ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE FOR SOCIAL POLICY
Washington State’s Integrated Client Data Base and Analytic Capacity
1
The Department of Social and Health Services Research and Data Analysis Division
(RDA) developed and maintains Washington State’s integrated client data base (ICDB).
RDA provides the Department with a central research capacity that produces rigorous,
policy-driven analyses of government-funded social and health services in the State
of Washington. The division’s work offers state ofcials and taxpayers information
necessary to enhance their understanding of the need for, cost of, and outcomes from
the social and health services that DSHS provides throughout the state. These services
include: economic assistance, food assistance, child support services, long-term care,
child protective services, foster care, adoptions support, mental health treatment,
drug and alcohol treatment, child care, supports for persons with disabilities, refugee
services, vocational rehabilitation services, and institutional and community services
for juvenile offenders. RDA’s integrated client data base makes them uniquely
positioned to conduct in-depth analysis of clients who use services from multiple
DSHS programs. They are then able to make these de-identied data available to local,
state, and federal agency managers, the Governor’s ofce, state legislators, and the
general public. The division also houses the
Human Research Review Board, which
protects the privacy and condentiality of clients and members of the general public
who are subjects in any research project that falls under the jurisdiction of DSHS or the
Department of Health (DOH).
Creating a Statewide Integrated Client Data Base (ICDB)
Sharon Estee, who serves as a senior research manager with RDA, recalled that RDA’s
integrated client database evolved from a needs assessment project that Rebecca Yette
and Liz Kohlenberg conducted in the mid-1990s. Although some vital foundational
database work had been done, Yette and Kohlenberg realized that the department did
not have a single administrative dataset that identied the services that clients received.
Each of the administrative databases that are now housed in the state’s ICDB evolved
through a variety of legal and administrative needs across several state agencies.
For example, federal requirements spurred the creation of DSHS’s Automatic Client