foster an enterprise architecture community of practice that incorporates representatives from across the agency to improve collaboration, set realistic strategic goals and increase competencies.

 

Success Measure: Enable integration and improved interoperability between IT systems across DSHS by June 2019.

 

Action Plan: 

• Analyze and better understand DSHS’ critical information technology systems and their connections to determine how to enable modernization, improve their usability, improve secure data integration and create reusable components.
• Analyze and better understand how data flows through key DSHS information systems to identify opportunities to gain efficiencies and improve how systems integrate with each other.
• Establish an information system integration modernization roadmap to lead DSHS to a future state integration framework which allows for real-time, interactive exchange of information in support of providing citizens who need services in a secure and timely manner.

 

Proactively improve network services and protect confidential data to achieve network and infrastructure modernization.

Decision Package: 150 – PL – GD – Network Modernization

 

Importance: The DSHS network and infrastructure provide access to confidential client, staff, and agency data. Modernizing the infrastructure will promote efficient and secure access to this data in support of DSHS clients, staff, and customers. This objective aligns multiple projects and allows actions to be prioritized in modules as staff and technical resources become available. 

 

Success Measure: Improve capacity, performance and security posture of the DSHS infrastructure by aligning with information technology best practices in the data center and remote site locations by June 2019. 

 

Action Plan:  

• Develop and approve remote site and data center functionality and flows to include Internet Protocol Version six addressing for computers and networks and quality of service monitoring.
• Begin phased implementation of approved communication platforms at remote sites and the data center.
• Complete scheduled statewide network upgrades.

 

Success Measure: Modernize or replace statewide DSHS telephony platforms to use current, supported industry solutions, aligning with the statewide strategy to phase out 10 percent of digital services by June 2020.

 

Action Plan:    

• Develop DSHS Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and/or unified communications business strategy by June 2019.
• Establish DSHS standards in alignment with proposed state Office of the Chief Information Officer strategy requiring all new purchases to be VoIP and/or unified communications by June 2019.

 

Success Measure: Plan and implement network modernization in support of business continuity/ disaster recovery at all DSHS critical remote sites by June 2019.

 

Action Plan:    

• Develop implementation strategy for data center redundancy.
• Build out the Quincy Data Center in phases to meet current and future DSHS disaster recovery requirements.
• Design and install redundant connectivity solutions at DSHS critical sites.
• Develop an agency technology roadmap of change initiatives that are required to achieve the future state.

 

Improve the ability to recover critical IT applications during an emergency event.

Decision Package: 110 – PL - KE - Cyber-Security & Modernization

 

Importance: The vast majority of services provided by Services and Enterprise Support Administration (SESA) and the Facilities, Finance and Analytics Administration (FFA) depend on reliable IT applications. A well-planned, well-tested disaster recovery plan for IT applications ensures SESA and FFA can continue to operate consistently, even during an emergency. Extended down-time for these IT applications affects SESA/FFA operations and consequently affects direct service delivery functions provided by SESA/FFA.  

 

Success Measure: Ensure that all disaster recovery plans for TSD-supported applications are up-to-date and tested by June 2019.

 

Action Plan:    

• Complete SESA/FFA business operational impact analysis.
• Complete disaster recovery plans for all TSD-supported applications
• Conduct testing of all disaster recovery plans for all TSD-supported applications.

 

Meet or exceed federal and state program integrity standards.

Decision Package: 060 – ML - F8 – Meet or Exceed Integrity Standards

 

Importance: A strong, collaborative program integrity effort is vital for the public to have confidence that Economic Services Administration (ESA) programs, policies and processes work together to achieve accurate service delivery.

 

Success Measure: ESA and Office of Fraud and Accountability (OFA) Program Integrity teams will assess the action plan items and develop this measure by December 2019.

 

Action Plan: 

• Increase capacity to conduct case reviews, targeted root cause analyses and resulting identification of program and policy integrity improvements.
• Review program audit reports and other relevant information to assess risks, identify trends and create action plans.
• Increase data and information sharing at national level and with other states.
• Expand recipient integrity education initiatives to increase fraud prevention efforts across multiple public assistance programs.

 

Meet constantly changing business needs with modern technology/architecture.

Decision Packages: 060 – PL – FX - Modernize SEMS, 060 – PL - Q4 – Business and IT Transformation, 060 – PL - Q3 – Critical Systems Risk Mitigation, 060 – PL – FY Billing and Collections System

 

Importance: Our ability to provide superior customer service relies heavily on technology that is secure, responsive to business needs, user-friendly and available with minimal down time. The current Automated Client Eligibility System (ACES) complex and Support Enforcement Management System (SEMS) rely on old programming languages and time-intensive development processes, and each uses multiple system architectures. Economic Services Administration (ESA) is committed to meeting business needs while embracing the opportunity to create enterprise architecture shared among the state agencies providing health and human services.

 

Success Measure:

• Establish a modern architecture for mission critical systems that is secure, responsive to business needs, user-friendly, and available with minimal down time by October 2025.
• Complete mainframe re-hosting and begin use by June 2021.

 

Action Plan: 

• Work with business and technical staff from the Washington state health and human services agencies to establish a clear vision of the scope of work and business processes we support in eligibility, payments and authorizations that must be integrated into successful enterprise architecture.

 

Develop tools to support staff’s core work and the service delivery system, including updates to technology, payment systems and improvements in applications and data analysis.

Decision Package: 050 - PL - E7 - IT - Systems Modernization

 

Importance: Developing tools for staff to do their jobs quickly and easily, with added value, supports employee engagement. It is also a type of continuous improvement that can result in better outcomes for clients and residents and better use of limited state and staff resources. This type of work is primarily the duty of the Management Services Division and other support staff throughout Aging and Long Term Support Administration (ALTSA).

 

Success Measure: Develop prioritized tools to support identified staff needs by June 2019.

 

Action Plan

• Provide universal remote access and mobile IT tools to field staff in Residential Care Services and Home and Community Services.
• Construct data marts for on-demand access to client demographic and service performance data.
• Support the Medicaid Transformation Project.

 

Create a culture of risk awareness and mitigate identified high priority/serious exposure agency risks.

Importance: The Governor’s Executive Order 16-06 highlighted the need for all state employees to be aware of and know how to assess risk in their daily duties. DSHS is responsible for safeguarding state resources, most importantly client and employee welfare. It is necessary to assess potential risks to the quality of care for our clients and to our business operations. DSHS leaders must understand the most serious risks and make informed decisions about how to use resources mitigate them. In addition to preventing loss of life or assets and/or litigation, developing and sustaining a risk management framework throughout DSHS can lead to innovation in mitigating risk. DSHS’s risk management initiative is critical to comply with the executive order.    

 

Success Measure: DSHS supervisors, management staff and frontline staff will complete risk awareness and assessment training by June 2021.

 

Action Plan:

• Advertise and promote risk awareness and assessment training to supervisors, managers and front line staff.

   

Success Measure: Communicate across the agency to raise risk awareness.

 

Action Plan:

• Send a monthly communication about risk to all staff.

• Publish 15 risk-related articles in DSHS’ internal communications options, Inside DSHS and This Week on Inside DSHS, by June 2019.

• Make a series of videos available to all staff on basic elements of risk management and on mitigating risk.

 

Success Measure: Build a comprehensive process of identifying, organizing, prioritizing and mitigating risks.

 

Action Plan:

• Develop a consolidated agencywide risk register by May 30 of each year.
• Provide an up-to-date risk register to the Department of Enterprise Services by September 1 of each year.

 

Identify and prioritize contingency needs to address the continuity of all mission-essential functions.

 

Importance: DSHS must be prepared for an incident that necessitates the evacuation of any business office or residential program when transportation, relocation and staffing of mission-essential services is necessary. This is an especially challenging and high-risk undertaking for DSHS’ residential programs.

 

Federal funding requirements and state law stipulate development and maintenance of continuity plans, and training and exercises. When it is not in full compliance with these requirements, the department risks harm to clients and employees during emergencies, loss of federal funds, tort claims and lawsuits for failing to adequately plan for disruptions caused by emergencies.

 

Success Measure: Increase the percentage of administrations with complete and sufficient continuity plans approved by the responsible Assistant Secretaries and submitted to DSHS Emergency Management Services to 100 percent by June 2019.

 

Success Measure: Increase the percentage of complete and sufficient continuity plans approved by the responsible Superintendents or CEOs for DSHS-operated residential programs that are submitted to DSHS Emergency Management Services to 100 percent by June 2019.

 

Success Measure: Ensure all residential programs’ include a strategy reflected in their budget request around improving their ability to continue operations during a disaster. This strategy should be in their budgets by June 2019.

 

Action Plan: 

• Ensure administrations and residential programs submit action plans addressing all of the above success measures to DSHS Emergency Management Services.
• Ensure administrations and residential programs submit quarterly reports to DSHS Emergency Management Services describing outcomes related to continuity planning (including budget requests), training and exercises.

 

Update and enforce agencywide leased space standards.

Importance: Agencywide leased space standards support efficiencies of scale and cost-savings.

 

Success Measure: Complete agencywide leased space standards by September 2019.

 

Action Plan:

• Create agencywide leased space standards for review by program Facility Coordinators by December 2018.
• Schedule and hold stakeholder review meetings by June 2019.
• Gain executive leadership support by September 2019.

 

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

 

Support and promote equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the workplace through the increase of EDI competency.

Importance: Equity, diversity and inclusion are foundational and must be present in every aspect of our work at the Department of Social and Health Services. DSHS employees, whether working with clients or each other, must be constantly developing and practicing these core principles. This is the path forward for strengthening our effectiveness in helping those we serve and being in relationship with each other. A workplace environment of mutual respect and equal opportunity will lead to improved customer outcomes and a thriving organization.

 

Success Measure:  Ensure each administration fully integrates and uses performance-mapping to track progress on agencywide EDI initiatives by June 2019. These initiatives are:

• A fully operational Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council and fully developed EDI Communities of Practice focused on professional development and capacity-building.
• Training and consultation for DSHS staff and external partners.
• Business diversity.
• Examining rules, compliance and reporting processes through an EDI lens.
• Framing the DSHS organizational culture through an EDI lens.
• Integrating EDI into policies, practices, legislation and budget.
• Compliance with ADA, language and information technology access standards.

 

Action Plan: 

• Provide performance-mapping training in each administration.
• Identify measures to be used to track progress toward meeting DSHS’ key EDI goals in each administration. These goals are:
  • Be an EDI leader in workforce planning.
  • Be an inclusive workplace.
  • Promote business diversity/supplier participation.
  • Provide equitable access to services.
  • Champion EDI best practices.
  • Frame organizational culture through an EDI lens.
• Compile and submit data quarterly and annually for each administration to use in reporting progress on their EDI initiatives.

• Administrations will provide quarterly and annual reports to the DSHS Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to determine which measures are being met and issues that need to be resolved.

• Success Measure:  Use the Employee Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Index^[12] to create a baseline of employee attitudes and behaviors regarding EDI by December 2019.

 

Action Plan: 

• Create and publish EDI Index baseline for DSHS.

• Use the index to identify trends and measure progress against the baseline.

 

Success Measure:  Improve workplace and client service delivery by increasing certified diversity professionals (CDP) and executives (CDE) in identified roles by June 2019.

 

Action Plan: 

• Identify essential positions that require certification.
• Implement training for individuals to attain certification.
• Further develop expectation for continuing education for those who achieve certification

 

Success Measure: Managers are well-versed in targeted recruitment strategies, reasonable accommodations, employee training and mentoring opportunities that foster a diverse and inclusive work environment.

 

Action plan:

• The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion will provide its expertise as recruitment, training and mentoring opportunities are developed.
• Target recruitment efforts to diverse communities and organizations, job fairs, trade schools, colleges and universities and community organizations.

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Advance equity, diversity and inclusion in our communities by increasing business opportunities for diverse suppliers and contractors.  

Success Measure:  Standardize how DSHS collects, formats and reports supplier diversity data in accordance with the Governor’s Subcabinet on Business Diversity recommendations.

 

Action Plan: 

• Collect data from the Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises (OMWBE) on DSHS vendor contracts.
• Identify and consolidate DSHS supplier diversity data from multiple sources.

 

Success Measure: Increase expenditures* with:

• Minority-owned (not including minority women) businesses from 2.61 percent (2018) to 4.75 percent by 2021.
• Minority women-owned businesses from 1.46 percent (2018) to 3.25 percent by 2021
• Women-owned (not including minority women) businesses from 1.65 percent (2018) to 3.5 percent by 2021.
• Veteran-owned businesses from 2.6 percent (2018) to 5 percent by 2021.

 

*Only categories of spending that are included in OMWBE diversity participation reports will be included.

 

Action Plan:    

• Increase outreach to diverse businesses.
• Increase diverse business OMWBE/veteran certifications and Washington’s Electronic Business Solution (WEBS) registrations.
• Collect feedback from the business community to address obstacles to doing business with DSHS.
• Develop methods for forecasting expenditures with diverse businesses and contractors.
• Provide administration-specific and department-wide reports on progress in meeting goals for contracting/spending with diverse businesses.

 

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