INSIDE OKDHS -- THE OFFICE OF PLANNING, RESEARCH AND STATISTICS

No Audio: Dr. Shannon Rios, Research Manager, OPRS

Dr. Shannon Rios: The Office of Planning, Research and Statistics helps aid the divisions in their work with fulfilling those outcomes and values for the customers. So, we focus on process and outcome evaluation, program evaluation, grant writing and grant evaluation, and it's for various ad hoc requests by the divisions or for specific pilot projects or larger scale projects that might go on agency wide or over a number of years.

We also disseminate information.  We're responsible for keeping people informed of the data within the agency that we're working on as well as providing presentations about the data both locally, statewide opportunities as well as national presentations on the data that we're using to represent Oklahoma.

We also are responsible for strategic planning at the Office of Planning, Research and Statistics. That's one of our functions and I've participated in the work groups around strategic planning.

Our office is also responsible for the Quality Award Initiative within the agency and so, the Oklahoma Quality Award as well as the Baldridge National Quality Award.  That entire process is something that OPRS has taken responsibility for and is leading that initiative within the agency.  We have a lot of data collection that's happening around those initiatives as well.

OPRS also does information requests for the agency.  So a lot of times it might not be a full-blown research project but it might be something where just data is needed on a particular topic and we provide that support as well.

No Audio: Display of example bulletins that are produced by OPRS.

We produce the monthly statistical bulletins that are posted on the website as well as the Annual Report.  We have three units within OPRS: there's research, there's administration and there's our web stats unit.  And so, we're a very small unit but we're a little bit divided in terms of the function we perform within our division.

Our customer is anybody within the agency who is in need of data, research, information, support in terms of those components, as well as grant writing, grant evaluation.  So, our function is really à I see OPRS as an entity that is supportive of all of the work that the divisions are trying to accomplish.

One of the support functions that we provide for the agency is about data collection. So, creating survey instruments, creating a methodology for data collection - those are all things that we provide as support functions. So, for example if a County Director is interested in collecting some data about the population that he or she serves or feedback from workers, they could come to us and ask for help with that survey instrument and we would work with them to create the appropriate questions they would need to ask that gives them the data that will answer the questions that they need answered.

Another thing that OPRS has partnered with Data Services Division on is the creation and use of the BEST Survey Tool that is new to the agency. We just won an Honorable Mention Award for that project recently at the DHS Quality Awards last week.

And the BEST Tool stands for Business Enterprise Survey Tool and it is an online survey instrument that's also available to County Offices or anyone within OKDHS that conducts survey research or has a need for survey research.

So, it provides a way for local County Offices or divisions to collect data via an online tool either on the infonet or on the internet.  So, you can do it internally or externally at no cost to the County Office or to the division specifically and with support in terms of review process or a quality control process where OPRS is involved in helping with the data collection instrument itself as well as the quality of the questions and the quality of the methodology.

And then Communications is also involved in the review process to make sure that it is following all of our standards for anything that is put out on the internet and Data Services is involved in that they are the entity that houses that data, maintains those surveys, maintains the software tool for us and takes care of that technical end of the use of that tool.  So, that's certainly something that the Office of Planning, Research and Statistics is very involved in and is encouraging others to, within the agency, to use that service that we provide.

No Audio: Display of the results function of the BEST tool, showing bar graphs and pie charts depicting statistics in a visually appealing way.

The tool itself has a nice results function attached to it so, when you put a survey instrument into that tool you get, already as a result at the end of the data collection, a results page from that survey tool or software tool that gives you descriptive statistics on your data already and it gives you some nice little charts and a really easy way to à some basic data analysis and an easily understood way to present that information.  

And if any data analysis is needed beyond that, then certainly the Office of Planning, Research and Statistics is available for continued support with that data analysis.

We're trying to become very evidence-based as the way we perform our practices.  So, fortunately that makes my job very functional within the agency because evidence-based means you have to have data to back up what you're doing.  How do we know that something we're doing is effective?

We only know that if we can create a data collection and methodological approach to understanding the outcome we have tied to a particular initiative or program or project, so that then we're able to say, "Yes, we know this works" or "No, it doesn't" and we know that not based on anecdotal experience or you know, customer feedback necessarily - I mean, although that's always a part of it -- but because of the data we're tracking related to that project.

So, that's another thing that the Office of Planning, Research and Statistics does that's really something that's likely to be continuing as a trend within the agency in terms of future approaches to things.

What I do see as a trend and I think will continue in the future is process improvement and the Office of Planning, Research and Statistics is very heavily involved in all process improvement activities and initiatives within the agency.  We have a lot of support from our leadership in terms of process improvement and a lot of it is driven towards customer service initiatives.

Because obviously if we streamline our processes and we look at our processes from a customer's perspective, then we can get more bang for our buck as well as improve the outcomes for our clients and customers.  And from their perspective what those processes look like is very important in terms of customer service.

The Office of Planning, Research and Statistics has also taken on that goal for the agency to continue to seek funding, identify funding and help the divisions write applications for grant awards.  We have leadership within the agency that really supports the work that OPRS does and so I'm really looking forward to another à the next five years I have with the agency.