Collecting & Analyzing Baseline Data January 2009 Follow-up Calls (Call #2)

1. Collecting & Analyzing Baseline DataJanuary 2009 Follow-up Calls (Call #2) Based on the fall 2008 CATES Training Series Contra Costa County, San Bernardino County, & Sutter County October 24, November 7, and November 14, 2008 Call Facilitators: Beth Rutkowski, MPH, and Sherry Larkins, Ph.D. UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs/Pacific Southwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center UCLA

2. Agenda • Brief review of last month’s call • This months topic: Baseline data gathering and analysis • Q-A period • Sharing of walk-through experiences • Open questions and comments about process improvement

3. The Walk-Through • Decision-makers play role of clients seeking help for a substance use problem • Seek services as a client might, from 1st contact thru 3rd appointment, including paperwork • Follow the steps on the instruction sheet for “Conducting a Walk-Through” at www.NIATx.net (click the Process Improvement button)

4. Baseline Data • It is important to measure agency performance before making any changes to agency processes. • If you do not measure how the agency is doing now, then there will be no way to evaluate whether a change is making a difference. • This initial gathering of data is referred to as baseline data collection. It provides a comparison point to help assess whether a change you make is having the expected impact.

5. First: What to measure? • What is important to the agency? • What goals does the agency have related to client and business services? • What processes would you like to evaluate or check?

6. Next: Define the measures • Establish clear definitions • Quantify the questions you are concerned about • Make sure there is agreement that the measures will answer your questions • NIATx initially identified four measures: • Time from 1st contact to 1st treatment • No shows for assessment • Continuation during 1st month of care • Admissions

7. Other measures to consider… • Time from 1st contact to assessment • Treatment continuation rates during 1st 60 days of care • Units of service delivered • Length of stay in residential setting • Time for transition from 1 level of care to the next (no. of days) • Continuity of care (% of clients who complete residential and enter outpatient)

8. The question you need to answer is… If we measure this way, will we know how close we are coming to meeting our goal?

9. How to collect baseline data… • Most often the data you need is already available or is easy to gather. • You may have an internal management information system • California has the CALOMS data system • If you collect it yourself, simple paper and pencil logs often work well and don’t take much time.

10. How long should the baseline period be? • Baseline data can be collected and analyzed for periods as short as 30 days or as long as several years • Usually 30 to 180 days provides sufficient data to reveal trends of concern to management. • It is often best to create a graph of the data that summarizes the frequency or percentage of what is being measured over time.

11. Data can be surprising • Assumptions may have been made that are not based on objective information • Sometimes a different problem is identified • The baseline numbers provide an accurate comparison point for your improvement efforts

12. In summary, here are some TIPS • Never start a change project without first collecting baseline data • Make sure the data you are gathering is an accurate measure of the issue the agency is concerned about • Make sure the data can be gathered consistently and accurately during the change process • The data needs to be immediately available to the Change Leader and others monitoring the change process

13. February 2009 Calls5th at 2:00pm and 13th at 11:00 am Next Steps Topic: Establishing a Change Objective Check out the NIATx web site at www.niatx.net