Human Services Reporting System (HSRS)
HSRS Overview
- The Human Services Reporting System (HSRS) was implemented in 1987
with various modules and enhancements made in the years since then.
- HSRS collects data on eight major client populations:
developmental disabilities, mental health, alcohol and other drug
abuse (AODA), physical and sensory disabilities, elderly, juvenile
delinquents and status offenders, child abuse and neglect, and
family services.
- HSRS collects a small number of basic data elements (name,
birthdate, sex, ethnicity, client characteristics, target group, and
service cluster) describing clients and the social and mental health
services they receive through county human service agencies. In
addition, HSRS has several modules which contain greater detail than
the basic system and focus on specific program areas: long term support programs, family
support program, birth to three program, alcohol and other drug abuse, and mental health.
- Data on expenditures for individual clients is included in some
modules such as long term support and family
support. For the rest of the programs, expenditure data is collected
in summary form whereby the counties report total amounts spent for
each target group and service cluster.
- Required data elements have been kept to a minimum to control
reporting burden for county agencies. However, many county agencies
have requested that optional data elements also be included in the
system to allow them to meet some of their own data needs. A
standard set of optional elements is incorporated for this purpose.
- Data from HSRS are provided in monthly, quarterly and annual
reports. Some are produced regularly and others on a one-time basis,
as resources permit.
- There are approximately sixty monthly reports which counties can
receive if they wish. These reports include directories of clients
open for service, caseloads for each worker or provider, tickler
reports for actions due, and various types of summary data.
Quarterly and annual reports are also available. One-time requests
for unique reports can be made and are provided as resources permit.
- State staff throughout the Department of
Health and Family Services use HSRS data regularly for program
monitoring, planning, budgeting and analysis.
- HSRS data is used to meet numerous federal and state reporting
requirements and to obtain over $300 million in federal funds
annually. Examples include federal reports on CIP and other
waivers, state reporting on COP, federal block grant and state plan
reports on AODA, mental health, developmental disabilities, and
social services.
- HSRS continues to be used for long term support reporting. This enables federal and
state reporting for long term support programs and collects data for
program evaluation.
- Improved procedures and technology are being applied to assist
counties who have their own automated systems to more easily
transmit data to HSRS. The system used previously did not handle
large volumes of data effectively and involved significant manual
intervention. An improved method is now available which allows
counties to use the internet to upload files to HSRS and then to
download results back to counties the following day.
- HSRS uses a unique client identifier across its various modules to
enable tracking clients across multiple service areas and to meet
needs for unduplicated client counts in various statistical reports.
Methods to identify and remove extra IDs (caused by different
spellings of the same name) are used.
- HSRS has incorporated features to assist county staff and
facilitate the reporting process such as client inquiry screens,
next screen function which carries data between screens, full client
print which produces a quick compact printout for the case file, and
online viewing of reports which also come in hard copy.
- HSRS consolidates data on a number of human service programs
within a single system and thus is especially useful for presenting
an overview. A report is prepared for the Wisconsin State
Legislature and others, which summarizes clients and expenditures
for human service programs in Wisconsin. In addition, portions of
the HSRS data files are matched with Medicaid data (using the MEDS
data warehouse) to get a more complete picture of the services
clients receive and total costs.
Last Revised: October 24, 2008
|
