Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
Children and Family Services (CFS)
The Problem
The DHHS Children and Family Services (CFS) Child Welfare system is committed to protecting children from abuse and neglect while promoting family stability and well-being. Central to this mission is ensuring permanency for children who enter care, prioritizing reunification whenever it is safe and appropriate.
The Solution
CFS undertook significant efforts to enhance outcomes for children and families. These system-wide improvements include:
- Streamlining policies to focus on core priorities
- Reducing distractions and inefficiencies for front-line workers
- Conducting thorough assessments of children’s clinical needs to connect them with appropriate services and supports
- Expanding prevention efforts to better support families at risk and broadening access to reporting tools for child abuse concerns
The Success
While this important work continues, meaningful progress has already been achieved:
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Improved Child Safety: The repeat maltreatment rate decreased by 34% from August 2022 to September 2024
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Timelier Permanency: Children's average time in out-of-home care was reduced by 5% from April 2024 to September 2024
These advancements reflect CFS’s dedication to strengthening families, improving child safety, and achieving permanency while reducing the system’s costs related to state General Fund expenditures.
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
Lincoln Regional Center
The Problem
The DHHS Lincoln Regional Center (LRC) is a 250 bed, Joint Commission-accredited state psychiatric hospital inpatient and residential program, operated by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. It serves people who need very specialized psychiatric services and provides services to people who, because of mental illness, require a highly structured treatment setting.
The Solution
The LRC enacted key system improvements including:
- Discharges from the facility have improved by 25%
- Average patient length of stay has improved by 30%
- Admission wait time has improved 53% when comparing current performance to the pre-project baseline
- The admission waiting time is currently 34 days, down from a high of 115 days in October 2023
The Success
As a result of these changes:
- Discharges from the facility have improved by 25%
- Average patient length of stay has improved by 30%
- Admission wait time has improved 53% when comparing current performance to the pre-project baseline
- The admission waiting time is currently 34 days, down from a high of 115 days in October 2023
These improvements were accomplished without increasing daily costs per patient. In fact, daily costs per patient were reduced by 6%.
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
Public Health Occupational Licensing
The Problem
DHHS Public Health – Occupational Licensing within the Division of Public Health issues licenses to people who work in many health professions across the state. In September 2024, there were 440 pending applications and the average time to issue a credential reached 100 days due to a large backlog of applications for mental health licenses.
The Solution
To reduce the delays in approving licenses, the Mental Health Team made several changes to improve the throughput of their licensing specialists, including:
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Developing a new application screening process to more quickly identify and resolve missing application information
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Organizing other resources to help field applicant phone calls and gather application documentation (allowing specialists to spend more time on reviewing applications)
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Developing a new procedure for following up with applicants to complete their applications
The Success
These changes:
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Reduced the application backlog from 440 to 117 days
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Reduced the average processing time from to 25 days
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This achieved the ambitious target set by the team in only three months without additional resources
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As a result, new mental health professionals can more quickly get to work, positively increasing the workforce and improving access to mental health care services across Nebraska.
