Microsoft Health
Customer Solution Case Study
Healthcare Provider Boosts Data Collection
by 60 Percent, for Better Clinical Outcomes
Customer: Devereux New York
Website: www.devereuxny.org
Customer Size: 250 employees
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Healthcare
Partner: Operant Systems
Customer Profile
Devereux New York, based in Red Hook,
New York, is part of the national
Devereux network of programs and
services that benefit tens of thousands of
people with disabilities and disorders.
Software and Services
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft SQL Server
 Windows Phone
“We know we can depend on Operant TeachMe for
data collection and analysis because it’s built on
Microsoft, from the front-end smartphones to the
back-end database.”
John O’Keefe, Executive Director, Devereux New York
Devereux New York serves special-needs children with autism,
severe disabilities, and disorders. It uses TeachMe from Operant
Systems, built on Microsoft mobile and web technologies, to
serve more children more effectively than it could before. With
more extensive, timely, and accurate behavioral data, Devereux
can better analyze client progress and modify treatment plans.
Business Needs
Some children are born with combinations
of developmental disabilities, and
psychiatric and behavioral disorders.
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Devereux New York is a nonprofit
healthcare organization founded to help
them. It includes a residential campus,
community-based intensive care facilities
(ICFs), and day programs, all designed to
help children who are severely disabled
and disordered to achieve all that they can.
But for Devereux New York and healthcare
providers like it, increasing challenges
threaten the efficacy of their programs.
The number of children diagnosed with
autism, for example, has doubled in a
decade, creating unprecedented demand
for limited services. Meanwhile, those
services have become more expensive to
provide, at a time when funding for them
has become increasingly scarce.
That’s the context in which Devereux New
York uses applied behavioral analysis to
treat its clients, especially those with
autism. The technique discourages specific
negative behaviors, rewards specific positive
ones, and continually refines the treatment
program based on each child’s progress.
Applied behavioral analysis depends upon a
massive, virtually continuous collection of
behavioral data for clinicians to analyze.
That data comes from staff who both work
with the children and lug around binders
and clipboards to record their behaviors.
Behaviors could go unreported, or reported
inaccurately, inconsistently, and tardily.
Solution
In 2010, John O’Keefe, Executive Director of
Devereux New York, discovered TeachMe
from Operant Systems. While electronic
systems for the collection and analysis of
behavioral data had long existed, O’Keefe
had long found them insufficient.
Traditional electronic solutions required
staff to report behaviors through PC
interfaces—which meant that much
reporting had to wait hours or more, until
staff had the opportunity to transcribe data
from their binders. Analysis, too, was often
confined to client-server systems that
limited the flexibility with which clinicians
could use them.
In contrast, TeachMe brings together
technologies that address the shortcomings
of traditional solutions. Devereux New York
staff record behaviors as they happen, using
the Windows Phones that they carry with
them. A set of disarmingly engaging icons
for various behaviors make it easy, even
intuitive, for staff to learn and use the
TeachMe app. TeachMe is also designed to
allow staff that record skills acquisition
behavior—including speech and language
teachers, physical and occupational
therapists, applied behavior analysts, and
special-education staff—to document their
services.
Behavioral data is uploaded to a Microsoft
SQL Server database hosted “in the cloud”
by Operant at its datacenter. Clinicians
analyze the data using a TeachMe web
interface with graphs and charts that show
the severity and frequency of monitored
behaviors. They conduct these analyses
from anywhere, at any time, with an
Internet connection.
Clinicians use their analyses to help decide
whether each child’s treatment plan is
proving effective, and to make changes to
those plans—for example, changing
behaviors to be monitored or skills to be
learned. Those changes are immediately
sent over the web to the Windows Phones
of the relevant staff members.
Benefits
With a year’s use of TeachMe behind him,
O’Keefe declares the solution a success for
his staff, his school, and, most importantly,
the children under their care.
“We know we can depend on Operant
TeachMe for data collection and analysis
because it’s built on Microsoft, from the
front-end smartphones to the back-end
database,” says O’Keefe.
Increases Volume of Collected Data by
60 Percent
Because staff can now record data more
quickly, easily, and promptly, they’re
recording more of it. The volume of
recorded behaviors immediately available
for analysis has increased by 60 percent,
fueling faster and better analyses, and
better refinements in treatment plans.
Gains Consistent Reporting, Analysis
from Across the Enterprise
The children may be campus residents,
day-program clients, ICF participants, or
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published February 2012
any combination. For the first time,
Devereux New York assembles
comprehensive reports and analyses that
cover a child’s experience across these
environments.
Successfully Treats “More Intense, More
Problematic” Children
The school now successfully treats children
with issues that are “more intense, more
problematic,” than previously, according to
O’Keefe. That success is based in part on
the more in-depth analyses and closer
tracking of client progress that clinicians
gain with TeachMe. It’s also based on the
greater time that staff spends with clients,
time previously consumed in
administrative chores.
Makes Better, Fuller Use of Remote Care
Settings
Devereux New York opened four ICFs in
the past year, a major expansion for the
school, in part because it is better able to
identify children from its residential and
other programs who are likely to thrive in
the small-scale, community-based setting,
and because it can better monitor and
assess their progress.
Monitors, Evaluates Staff More
Effectively
Administrators use TeachMe to assess how
thoroughly staff members track behaviors
and implement the treatment plan for
each child under their supervision—giving
administrators a new and highly useful
tool with which to evaluate staff
performance.