Westmoreland County looks to data to improve human service efforts

The concept behind the movie “Moneyball” is coming to Westmoreland County government.

Data and analytics will become a central component of how and where the county Human Services Department spends its money and crafts future programs.

Human Services Director Rob Hamilton said officials will spend the next year integrating data from across the agency’s five divisions.

“This will help us serve more people and serve them better,” he said.

For decades, Westmoreland County’s human services were administered through individual departments, each with its own focus, such as child welfare, mental and behavioral health and drug overdose prevention. Those programs, along with veterans affairs and the Area Agency on Aging, were consolidated into the centralized Human Services Department in 2021.

Over the past year, the department has expanded its reach with additional staff and a new focus on coordination. Hamilton said the next phase of the department’s development will be through the use of data and analytics.

“Moneyball” has become a shorthand term for data-driven decision-making. It was made famous by the Oakland A’s and their former general manager Billy Beane, who used data and statistical variables — formally called sabermetrics — to better assess talent, build teams and predict performance. It was chronicled in Michael Lewis’ book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” and adapted into an acclaimed 2011 film.

Hamilton said those same principles can be used by his department to enhance the county’s ability to provide human services.

The county late last year received a $350,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to integrate data from each human services program to kickstart its foray into analytics. The funds will help the county create a unified database that administrators can rely upon to assess the array of services and craft future programs for individual clients.

“We might have a kid supervised by the children’s bureau and a parent in the same family who is receiving mental health services and a grandmother working with the Area Agency on Aging and, therefore, we might be spending money for the whole family to receive services. This will enable us to eliminate having different case managers working with one family,” Hamilton said.

Data collection is just the first step of the process. Hamilton said the county will hire at least one analyst and possibly more to review and interpret the data.

“This will allow us to access predictive analytics to help get a better idea of our needs rather than stay in a reactive mode. We want to be able to anticipate needs before it becomes a major problem. It will move us from a reactionary state to a preventative state,” Hamilton said. “This will allow us to spend less money and be more impactful.”

The county will spend just under a third of this year’s $456 million budget on human service programs. Hamilton said his department will help coordinate another $300 million that is funded through other sources and spent by private and nonprofit providers throughout the county.

Data integration and analytics have been a central part of human service programs in Allegheny County for the past two decades, according to department Director Erin Dalton.

“I cannot imagine doing the work we do without that infrastructure,” Dalton said. “It’s an incredibly powerful tool that allows us to do as much as possible when you have scarce resources.”

Allegheny County consolidated its data into a central collection point and allows clients to access their personal records. Reports on the county’s website enable a review of the performance of various human service efforts.

“I do think the reason why we have as much community acceptance is that you can go see our data,” Dalton said.