An accountability model for integrating information systems, evaluation mechanisms, and decision making processes in alcohol and drug abuse agencies.

This article has attempted to demonstrate that decision making and evaluation can be carried out in a systematic fashion only if agencies make a commitment to do so, and only if adequate systems are established. The management information system is the most expensive and most sophisticated component of the integrated model presented here. Its existence, in some fashion, is essential to the operation of the model. Contrary to what many managers may believe and practice, the management information system is not in itself the final solution to evaluation. Neither is the evaluation a panacea for all program ills. Evaluation can provide the information required to meet the ever increasing demands for agency or program accountability evaluation can also provide insights for future decisions to change or alter the allocation of resources. Such evaluation must be carefully planned and implemented; and, at the state level, can be successful only if executed in a systematic manner as suggested here. Regardless of the degree of sophistication of any system, it will work only when supported by users in the local treatment centers. If the model employed does little to serve them, it is not a model worth considering. It is with these needs in mind that this model was developed.