Rapid Digital Transformation – The GA DBHDD Legacy Transition
The transition for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (GA DBHDD) was one of the most time-sensitive and mission-critical projects of my career. Tasked with replacing a legacy infrastructure with a modern EHR, I served as the primary architect for the implementation design and planning. The goal was not simply to replace a system, but to digitize a complex, nine-stage clinical and administrative workflow that handles the state's most sensitive person-centered planning and case management functions.
I led the technical design of an end-to-end process that mirrors and enhances Georgia’s legacy business logic. This workflow encompasses the entire lifecycle of an individual: beginning with Intake and Initial Assessments, moving through Planning List Enrollment and specialized Clinical/Support Needs Assessments, and culminating in Funding Enrollment, Individualized Planning, and the final generation and transmission of Authorizations to the provider network. Achieving this level of functional depth required a high degree of Business Analysis and a rigorous approach to Data Governance to ensure that legacy records were migrated without loss or corruption.
Beyond the internal platform configuration, I orchestrated the development of several customized interfaces with external vendors, including a critical link to the Georgia MMIS. These interfaces were essential for ensuring that authorizations generated within the system were accurately communicated for fiscal processing. As the primary lead, I managed the Release Management and UAT Planning, coordinating directly with state leadership to ensure the platform met every regulatory requirement. Despite the limited timeline, the project was successfully driven to go-live, providing Georgia with a high-performance, integrated system that has fundamentally improved their case management velocity.
Projects & Accomplishments
Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities
Orchestrating Hybrid Interoperability – The GA MMIS & Carelon Integration
In the complex fiscal landscape of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (GA DBHDD), the validity of a service authorization is the primary gatekeeper for provider reimbursement. I was tasked with solving a dual-layer interoperability challenge: synchronizing waiver-funded authorizations with the Georgia MMIS and state-funded authorizations with the legacy Carelon system. These two systems operated on entirely different technical architectures, requiring a hybrid integration strategy to ensure that "Approved" or "Denied" statuses were reflected accurately and immediately in the billing system.
For the MMIS integration, I architected a robust, batch-based XML exchange. This involved designing technical specifications for secure SFTP transfers where authorization data was transmitted for state adjudication and response files were ingested to update records within the EHR. Simultaneously, for the Carelon legacy system, I led the transition from manual entry to a real-time API response model. This allowed the state to push authorizations and receive an instant adjudication response, a critical "speed-to-care" improvement that removed the latency inherent in legacy batch processing.
My role as the Business Analyst and QA Lead was to ensure that the logic governing these "Approve/Deny" responses was flawless. Any error in this exchange would directly result in billing failures or unauthorized service delivery. Through a rigorous User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase, I coordinated with both state MMIS vendors and Carelon technical teams to stress-test the interfaces against all possible fiscal scenarios. The successful deployment of these interfaces created a unified fiscal "Source of Truth," allowing GA DBHDD to manage millions of dollars in authorizations with absolute transparency and zero interruption to the provider revenue cycle.
Standardizing Clinical Risk Data – The GA DBHDD & HRST API Integration
For the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (GA DBHDD), the Health Risk Screening Tool (HRST) is a vital component for identifying health risks and directing appropriate care levels. However, the manual separation of HRST data from the state’s primary EHR created significant clinical and administrative silos. I was tasked with breaking down these barriers by building a comprehensive, 4-part API ecosystem to facilitate seamless data exchange between the GA DBHDD platform and the HRST third-party vendor. The primary challenge was the lack of a synchronized data model; without a unified way to identify individuals across both systems, the risk of data mismatching and PHI errors was a major concern.
I acted as the lead technical diplomat, successfully persuading GA DBHDD leadership, internal development teams, and HRST stakeholders to adopt a "Common Identifier" strategy. By establishing this shared ground for demographic and health records, I laid the foundation for four mission-critical interfaces: the automated push of Georgia's demographic and provider data, the synchronization of person-provider associations, and a sophisticated inbound interface to receive real-time assessment scores and clinical PDFs directly from HRST.
Throughout the Release Management cycle, I focused heavily on Data Governance and Risk Management. I re-defined the existing technical specifications to ensure that the data exchange was not only secure but also optimized for the high-volume performance required by the state of Georgia. By managing a rigorous UAT involving GA DBHDD, the HRST vendor, and our internal teams, I ensured that the final deployment provided Georgia's clinicians with instant access to risk data within the individual’s digital record. This integration eliminated manual data entry and provided a real-time "Source of Truth" for health risk management, directly impacting the quality of care oversight for the state.
Standardizing Support Level Determinations - The GA DBHDD SIS Integration
In the I/DD industry, the Support Intensity Scale (SIS) is the primary instrument used to determine the level of care and funding an individual requires. For the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities of Georgia (GA DBHDD), moving this assessment data into a centralized EHR was a mission-critical step toward operational efficiency. I was tasked with architecting the technical bridge that would allow Georgia to ingest SIS data while accommodating their unique clinical customizations.
Drawing on my extensive experience with other state government clients, I designed an SFTP-based interface to receive raw assessment data from the SIS vendor. The challenge lay in the data's "deterministic" nature—the system had to perfectly translate these scores into specific support levels that drive the state's fiscal engine. Beyond the automated ingestion, I identified a critical need for a "Human-in-the-Loop" review process. I designed and implemented a specialized workflow that flags "special cases" for manual user intervention, allowing GA DBHDD clinicians to review and approve assessment results before they are finalized. This hybrid approach ensured that the speed of automation was balanced with the precision of professional clinical judgment.
Throughout the Release Management cycle, I focused heavily on Data Governance and UAT. Because a mistake in the SIS ingestion logic could lead to a person being assigned an incorrect funding tier, I orchestrated a rigorous testing phase to validate every possible scoring outcome. By providing the state with a robust Reporting Management suite, I empowered leadership to track the progress of assessments and the outcomes of clinical reviews in real-time. This project successfully centralized Georgia’s support-level determinations, creating a seamless transition from clinical assessment to authorized care.
Breaking System Silos – Clinical Interoperability for GA DBHDD
The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities of Georgia (GA DBHDD) required a specialized clinical workflow where recommendations from health assessments would automatically inform the Individual Plan. In a standard EHR architecture, these modules often function independently to protect data integrity, but Georgia’s person-centered approach required a unified view. I led the strategic effort to bridge these silos, coordinating with development teams to architect a first-of-its-kind feature that established a direct technical connection between the Assessments module and the Individual Planning module. This ensured that a clinician’s findings were no longer isolated data points but were instead the foundation of the individual's care roadmap.
A secondary challenge emerged regarding the state's aggressive timeline. GA DBHDD needed to link multiple functional components within the plan, but building deep-level technical integrations for every module would have exceeded the go-live window. To solve this, I designed a high-efficiency alternative: a "Document Linking and Metadata" framework. I implemented a process that allowed users to manually attach and reference various readable documents across modules, essentially creating a connective tissue between independent system components. This allowed the state to meet its compliance goals without waiting for a lengthy development cycle.
To ensure accountability within this new framework, I introduced a sophisticated Review and Acknowledgment feature. This allowed multidisciplinary team members to track who had viewed, edited, or signed off on specific attachments, creating a transparent audit trail for state oversight. Throughout the Release Management cycle, I managed the UAT and Risk Management protocols, ensuring that these new connections—both automated and manual—maintained the high security and accessibility standards required by Georgia. This project successfully transformed GA DBHDD's documentation from a series of disconnected forms into a comprehensive, interlinked clinical record.
High-Volume Enterprise Migration – The GA DBHDD Legacy Transition
The legacy data migration for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities of Georgia (GA DBHDD) was one of the most high-pressure phases of the state’s digital transformation. Tasked with moving millions of records under a strict go-live deadline, I served as the primary lead for the migration planning and implementation. The project was not simply about moving data; it was about translating ten distinct business domains—from complex HRST risk profiles and SIS assessments to intricate user-role hierarchies—into a modernized EHR framework without a single loss of clinical context.
My strategy centered on a multifaceted approach to Data Governance. I directed the analysis and import of provider, site, and service data, while simultaneously managing an API-driven demographic load and a comprehensive user-setup migration that mirrored legacy access roles. A unique challenge of this project was the presence of existing provider customers already utilizing the platform. I had to architect a "Zero-Collision" migration plan that allowed for the influx of state-wide data without creating duplicate records or redundant workflows for these current users. This required surgical precision in how we handled person-provider associations and planning list imports.
To ensure a successful outcome, I managed an exhaustive User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and Reporting Management suite. Every record, from contact lists to historical assessment data, was validated against the source system to ensure accuracy. By leading this migration to a successful conclusion, I provided GA DBHDD with a "clean slate" that preserved years of historical clinical intelligence while enabling the state to immediately begin its new era of person-centered care management.