Risk Management and Mitigation in the DDS System
The California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) is the agency through which the State of California provides services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities. These disabilities include intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism and related conditions. Services are provided through state-operated developmental centers and community facilities, and contracts with 21 nonprofit regional centers. The regional centers serve as a local resource to help find and access the services and supports available to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. In June 2021, DDS and the regional centers served more than 363,000 individuals.
The California Legislature appropriates funds to the DDS and regional centers to develop a comprehensive risk management system to enhance consumers’ health, safety and well-being, and to implement preventive strategies and interventions to mitigate such risks. The system addresses the challenges of California while respecting the basic roles and responsibilities of the State’s service system structures.
As one element of risk management and quality assurance, DDS and California's network of regional centers monitor the occurrence of adverse events, captured through Special Incident Reports (SIR), to identify trends and develop strategies to prevent and mitigate risks. As required by Title 17, Section 54327 of the California Code of Regulations, vendors and long-term health care facilities report occurrences of suspected abuse, suspected neglect, injury requiring medical attention, unplanned hospitalization, and missing persons, if they occur when an individual is receiving services funded by a regional center (under vendored care). In addition, any occurrence of an individual's mortality or an individual being the victim of crime must be reported, whether or not it occurred while they were under vendored care.
The three key entities involved in risk management and mitigation activities within the developmental disabilities services system are:
DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES: DDS has overall state-level responsibility for planning, coordinating, and overseeing implementation of the State’s risk management program for persons with developmental disabilities. Among other activities, DDS maintains a uniform, statewide automated SIR database.
REGIONAL CENTERS: The 21 regional centers have local-level responsibility for planning, coordinating, and implementing the risk management program. Along with individual review and risk mitigation, the regional centers ensure the accurate and timely reporting of SIRs to DDS; conduct additional discovery activities to gather and report initial and follow-up SIR information; and assist in the development and implementation of system improvement activities based on trends in the analysis of SIR data.
RISK MANAGEMENT CONTRACTOR: The State engages the services of an independent, specialized risk management and mitigation contractor to perform a range of analytical and system improvement activities. Among other responsibilities, the risk management contractor conducts detailed statewide and regional center specific analyses of SIR data and related databases to monitor system performance and to track the effects of statewide and local risk management activities on SIR rates over time. The risk management contractor also provides tools, training, and technical support to assist regional centers in conducting local risk management and mitigation activities. This website is designed to provide a repository of these tools and statistical analyses for regional centers.
More information about DDS and its risk management system are available at https://www.dds.ca.gov/transparency/risk-management-mitigation/.
Mission Analytics Group, Inc. is currently contracted by DDS to serve as the independent risk management contractor, under agreement number HD219037.