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Data in action
DCHS is committed to making data accessible and useful.
Most DCHS services are provided through partnerships with local organizations. DCHS is dedicated to sharing information with its provider partners and working with them to use data to spark change and inform programming and policy decisions.
Click on one of the three stories below to learn more about how DCHS has worked to share back information, explore opportunities, and identify next steps in collaboration with funded providers.
Turning Data into Program Improvements with Provider Partners
Organizations that provide employment and community inclusion services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in King County collect substantial amounts of data to meet state reporting requirements. However, synthesizing that information, identifying meaningful trends, and translating findings into program improvements can require significant staff time and technical capacity. In the past, data shared with providers was more surface-level and there weren’t as many opportunities to unpack findings collectively.
"I feel like there were times when data was shared, but a clear goal for how providers could respond to the data or resources to make a real impact on the data were not shared or clear.” - Provider feedback in reference to past data resources shared
To provider our partners with the tools and training they need to make their data actionable, DCHS’s Performance, Measurement & Evaluation (PME) team developed accessible quarterly performance reports that organize and summarize program data along with guides for how to read the reports. To build partner capacity to use their data, PME also created performance-planning templates to help providers interpret their findings, identify opportunities for improvement, and translate those insights into action.
PME hosted a series of workshops where providers reviewed the reports, asked questions about their data, practiced using the performance planning templates, and learned from one another. These sessions created space for providers to bring their program expertise to the data, identify what the findings meant in practice, and share strategies for strengthening services.
With these new data supports, more providers are engaging in data conversations and collaborating with one another to apply what they are learning about their services. Providers show up to workshops with greater curiosity about their data and with an interest in making findings actionable. In addition, program managers have seen an improvement in the quality of performance plans that providers submit back to King County.
“These trainings really drove home the need for data to inform change in processes and service delivery, identify improvement needed, and to support for additional funding.” - Provider/Workshop Attendee
“Great topics – very relevant and applicable – very approachable content,” - Provider/Workshop Attendee
“I appreciate how it seems to matter how providers relate to the data and how much effort is put into making it easy.” - Provider/Workshop Attendee
Actions and Results:
- Providers gained a clearer understanding of the data collected, how it is reported, and how it can be used to assess program performance.
- Partner agencies developed more detailed, data-informed performance plans.
- Workshops strengthened peer learning among providers working to improve service quality.
- Workshops are held on a quarterly basis. Each workshop in 2025 was well attended, with over 20 attendees at each training.
Next Steps:
- Continue hosting quarterly data and evaluation workshops to build on lessons identified with provider partners.
- Expand opportunities for providers to exchange strategies, challenges, and lessons learned.
- Work with providers to review and refine performance measures so they better reflect shared priorities and meaningful areas for improvement.
- Continue collecting and implementing provider input on quarterly reports and workshops, collected via standardized feedback forms.
Using Data and Partnerships to Connect People to Mental Health Care After Hospitalization
The transition from inpatient behavioral health treatment to outpatient care can be a vulnerable point in a person’s recovery. Across King County, people leaving involuntary hospitalization have faced barriers to receiving the timely, routine care that can support long-term recovery and reduce the risk of returning symptoms, rehospitalization, or suicide.
To strengthen this transition, DCHS began measuring how many clients received outpatient mental health care within seven and 30 days of discharge. Tracking results at the provider and regional network levels helped DCHS and its partners identify gaps, monitor progress, and focus improvement efforts.
DCHS also provided behavioral health partners with tools and resources to support care coordination. These included daily hospitalization reports that help providers identify clients who may need follow-up; a centralized online hub that supports referrals and information sharing; a process for providers to flag and resolve coordination barriers; and shared standards for transitions between inpatient and outpatient care. DCHS also offered performance incentives to providers that successfully connected clients to outpatient care within seven and 30 days of discharge.
Actions and Results:
- In 2023, 65 percent of clients discharged after an involuntary hospitalization for a mental health condition received outpatient follow-up care within 30 days.
- By 2025, that rate increased to 87 percents — a 20 percent improvement.
- Launch of the Psychiatry Care Coordination Pilot that convened six local hospitals and six outpatient providers to strengthen information sharing and establish clearer coordination standards.
- https://dchsblog.com/2026/05/13/breaking-the-cycle-connecting-people-to-mental-health-care-after-hospitalization/
Learn more about DCHS’s work to connect people with mental health care after hospitalization.
Next steps:
- Continue monitoring follow-up rates after involuntary and voluntary behavioral health hospitalizations.
- Continue supporting providers that connect clients to outpatient care following discharge.
- Use provider feedback and performance data to identify remaining barriers and prioritize system improvements.
Child Care Workers Co-Design Research Activities for the Wage Boost Pilot Evaluation
The Best Starts for Kids Child Care Worker Wage Boost Pilot (or Wage Boost Pilot) studies the outcomes of government investment in the child care workforce on community, families, workers, businesses, and local economy. Child care workers contribute a foundational service to our children, families, and communities. Child care is a basic need and essential infrastructure (much like health care, education, and transportation) that supports families and the broader economy. Yet, unlike these sectors it has lacked commensurate, sustained public investment (Bipartisan Policy Center, 2025). The Wage Boost Pilot provides quarterly wage boosts to nearly 1,000 workers for an annual salary increase of $8,320 for full-time workers and $4,160 for part-time workers.
The child care workforce is 94% female and disproportionately women of color (workers who face the lowest wages and fewest benefits in the sector) making chronic underinvestment in this workforce a clear gender and racial equity issue (Mefferd & Dormal, 2024) In studying the benefits of investment in the child care workforce, it is essential to have child care workers name and shape research interests that inform their shared goals and recommendations for the sector. Members of the Wage Boost Pilot workgroup, made up of current and former child care workers, have played a key role in co-designing a workforce survey, worker focus groups, and key informant interviews that support a mixed methods study of the pilot program. Co-design sessions were facilitated by our research partners at Urban Institute and Cardea Services over several months in 2025. Workgroup members shaped the research goals, survey constructs, and measurable outcomes of the Pilot based on their experience in the workforce. Many workgroup members report an increase in confidence in talking about the findings from the Wage Boost Pilot, and the process culminated in two public speaking opportunities with workgroup members where they shared about the Wage Boost Pilot data and learnings. Research co-design and meaning making sessions continue into the next two years of the pilot project.
Actions and Early Results:
- Child care workers co-designed with the research team a workforce survey, key informant interviews, and worker focus groups, and these research activities have been ongoing through spring 2026.
- Workgroup members participated in two public speaking opportunities to reflect on findings from a child care workforce survey.
- Workgroup members are building their skills and confidence in data and research to support in sharing learnings from the Wage Boost Pilot.
Next steps:
- Workgroup members will participate in research meaning-making sessions in summer 2026 to analyze findings from the Wage Boost Pilot’s survey, focus groups, and key informant interviews.
- Some workgroup members are opting into further skill building opportunities within data and research this year.
- Learnings from the first year of the Wage Boost Pilot will be shared in fall of 2026. Learn more about the Wage Boost Pilot mixed methods study.