Business Analyst - Level 1

STATE OF CONNECTICUT

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Immunization Information System (IIS) CT WiZ

Sep 2022

REQUIRED AGENCY

State of Connecticut Department of Public Health

Immunization Program

410 Capitol Avenue, MS# 11MUN

Hartford, CT 0na34-0308

PROJECTS/SYSTEMS OVERVIEW

Connecticut's Immunization Information System (IIS), "CT WiZ", was upgraded and went into production in September 2018. CT WiZ is a web-based database-driven system that maintains complete, accurate, and secure immunization records. The new system is designed to meet national standard requirements, including vaccine ordering and bi-directional electronic data exchange between a healthcare provider's electronic health records (EHR) and CT WiZ. Bi-directional data exchange enabled eligible health care providers to meet Stage 3 Meaningful Use / "Promoting Interoperability" (MU/PI) since 2019.

The Immunization Program's application for federal funds through the Implementation Advance Planning documents (IAPDs) with the Department of Social Services (DSS) was approved in May 2018 with a key emphasis on reducing the burden on providers while providing critical quality, clinical, and cost data to improve health outcomes. The funds will support activities for the transition from primarily paper based reporting of immunizations and manual data entry by DPH staff, to real-time electronic data exchange.

Activities under this project include assisting providers to meet a public health requirement by onboarding MU/PI Eligible Professionals plus Medicaid providers who are not EHR incentive-eligible for purposes of exchanging data with CT WiZ. Onboarding will occur in phases starting with the highest volume EHR vendors and their associated pediatric practices who administer the greatest volume of vaccinations, moving to progressively smaller volume sites. Eventually, the system will be available for any provider of vaccinations, including pharmacies. Electronic data exchange will also allow for expansion of the age range of patient vaccines captured in CT WiZ.

The aim of this project is to facilitate onboarding using the national standard Health Level 7 (HL7) format for data exchange between healthcare provider EHRs and CT WiZ, to support clinical and public health decision-making. Onboarding is a term used to describe the process and activities related to establishing an electronic interface between a healthcare provider's EHR and a jurisdiction's IIS (in CT, CT WiZ). The onboarding process begins at the point when a provider expresses or registers intent to establish an interface and ends after an interface has been successfully transitioned to the production IIS environment.

Once a provider is transitioned to production, efforts will transition to improve HL7 data quality through reports and feedback to providers on quality issues identified.

SCOPE OF WORK

Provide technical support to clinics and vendors involved in the onboarding process from initial request or invitation, through NIST testing, user acceptance testing, to full implementation of bi-directional exchange of electronic health records (EHR) with CT WiZ.

Implement end-to-end workflows and instructions to enable users to apply for HL7 onboarding and transition successfully from testing to production data submission.

Workflow steps will include:

o Authenticating and validating the identity of entities wishing to create an interface.

o Creating HL7 facility codes and username credentials in CT WiZ QA and Production for the assigned clinics.

o Verifying the accuracy of the interface through testing and validation, testing both incoming and outgoing data quality.

o Identifying the point at which the interface is deemed accurate and approved for transition to production environment.

o Updating the status of clinics in the onboarding traceability spreadsheet

o Testing of the interface post-production to authorize continued data exchange.

Resolve help desk tickets assigned to the Immunization Program. Create weekly reports regarding the status of onboarding clinics and the resolution of Help Desk tickets assigned.

Create and modify test scripts, test cases, and scenarios to ensure that the routes, HL7 parsing, and content validation are implemented correctly.

Identify training needs and organize training interventions to meet data quality standards.

Schedule, facilitate, and attend meetings both at DPH and with EHR vendors and clinics to resolve issues.

Create and implement data quality analysis processes and workflows in the production environment.

The consultant will need to have the required skills and experience outlined below, to work as part of the DPH Immunization Program.

Required Skills/Experience:

Proposed candidates should have a minimum of two years of business analysis experience

including:

• Working knowledge of Client/Server, Cloud and Web based distributed systems, and relational database principles;
• Knowledge of relevant HL7 2.x standards and SOAP/Web Services preferred;
• Demonstrated ability in applying business analysis methods/techniques for all phases of application development including, requirements analysis, design and development, testing, and maintenance of reports;

Working knowledge of healthcare industry and system applications preferred but not required;

Strong oral and written communication skills with the ability to manage and document functional/non-functional requirements, test plans, test scripts, and reports;

Strong stakeholder management skills and experience in requirements collection, development and execution of successful workshops, and meeting facilitation;

Strong requirements management experience (process) and proficient in the use of requirements gathering, documentation and prioritization tool;

Strong analytical skills, including ability to analyze data sources and design appropriate data presentation for diverse users;

• Working knowledge of public sector projects is preferred but not required;
• Proficiency using MS-Office tools including Excel, MS-Visio, Project and PowerPoint;
• Experience with SharePoint and Quality Center a plus;
• Excellent multi-tasking, organizational, communication and interpersonal skills are critical;
• Working with diversified internal and external stakeholders of varied levels of business knowledge and skills;

High level awareness of a variety of IT software development methodologies and tools;

Develop and track project targets and metrics;

• Education BA/ BS is preferred but experience in above areas is most important.