Final Week for Quarterly Data Quality Submissions
QDQ Deadline
The deadline for reporting Quarterly Data Quality (QDQ) scores for the last quarter of 2020 (October 1st to December 31st, 2020) is fast approaching. HMIS users have until February 11th, 2021 to enter the scores for the providers in their agency.
In the QDQ monitoring process, four times per year, agencies will run a special report that ‘scores’ their providers’ data quality based on the extent to which the HUD and MN universal data elements meet criteria for accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness. Agencies will have time to correct issues and then re-run the report, with support from ICA in HMIS User Groups and via the HMIS MN Helpdesk during that time.
By mid-January, agencies should have all of their data entered into HMIS so they can start running the report and viewing the data that needs to be cleaned up. In the latter half of January and into early February, agencies run the QDQ report, assess the errors shown, and make the corrections to their data.
Because users need an ART refresh to see the corrections made, they should plan to finish corrections by Wednesday, February 10th, 2021 so the last ART report can be run on the 11th.
Determining Scores
The ICA Helpdesk is available weekdays 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM to answer data correction questions and troubleshoot reporting issues. Users can contact the Helpdesk at ICA by clicking here. (hmismn.org > Contact Us)
Data Quality is typically thought of in terms of its component parts: completeness, consistency, accuracy, and timeliness.
Completeness: all the appropriate and relevant data that agencies or funders need is being collected and recorded
Consistency and Accuracy: how all aspects of a client’s profile and assessment data accurately reflect the client’s answers and “agree with” each other; there are no contradictions among the data
Timeliness: the time between data collection and data entry; the time between a client entering a project and when an HMIS user’s fingers are on the keyboard entering data
To see the details of how scores are determined, one should review the scoring rubric. The rubric can be found by clicking here. (hmismn.org > Training > QDQ > QDQ Rubric)
Scoring can be different from project to project if the project types are different. For example, if an agency has an Emergency Shelter (ES) project and a Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) project, the rubric can assign different points for the same data element.
If each project has an error rate of 3.5% for the Name data element, the RRH project will only earn 4 points since 3.5% is greater than 1.99% and below 5.99%. However, the ES project will earn 7 points. It falls in the same range (2.99% to 5.99%) but ES projects are scored differently than RRH projects.
Using the Scores
When the QDQ scores are submitted, they are reviewed by CoC Coordinators and state program representatives. To learn more about the pilot process for score reviews, click here. (hmismn.org > Training > QDQ)
Thank you, again, for participating in the QDQ process. Whether you complete your data cleanup or not, we hope you submit your scores and narratives. Data across the state of Minnesota has been improved because of these efforts and, with greater participation, the data of all clients will benefit.