GovReport

On climate, energy, infrastructure, and technology

Will Keys

Can California get ahead of IT project failures?

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California government is trying to get ahead of state IT project failures, said Chief Information Officer Amy Tong last week at a budget hearing.

Answering questions from Assemblymember David Chiu, a frequent and vocal critic of failed state IT projects such as recent examples at the EDD and DMV, Tong made her case for more resources and oversight authority.

“Just like you [Chiu] described, we are in many times our operating like an ER doctor is because the fact that on a day to day basis, each of the departments, and there are 130 plus state entities, each one of them has their own IT shop, and each one of them has their IT budget and makes IT project investment decisions, with the exception, the ones that are over a certain threshold, which is what you see in the overall IT project tracking list,” said Tong.

The Newsom Administration is requesting 17 additional positions and $11.4 M in 2021-22, $9,4 M in 2022-23, and $6.4 M ongoing to “invest in proactive measures to stabilize critical services and enhance performance statewide, particularly in light of the challenges faced during COVID-19.”

“If we can actually have more visibility to the database expenditure, the decision-making, and be more embedded with the department, we can be more into what I call preventive care as opposed to emergency responsive care in terms of the health of the IT investment at the particular program department,” Tong continued. 

The budget proposal is part of a plan laid out in CDT’s “Vision 2023,” California’s technology strategic plan released on Jan. 15,  which offers key goals that include delivering easy-to-use and inclusive public services and creating “challenge teams” to begin work early in 2021.

“I absolutely support your budget request,” Chiu said. “I actually think the state would be better served if we did a better job of centralizing the thought process, the strategy, [and] budget oversight within your department.”

Generally supportive of the budget proposal, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) expressed concerns over a lack of key details such as the length and scope of deep-dive service assessments, the transition from short-term crisis management to long-term IT project planning, and reporting mechanism to the Legislature and other stakeholders. 

New CHHS unit seeks to leverage people-related data across the state

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With a mission to deliver health and human services, the state’s largest agency has created a new unit to use its vast amount of data with more efficiency and sophistication.   

The Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) is proposing to fund a new program called the Center for Data Insights and Innovations (CDII), according to a budget change proposal (BCP) submitted to the Legislature on Jan. 10.

In a blog post announcing the establishment of the CDII, Director John Ohanion said that one of the department’s key principles is to “put the person back in person-centered” and to “see the whole person.” 

The purpose of establishing CDII is to leverage data in a way that improves program delivery through four main objectives: institutionalizing and leveraging analytics, using in-house data intelligence to cut outsourcing costs, optimizing department success, and serving as a model for analytical excellence.

CHHS argues in the BCP that data has not yet been fully utilized in an agency that affects the public health and welfare of all Californians, and more robust use of data and analytics within CDII would allow the agency to increase efficiency and optimize the use of resources, reach underserved populations, and address socioeconomic health disparities. 

“Together, we must act as one government, breaking down silos and building a culture that focuses on delivering services that are person-centered and not program-centered,” Ohanion continued.

The role of data is key in shaping policy and the COVID-19 response, according to the post.  Data from the Department of Public Health and the Department of Health Care Services was utilized to identify COVID-19 risk factors along with demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic lines.

According to the BCP, CDII will be cost-neutral, redirecting positions and funding within CHHS, California’s largest agency.

 

Image by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

 

‘My Turn’ site launched to track vaccine eligibility

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The State of California has launched a new data system that will inform citizens when they are eligible and how to schedule an appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.  

The new system, called ‘My Turn,’ helps Californians track vaccination data and sign up for notifications to know when and where they can get their first and second shots,” according to an announcement from the Newsom Administration.

The site was launched in partnership with Salesforce, according to a tweet from CEO Marc Benioff.  “Millions of Californians will turn to Salesforce’s ‘My Turn’ a new site for Covid-19 vaccinations that will allow residents to learn when they are eligible & find a place to make an appointment,” said Benioff.

In addition to Salesforce, technology companies Skedulo and Accenture are part of the site’s development and implementation, according to an announcement from Newsom’s office.  The site is being piloted in Los Angeles and San Diego counties and will be available statewide in early February.

Californians can visit www.myturn.ca.gov to learn more.

Image: by CDC on Unsplash

 

 

 

Little Hoover Commission Pushes for Sharing of Healthcare Records

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The sharing of data and records between California healthcare providers has grown in the last decade, but there’s still plenty of work to be done, says the state’s Little Hoover Commission.

Despite the growth of programs that incentivize and fund the sharing of records among health care providers, the Little Hoover Commission found that just 26 percent of Medi-Cal providers are connected to one of eight qualified Health Information Organizations (HIO), which securely share data and records.

Since 2011, programs like the California Technical Assistance Program and Medi-Cal Promoting Interoperability Program have poured over $1 billion in state and federal funds into helping Medi-Cal professionals purchase, install, and use electronic records.

California has also dedicated $50 million in state funds to the California Health Information Exchange Onboarding Program (Cal-HOP), which aims to increase the number of Medi-Cal providers exchanging data, bolster data-exchanging capabilities for Medi-Cal providers that already participate in HIOs, and provide access to Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) prescription drug monitoring database.

In addition to increasing access to healthcare records, the Little Hoover Commission urged policymakers to follow through on customer service recommendations it made in 2015 to expand and improve delivery platforms. Read

Report: 2.3 Million Californians Lack High-Speed Internet

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Although the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed internet access into a must for workers and students across the state, the Little Hoover Commission has found in their issue brief that 2.3 million Californians lack access to high-speed internet.

The Little Hoover Commission found that while California offers accessible, low-cost broadband coverage, its speed is considered much slower than in other states. Americans on the whole pay more for slower speeds compared to their foreign counterparts, which the Commission attributed to a lack of competition among internet service providers.

Without offering specific policy suggestions to correct what they call the “digital divide,” the Commission concluded that weakened or no internet connectivity is barring Californians from opportunities in education, work, as well as accessing government resources and services.

Solutions could include California municipalities starting more fiber broadband networks in the state to compete with traditional internet service providers, using either a public or public-private model. Such initiatives have proven successful in Santa Monica, but have failed in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

California outlines future of artificial intelligence

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The State of California has taken initial steps to consider how artificial intelligence will play an inevitable role in delivering services to the people of the Golden State.

Legislation passed in 2019 called for California to work with stakeholders and develop guidelines by January 2021.

At a recent vendor forum by the California Department of Technology, Chief of Statewide Technology Policy CDT Pam Haase gave an update on the department’s initiative, which began earlier in the year but was slowed down considerably by constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Image by Michael Dziedzic, Unsplash

Haase laid out three broad objectives regarding the implementation of AI to state departments, each of which has a varying level of understanding and experience with AI technology.

Those objectives include:

Demonstrating how AI can improve delivery and digital services. CDT has partnered with the CITRIS Policy Lab to study industry use of AI and produce a report that outlines basic recommendations for AI adoption within state government.

Providing guidelines for the ethical and responsible use of AI. CDT wants to establish trust from the public in their ability to implement AI in an ethical manner.
Providing a practical approach to implementing AI. This includes creating an AI vendor pool, training for both the business and technical side of procuring and implementing the new technology.

Haase also noted that she expects a concrete policy framework regarding the use of AI to become available by the spring of 2021 following input from the public via a listening session.

In an effort to cater to varying needs statewide, Haase stressed that AI will provide value to any and all departments regardless of their awareness and experience level with the technology.

“The deliverables are going to provide something of value to everyone no matter where you’re at, whether you’re brand new to AI, or whether your department is already currently using it,” Haase said.

Further, according to CDT’s Chief Technology Innovation Officer Manveer Bola, who also spoke at the forum, one of the major priorities regarding the implementation of AI technology is to tailor digital services to meet “specific user needs.”

Part of that includes using AI to promote web diversity by quickly and accurately translating websites as well as providing customer service mimicking a one-on-one chat with an employee.

Another goal Bola mentioned was to use AI to gather COVID response surveys, even reading into them further than one would expect from AI.

“We’re looking at AI to try to help us boil down those responses into much more meaningful output that we can consume easier, maybe even measuring sentiment,” Bola said.

CWS-CARES Project Director Leaving State Service

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Rebecca Stilling, the project director for California’s Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) will be leaving state service this week, according to an email distributed to project staff.

She will be on the job until Oct. 15, she said.  Office of System Integrations Deputy Director Cynthia Tocher will step into the role as acting project director.

“Together we have dedicated the two and a half years of my tenure as Project Director to prepare for the development of CWS-CARES.   Our accomplishments are too many to list here but I’d like each of you to know that we can be proud of our research, planning, and preparations because our work together was done with excellence, commitment, integrity and teamwork,” said the email.

Earlier this year the CWS-CARES project was downgraded to a “red” rating by an Independent Project Oversight Reporting (IPOR) assessment by the California Department of Technology (CDT), according to project reports posted online.

The project, which was initially approved in July 2013 with a budget of $420 million, was downgraded from yellow to red following an option that approved several adjustments in scope at a contentious project Board of Directors meeting on July 9.

A new Special Project Report 4 was due on July 20, 2020, has not been posted online.

California Universities to Test COVID-19 Exposure Notification App

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The California Department of Public Health (CPDH) and the California Department of Technology (CDT) are partnering with UC San Diego and UC San Francisco to pilot an app that could inform individuals when they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

The mobile app, called Exposure Notification Express, has been designed by Apple and Google to use bluetooth technology to confidentially alert individuals when they are in close proximity to someone who has tested positive for the virus, provided that the individual has shared their test results with the app.

Faculty, staff, and the student body at both UC San Diego and UC San Francisco will test the app in a month-long trial period beginning at the end of September.

While the app does not collect data or share user information, individuals would need to opt-in to use the app if and when it becomes available to the public, according to CDT Director Amy Tong.

The Exposure Notification Express app will serve as a necessary supplement to California’s COVID-19 testing system, which failed to register roughly 750,000 positive tests back in August.

California to Roll Out New COVID-19 Reporting System in October

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California will roll out a new COVID-19 reporting system in October after it awarded a renewable six-month, $15.3-million contract to healthcare technology OptumInsight, Inc., the state announced this week.  The announcement follows a recent failure of the state’s infectious disease registry CalREDIE to accurately report testing data, which reportedly resulted in the Department of Public Health director’s resignation last month.

“This system will reduce labor-intensive collection processes and minimize delays in reporting data so that public health experts across the state have swift access to the tools and data they need to prevent COVID-19 transmission and respond to new cases and outbreaks,” said State Chief Information Officer Amy Tong in a statement.

California will soon have plenty of test results to report, store, and analyze. Last week, Gov. Newsom announced a $1.4-billion contract with Massachusetts-based diagnostics company PerkinElmer to increase California’s COVID-19 testing from 100,000 to 250,000 per day.

CalREDIE suffered a significant glitch in July that caused COVID-19 cases to be underreported, which in turn led Gov. Gavin Newsom to prematurely announce “early good signs” in an Aug. 3 press conference.

DGS Measures Benefits of Teleworking

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When the COVID-19 outbreak in March forced most state workers to telework indefinitely, the Department of General Services (DGS) took the opportunity to begin a case study tracking the impacts of working from home.  Executives in the department’s IT and human resources divisions collaborated to develop a telework dashboard to visualize activities across the department.

Using a telework dashboard designed in May to track data and habits from its roughly 1,400 workers teleworking either full or part-time, DGS sought to discover the impacts of working from home that may inform the decision to telework even beyond the state-mandated shutdown.

According to DGS, its workers have saved a cumulative 16.4 years of commute time, 200,000 gallons of gasoline (worth approximately $620,000 at the pump), and 1,761 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition to the positive environmental impact, 80 percent of DGS workers polled in a recent survey indicated that they would like to continue teleworking on a permanent basis.

See DGS’ dashboard here: https://telework.govops.ca.gov/tracking-telework/dgs-case-study/

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