Texas Department of State Health Services
The Texas Department of State Health Services Improves Regulatory Business Processes by Using Iron Data's Versa Software to Integrate Licensing and Regulation Activities Across all Programs

Executive Summary
The Texas DSHS Division of Regulatory Services needed to streamline business processes, establish best practices and consolidate 71 silos of information. After reviewing nearly a dozen systems, the Division chose Versa as their Regulatory Automation System. Versa eliminated manual processes to improve staff efficiency and delivered "at-your-fingertips" access to information.

Agency Overview
The mission of the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is to improve health and well-being in Texas. Toward that goal, the DSHS Division for Regulatory Services regulates health-related business activity throughout the state by issuing licenses, registrations and permits; performing inspections and examinations; responding to complaints; and ensuring compliance. The Division regulates more than 185,000 people and entities, and 229 different license types.

Business Challenge
In the early 2000s, the Texas Department of Health (TDH), now Texas DSHS, initiated a series of independent reviews to develop a business case for process improvement within the Division for Regulatory Services. The Division was determined to consolidate activity across all programs using a single, enterprise-wide licensing and regulatory solution, and the reviews would help determine the best path forward.

"At the time, we had 71 different silos of information that operated independently," recalls Weizhen Bao, the DSHS Information Technology manager for Regulatory Application Development & Support. These information silos made it difficult to regulate entities with multiple licenses, and the lack of visibility across all programs hindered enforcement.

The independent reviews concluded that a new regulatory system would streamline processes and establish best practices, and recommended that resources be allocated to improve the current system by integrating licensing, inspection, investigation, enforcement and compliance activities. The high-level goal for the Division was to implement a Web-enabled regulatory system that would improve business process efficiencies, increase staff productivity and enhance customer service.

Iron Data Solution
After reviewing nearly a dozen systems, DSHS eventually purchased Versa software as their Regulatory Automation System (RAS). Versa met the Division's system specifications; it was a highly-configurable, rule-based application that ran on an enterprise platform and leveraged current technology. In addition, Versa had an existing master contract with the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR). "This go-direct contract made it easy to move forward with Versa because we didn't have to go through the lengthy procurement process," Bao says.

Iron Data provided significant support to DSHS staff during their RAS implementation, forming a strong partnership that contributed to the project's success. "This has been one of my better experiences with a vendor," Bao states. "Iron Data has been easy to work with. Their executives are readily available and they have some very knowledgeable people on board."

Due to annual budget constraints, the Division created a multi-release RAS implementation plan that brought their various programs onto Versa in phases:

• Release 1: June 2006 - included all professional licensing and certification program
  
• Release 2: February 2007 - included the Emergency Management Service and Environmental Health programs
  
• Release 2a: August 2007 - included Substance Abuse, Milk & Dairy and Certified Food Vendor
  
• Release 3: February 2009 - included the Food & Drug, Health Facility and Trauma Designation programs
  
• Release 4: January 2011 - completed the Division's RAS deployment by bringing the Radiation program onto the Versa system

The Division's Versa system is used by a wide range of personnel, including licensing managers and technicians, inspectors, policy standard quality assurance reviewers, enforcement program specialists and IT staff. Versa is also used by the Local Health Authority under the Division for Regional and Local Health Services and the Community Health Worker program under the Family Health Division.

Results for DSHS
With Versa, the Division has achieved an integrated, modern and automated licensing and regulatory system that aligns with independent review recommendations, streamlines business processes and reduces the number of information silos, thereby reducing associated operation and maintenance costs. According to Bao, the biggest overarching benefit that Versa delivers is instant access to information. "Before, we would have to look for information on someone else's desk or make a phone call," she states. "With Versa, what we need is now at our fingertips."

The citizens of Texas have information at their fingertips, too. Online search functions that allow licensees, businesses and the general public to look-up and verify licensing information are important customer service tools that reduce time-consuming phone calls to the Division, which has resulted in higher quality regulatory services.

Having all licensing data in a single database has also improved cross-program information sharing and regulatory oversight. "We share data with the Attorney General to track licensees who aren't paying their child support," Bao states as an example. "And if we discover through data exchange that a licensee has defaulted on a student loan, we can suspend their license. We also send radiation-related incident and complaint information to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." The Division is working to establish interfaces with other agencies, too, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Versa has made the Division more efficient - and greater efficiencies are on the horizon. "Automating manual processes with Versa really has improved staff efficiency, especially in areas like cross-program coordination and workload balancing," Bao states. "The population of Texas is growing, which means more businesses to license, but our current staff will be able to handle the increased volume, especially if we add more self-service functions. Right now, we mail out 185,000 renewal notices each year. Imagine the efficiencies we will gain by moving renewals online."

Over time, Versa will even improve performance measurement of the Division's programs by the Legislative Budget Board (LBB), a state entity that controls and allocates money. "Our data is now standardized across all programs and tracked in a single database," Bao says, "so it should be much easier to accurately calculate how much it costs to do things like inspections."

Looking Forward
For DSHS, Versa has proven to be a scalable and extendable solution that promotes regulatory best practices across all programs and will support future business objectives. The Division's long-term plan is to add functionality to their Versa system. "We are going to grow with this solution, and are currently looking at modules like Mobile Inspections, Document Management and Workflow. We'll also be pushing to get more of our services online, which will lessen the burden on Division staff," Bao concludes. "The efficiencies we can achieve with Versa are tremendous!"