Will County Ad-Hoc IT Assessment Committee met Dec. 2.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Ms. Parker led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
III. ROLL CALL
Chair Judy Ogalla called the meeting to order at 9:10 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Judy Ogalla | Chair | Present | |
| Margaret Tyson | Vice Chair | Present | |
| Meta Mueller | Member | Present | |
| Annette Parker | Member | Present | |
| Denise E. Winfrey | Member | Absent |
1. WC Ad-Hoc IT Assessment Committee - Regular Meeting - Sep 2, 2021 9:00 AM
| RESULT: APPROVED [3 TO 0]
MOVER: Margaret Tyson, Vice Chair SECONDER: Annette Parker, Member AYES: Ogalla, Tyson, Parker ABSENT: Winfrey AWAY: Mueller |
| RESULT: APPROVED [3 TO 0]
MOVER: Margaret Tyson, Vice Chair SECONDER: Annette Parker, Member AYES: Ogalla, Tyson, Parker ABSENT: Winfrey AWAY: Mueller |
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Introduction of Department Heads
Health Department
Ms. Olenek stated I am Sue Olenek the Executive Director of the Will County Health Department. Also on the meeting today is Elizabeth Bilotta, she is our Assistant Executive Director, we also have Anthony Melei who will be doing the presentation, he is the Director of ITT. Mr. Melei has a lot of good information for you; so, I will let him take the floor. Of course, if you have any questions for any of us, please let us know.
Mr. Melei stated I am the Director of ITT for the Health Department and Community Health Center. I graduated from Lewis University with a bachelor’s degree in Business and Computer Science and earned my master’s degree in computer Science from Governors Stare University. My main responsibility at the time was supporting the Case Management information system and managing office operations for the Health Moms/Healthy Kids Program. From Family Health Services I was promoted to Program Manager for ITT for the Health Department and the Director of ITT in 2018. My IT Department has six staff members, and their roles are Accounts Payable, Desktop Hardware, Software, Third Party Applications, Telecommunications, Network, Server Infrastructure, Database, and Data Analysis/Pandemic Response. We provide IT support for 300+ users, and over 50+ Programs and Grants. In addition to my staff the CHC uses the NextGen Electronic Health Record System which is supported by and Electronic Health Record Project Manager, Electronic Health Record Trainer, and Electronic Health Record Subject Matter Expert. This staff report to the CHC (Certified Health Constructor) CEO, and I have an oversight role to the Electronic Health Record system. The NextGen Electronic Health Record system is and extensive system which requires its own support team and super-user group. Annually we submit certification that our NextGen implementation is compliant with HIPAA/HITECH and other governmental regulations. The Electronic Health Record Project Manager is also a Software Engineer that ensures compliance and develops interfaces, configurations, and components for the transmission of information to the State of Illinois and other healthcare entities. All of which must adhere to HIPPA RULES. NextGen requires that we are current with all updates, so the system meets federal government certification and security requirements. THE NextGen system is updated multiple times a year; the upgrade requires super-users to test all workflows in a test environment before moving the system to the production environment. The Health Department and CHC have a large portfolio of information systems that support over 50 agency programs and grants. These systems consist of 10 physical servers, 21 virtual servers, approximately 75 on premises applications, and 15 hosted applications. Since March 2020 my department was responsible for deploying the information systems, network, and computer equipment for the new building, and moving computer equipment from the old building to the new building. We operated the IT Infrastructure in both buildings in parallel so that we could make a smooth cutover to the new facility. Also, in March 2020 we began the IT response to the pandemic. My staff are members of the Emergency Response team for a Public Health Emergency, and we provide for all the information technology resources and support for the response. Typically, we would set up a command center, and provide the computer equipment and telecommunications needed for Emergency Response Personnel. In this case due to the transmissibility of COVID-19, we could not stand up a physical command center. Microsoft Teams was utilized to implement a virtual command center and provided a central location to document our response, meet and collaborate both internally and externally with our partners. The Health Department has invested in technologies that enabled us to switch to remote work. For many years we have subscribed to the Microsoft 365 Enterprise (Government G3) platform, and Citrix Remote access Platform was utilized so that our remote employees could access the Health Department systems that are hosted in our data center. Citrix also provides virtual private network access to the agency’s network. Early in the pandemic we had a significant issue with our phone system. The Health Department has its own core phone system that is connected to the County’s, we did not have enough capacity to handle all the calls coming from the public during the pandemic. It took a couple of months to acquire the equipment and work with AT&T to add the capacity needed. The County contracted with a call center during the time we did to have capacity. The last part of our response was to provide computer equipment for vaccine distribution at our clinics, and for the Contact Tracing program. One of my goals for next fiscal year, is to implement a data warehouse, to provide a central location for public health data statistics that links a variety of data sources from our partners, local, state, and federal agencies. The data warehouse would assist the community and local government to identify trends and issues we need to address. The Health Department has an ARP request for this initiative. I would like to share my screen to provide a summary of our systems.
At this juncture Mr. Melei reviewed the attached PowerPoint presentation. A brief question and answer period followed.
Mrs. Ogalla said it is interesting to know that you have some in house applications as well as others that were designed by another group. But then you have a lot of other software that we just purchased because of the requirements for government processes and safety measures. I find that to be a very interesting system. Not being at the health center we don’t have that day-to-day interaction. I’m interested in all the different systems that you have. I know that you mentioned for next year, you are going to be wanting to go to Data Warehouse and that Ms. Olenek has put in for ARP funding. What do you envision for that if you could give a brief discussion on that?
Mr. Melei stated during the pandemic we didn’t have the data that we needed to address specific areas and we had to find this data. We know that data was out there in different agencies and available to the state, local, and federal agencies. We had to also collate our data; for our partners that would be involved with this; they would be imputing data into this warehouse system so we could get a good picture through the strategic plan of the public health department and managing the needs of the community.
Mrs. Ogalla asked what platform you would use.
Mr. Melei replied we are running with Microsoft; they also have a couple of grants; they would fund the development of the warehouse and get us started and then we would have to take care of the ongoing cost. The have used Microsoft Azure and warehouse development Data Lake that uses all the different tools that Microsoft develops; but also, other partners it could use Azure GIS; the County GIS Department could use to get on Data Warehouse; they can get what they need doing some of their analysis. It is designed to be some public viewing of data, some internal data that wouldn’t be out to the public. Just to really collate some of the data sources that we all collect; but it is not in a central location.
Mrs. Ogalla said I understand that is important; I ask Ms. Olenek lots of questions. You know the information is out there, but you don’t have that readily accessible. It is good to hear that you will be putting together something like that. As far as the implementation of that how long do you think it will take to develop and install?
Mr. Melei stated Microsoft’s program is called Data Platform in 30 days. We give them a business use case and they set that up from start to finish for that one use case. From there we can build on that. It is nice to get that start and get all the technical support and the training to work out of Data Warehouse; they have a partner called Tallan which specializes in all of this.
Mrs. Ogalla asked will this new system be used by everybody at the health department, or will it be just a select group of people?
Mr. Melei replied everybody at the health department as we get data for each of their divisions; also, our community partners, and hospitals that are part of a MAP Program. We would also be able to contribute to the system and access it. We are all applying for grants and having the data and identify trends. Even when we have a crisis that is happening. We will be there to help with things like substance abuse, we can look at that and see what the trends are. There are resources that are out there to capture all that data and collate it or use your own tools to analyze certain parts of it.
Mrs. Ogalla asked if you think there will be additional needs for hardware in addition of software.
Mr. Melei said we will be hosting in the Cloud in Azure and there will be security access requirements for those that need access, that information we will design security around it.
Mrs. Ogalla asked will we need to hire any additional staff.
Mr. Melei said I am also partnering with Lewis University; because they have a great Computer Science Program, but they also have a Data Science Program. This would be good to use Lewis University students to work on a specific problem and gather that data and do some analysis. We have a contract with their interns to work on some of that.
Mrs. Ogalla said I think that is great; I have worked with a lot of interns in the past. What I like when working with the students is that they have a lot of different ideas, and they bring a lot of freshness and conversation to the table. Plus, the fact that we are going to be working with our local students to help them move into their career path.
Mr. Melei said we also use their Cyber Security Group to do some risk analysis and help us maintain that we are still in security compliance, that has worked out well.
Mrs. Ogalla said that is because it is such a crazy world out there with everybody hacking in everywhere because they can’t mind their own business. Does anyone else have any questions or comments.
Ms. Olenek said I just wanted to make some additional comments to what Mr. Melei has already presented; to give you a little bit better idea of the scope of the programs. Because of all the different programs that we are under at the health department. We also must be complying and meet the requirements of the data, or how the data is entered and how the program is within the computer system. We work with the Department of Agriculture, Homeland Security, CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), IDPH (Illinois Department of Public Health) HHS (Health and Human Services), DMH (Department of Mental Health), I could go on with all the different grantees and funders and accrediting bodies. Our Community Health Center is joint commission accredited so there are all kinds of needs that they have with the systems. Our Behavioral Health System is CARF (Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) accredited; they have all these different needs. Obviously, compliance is a big deal. We have a Compliance Officer on board now and will be working closely with Mr. Melei. In the past much of this has fallen on Mr. Melei to make sure we were complying. As you can see there is too much that has to be done. We have about 50 programs here; many of they are grant operated. Grants are specific; it is not like the old days where they throw money at you, and you do as much as you can do. Grants are very specific in what they want as their deliverables, and what data they want. You have cost reports that are on a monthly or quarterly basis. In those cost reports you must break down your expenses and time; it must be real time documented it is highly regulated, a lot of documentation, and a lot of data that we have in all these robust systems. There are a couple of things that Mr. Melei and his group do as well that he didn’t mention; they help us with our FOIA requests. We get a lot of FOIA’s (Freedom of Information Act) request, especially through the pandemic we received a lot of extremely large FOIA requests. People wanting data information about the pandemic, about our numbers and all kinds of things. Many times, our staff and Mr. Melei’s staff must make sure that we can mine this data. That is another thing why this Data Warehouse will be a good project to do. They also help in supporting security cameras throughout the agencies; we have incidents every now and then, or even just the storage of that data. There are a lot of little extra things that they do in addition to these major programs.
Mrs. Ogalla replied just knowing what you handle there and the complexity of it as well as the private nature of it; you must make sure that you have a secure system. Being on the outside you don’t think of all the little things. I never worked in health care before; I’ve always been in a business type of setting. It is interesting to hear about all of this and it sounds like you have a pretty good team. I don’t know what the ARP funding is going to do; but I assume we will be looking into this as I see the need for it.
Ms. Olenek said in addition to that anyone who works with computers; you know that there are constant upgrades a change in systems. We are constantly doing upgrades and patches to keep our system up and current; that alone can be a daunting task. Our IT team is fantastic, and Mr. Melei’s leadership is wonderful, and he does a great job. Our team is dedicated to making sure we get what we need out of our systems, and they operate it for us.
Mrs. Ogalla replied just from his explanation I can tell; having been in IT myself and I know Ms. Tyson also has. When you are an IT person and you hear this and see the presentation, we know it is extremely high level, but at least enough detail those who are not IT can understand.
Ms. Olenek said it is a different language; so many times, I need it translated for me. Does anyone want to make a comment or have a question?
Ms. Tyson asked who is your point person for cyber security?
Mr. Melei replied I am.
Ms. Tyson said I wanted to know in case I have a question about cyber security; I know who I can talk to.
Mrs. Ogalla asked how the cross training is as far as you analyst, how do you handle that.
Mr. Melei replied they back each other up and work together as a group and work very well together. They have been crossed trained all along, so they know all the systems and are able to handle it when somebody is out.
Mrs. Ogalla said that is good to hear.
Ms. Mueller said I was wonder if a copy of his presentation could be emailed to us. Ms. Ceci stated it has already been emailed to the committee.
Mrs. Ogalla stated thank you for coming and bringing this forward. It is especially important to know what you have put into the Data Warehouse for the ARP funding. This committee is aware of the need and the purpose, and therefore will be able to provide support during the conversations regarding that as we move forward allocating some of those dollars. Thank you so much.
Handout from Anthony Melei at Committee
(PowerPoint)
VII. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
VIII. PUBLIC COMMENT
IX. CHAIRS REPORT/ ANNOUNCEMENTS
X. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XI. ADJOURNMENT
1. Motion to Adjourn @ 9:50 AM
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Margaret Tyson, Vice Chair SECONDER: Annette Parker, Member AYES: Ogalla, Tyson, Mueller, Parker ABSENT: Winfrey |
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