Timeliness is measured by the number of calendar days between the actual occurrence of an event in the real world and when the event is documented in the HMIS database. The report calculates the number of days for two events: The enrollment of a client into a project, and the discharge of a client from a project. We document an enrollment by creating an entry record in the HMIS. Similarly, a discharge is represented by an exit record in the HMIS.
Suppose a client was actually enrolled in a project on Wednesday May 1, 2019, but, for whatever reason, you did not sit down at a computer and document that enrollment until the following Wednesday, May 8th. To document the enrollment, you would create an Entry record in the HMIS for that client, and you would “back-date” the Entry Date to May 1st. The HMIS software, however, “knows” that you are creating this record on May 8th and so it can calculate that there were 7 days between the Entry Date and the date you created the HMIS record (May 8th minus May 1st equals 7 days). Here is the Timeliness table from HUD's Data Quality Framework report:
For this project enrollment, the report would add a “1” to the table cell that I circled in green. This would signify that there was one project enrollment that was documented between 7 and 10 days after the actual enrollment occurred. The report would do the same for all the enrollments and discharges. So, the numbers in second and third columns are NOT days, but rather the count of enrollments and discharges where the HMIS record was created within one of the day ranges in the first column. (The column titles are a little misleading, I think, but it’s hard to think of clearer titles that are also short enough!)
When all is said and done, our suggested goal would be to have all zeroes in the 7-10 and 11+ ranges, and as low a number as possible in the 4-6 range.