Understand DCHS' Impact
This dashboard focuses on people who participate in DCHS-administered programs and activities, providing information about who participates in services, where they live, how they access services and data from other areas of interest. It shows how DCHS is working in partnership with the community to advance equitable opportunities for people to be healthy, happy, and connected to community.
This inaugural 2022 Dashboard provides data on programs and activities funded through three of the Department’s taxpayer-funded initiatives: Best Starts for Kids Levy (DCHS-administered funds only*), MIDD Behavioral Health Sales Tax and Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy. By 2025, expansion of the DCHS Dashboard will include information from all five DCHS Divisions to transparently share how the Department works to help strengthen the communities of King County.
*For complete information about BSK investments, including those administered by Public Health—Seattle & King County, please see the BSK Dashboard.
Dashboard Data Notes
Combining data from many provider and service types stored in several different systems is complex. Many decisions are made along the way. DCHS’ data and program experts work together to balance tradeoffs to provide the public with the most accurate and timely data possible.
For questions about the dashboard, please email DCHSData@kingcounty.gov.
WHO PARTICIPATES IN SERVICES AND WHERE THEY LIVE
Dashboard data about service participants are sourced from data submissions from providers about their services and the people who participated in them. The majority of participant and service data reported in the dashboard come from information submitted and stored in King County's Client Outcome Reporting Engine (CORE), as well as King County’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Division database (PHP96) and the region’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). In some exceptional cases, agencies that are unable to use our automated submission processes may use alternative secure methods for providing information. For a small number of specialized activities, DCHS only receives information on the total number of people served rather than data about each individual service participant (aka: aggregate-level data).
DCHS has several data quality processes designed to minimize double counting of people who may participate in multiple programs. Providers share limited personally identifying information (PII) with DCHS, typically names and dates of birth. Where third party requirements are in place (such as for programs where services are paid by Medicaid) providers will also share social security numbers with the County. DCHS uses this PII to run statistical deduplication procedures that identify when multiple records in different systems are likely to represent the same individual. Collecting this information is a legal requirement for many of our funded services. Using people’s identifying information to identify duplicate records allows us to more accurately summarize the number of people who have participated in services and have that information to support decision making.
Even with the deduplication procedures we have in place, the estimate of people who participate in DCHS-funded services is only an approximation. Deduplication is not perfect. For example, participants may have variations in names across providers that make it difficult to correctly link the records. In addition, several providers serving vulnerable populations are permitted to submit anonymized or aggregated information on participants served. These people cannot be deduplicated because we do not have the identifying information to link them to their records in other systems.
HOW PEOPLE ACCESS SERVICES
Information on how people access services comes from surveys that were conducted with all providers receiving funds from BSK, VSHSL, or MIDD. These surveys asked providers to report whether and how often they delivered services in-office, at mobile locations, or remote/virtually. Providers were asked about their practices both before the COVID-19 pandemic and specifically during 2021. Those that offered in-office services were asked to also list the addresses of the office locations in which participants could access in-person services.
