Overcoming challenges of a implementing a statewide data collection system for family planning programs in California

The California Family Health Council administers the largest Title X grant in the nation and manages a statewide system of family planning providers which serve diverse populations, cover enormous geography and comprise over 300 various clinic settings. These providers have varying capabilities in their computer systems and internal processes to collect and report data. This presented challenges to CFHC's ability to validate and report accurate annual data to DHHS. To address this, CFHC leveraged new technology to implement a flexible health information exchange system usable by all types of clinics. Raw data is extracted from clinics' local computer systems in any electronic format and uploaded to CFHC's website. CFHC's automated system cleans and translates the data and stores it in a central database for aggregation and reporting. CFHC now aggregates and reports on clinical and demographic data for over 1 million family planning visits annually from data submitted electronically from clinics. As a result the process of data collection and reporting has become more standardized statewide and data quality has improved. The system is currently being enhanced to accept lab testing and result data from additional sources in order to better monitor STI and cervical cancer screening. CFHC will also use the data to assess clinics' progress toward reaching national family planning performance measures. The implementation of a statewide health information exchange system in California provided access to higher quality data which can be used to better monitor utilization of services, conduct trends analyses, and substantiate use of public dollars.