Quality Data Entry Benefits Agencies Statewide

Data entry accuracy is not only crucial to your agency, but with statewide data sharing, your data entry accuracy affects your community partners as well. Items to pay attention to include:

• Spelling of names and SSN;
• Adding SHARED to the Alias field for shared records so that when the next agency does their due diligence and searches the system that client record is found;
• Minimizing duplicate client records through quality data entry at client record creation and thorough searches prior to creating a client record.

Per the HMIS Data Standards Manual, “When enrolling a client who already has a record in HMIS, verify that DOB, SSN, Race, and Ethnicity is complete and accurate -- and correct it, if it is not.” Race, ethnicity, and gender are self-identified and self-reported. Staff observations should not be used to collect this information.Contact the user at another agency that added conflicting information and resolve. If you are unable to identify the user that created the record or contact that users, contact the Helpdesk and we will assist you!