Innovative methods of SAIS to improve substance abuse treatments

The Services Accountability Improvement System (SAIS) is a web-based performance management system that captures information on the substance abuse treatment services delivered in the United States. A wide range of client and program information is captured through SAIS for over 600 grantees. Grantees submit their data on daily, weekly and monthly cycles to ensure that SAIS is an accurate, up-to-date reflection on the scope of services delivered and characteristics of the treatment population. SAIS is used to collect, validate, store and analyze these data, as well as generate reports for Grantees and Agency managers, who rely heavily on SAIS data for analysis and evaluation of program effectiveness. Data analysis and reporting is derived primarily from client service-level data stored in a dimensionally modeled data warehouse. Use of business intelligence methods and tools yields high quality results for research and reporting activities such as the Performance Management dashboard portal, which helps grantees to track their performance against key SAMHSA indicators. The SAIS Online Learning Center (SOLC) provides access to different types of training resources (on-demand courses online, live webinars, recorded webinars and instructor-led training courses) to meet grantees' learning needs. An online Technical Assistance (TA) module allows Grantees to request in-person help from nationally-known consultants. This paper describes advanced data collection, computational, and reporting methods used to produce accurate and actionable information for CSAT administrators and grantees, as well as the SOLC and the automated TA system. Collectively, these capabilities provide CSAT administrators and grantees with innovative tools to achieve program-specific performance targets, thus advancing the efficiency and quality of substance abuse treatments. More broadly, SAIS innovations enable CSAT administrators to improve services and service availability to the substance abuse population.