Case Study State HHS Department

From paper stack to data strategy. In under 30 days.

Handed a one-month federal deadline, our client—a state department of health and human services—didn't just comply. They modernized.

Case Study State HHS Department

Every year, the department used the GPRA survey, required of grantees nationwide by SAMHSA, to track outcomes for thousands of vulnerable residents—on paper. 

 

When the federal government retired GPRA for SUPRT—a leaner survey with a larger emphasis on mental health—most agencies swapped one paper form for another.

 

This state department didn't. Walker had already built similar digital solutions elsewhere, and they were ready. 

Built, deployed and running—in less than a month.

In under one month, Walker built a system that has already saved the department an estimated 281 hours of manual data entry. 

Situation

A mandate, a deadline and a better way forward.

Thirty days. That was the window to comply. 

The department tracked quality-of-life outcomes, insurance enrollment and program participation for thousands of vulnerable residents a year—all on paper. That tracking is the proof point that the department is making an impact on the at-risk populations they seek to serve. It’s required by SAMHSA—the federal agency funding that work. Submit it, and funding continues. Miss it, and it doesn't.

SAMHSA recently replaced two older surveys, GPRA and NOMs, with a new one—SUPRT. Most agencies used the deadline to swap one paper form for another.
 

But when Walker offered a digital SUPRT solution—this state department didn’t hesitate to say yes. 

Action

Two surveys, a dashboard and a smarter path to compliance.

Walker built the full digital SUPRT infrastructure in two phases, grounded in Qualtrics.


 Phase 1:  SUPRT A and SUPRT C, connected to a live dashboard showing trends across the patient journey for the first time. 

 Phase 2:  export infrastructure that outputs data in the exact SPARS format. Now, the department sets a date range and runs an export for user bulk upload—in minutes instead of days. 

1691

Records collected digitally since launch in August 2025.

24

Annual SPARS uploads now handled via batch export, replacing fully manual entry.

Outcome

The same funding. A fraction of the effort. 

No more re-keying paper by hand. The person who once buried their day in data entry now spends it on analysis. Word is already spreading—and the department has presented its approach to other states.

And when SAMHSA opens its SUPRT-to-SPARS API, they won't scramble to catch up. It's already built in.  

$41K

Estimated annual salary freed from data entry work, redirected to analysis.* 

2

States invited the department to speak about their digital transformation approach.

0

Errors on SPARS batch uploads since launch.

*Salary estimate based on data entry clerk compensation data for state government roles (Glassdoor, Dept. of Labor,Salary.com), cross-referenced against the HHS agency’s reported time savings.

Here’s a few key players.

Wallshield Liz 505 6917
Elizabeth W.
SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT I
Adkins Courtney 053 2565
Courtney A.
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Kent Brandon 147 4450 jpg
Brandon K.
ASSOCIATE CLIENT PARTNER
Tom Hixon
Tom H.
Associate Client Partner
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