About the Award
Pete Bailey was instrumental in moving South Carolina from a data-poor state in the 1970s to the national model of an integrated data system that it is today. Pete had a vision that was ahead of his time: he imagined and built South Carolina’s IDS initially to provide more integrated health statistics and expanded it gradually to more holistically capture the state’s whole continuum of policies and programs to support residents, a concept he called the “circle of love.” This circle is represented in the art on the award.
The award highlights individuals who are following in Pete’s footsteps. With it, we honor network members whose innovative work in the field of cross-program data governance and systems integration is advancing evidence-building and improving lives.
Winners
The 2018 Pete Bailey Award was presented to Erin Dalton and Marc Cherna.
The Inaugural Pete Bailey Award for Achievement in Public Systems Integration was presented to none other than Pete Bailey in November 2013. Bailey retired from the Office of Research and Statistics, South Carolina State Budget and Control Board where he had been employed for 35 years.
About Pete Bailey
Under Pete Bailey’s leadership, South Carolina’s approach to data integration was transformed. During his time at the Office of Research and Statistics, he was part of the team that stewarded statewide health care data, including information on inpatient hospitalizations, outpatient surgeries, emergency room visits, home health visits, and worked to link that data to the state’s Medicaid system, Statewide Employee Insurance Claims database, Community Health Data System, and Free Clinic database. To support workforce development, the Office also built and maintained a health professions database of all licensed health professions with information on their education and credentials.
In addition, Bailey was a primary architect of the conceptual design of the South Carolina Integrated Health and Human Services Client-specific Data System. The system now comprises data from over twenty different Health and Human Services agencies, including not-for-profit organizations. Under Bailey’s tenure, linkages were achieved with the criminal legal system agencies, social services, behavioral health, disabilities, elder services, and vocational supports.
Among his other innovations, Bailey’s vision of statewide “address match” became reality with the help of the statewide E-911 emergency system in South Carolina. This made it possible to perform geographic and spatial analyses on data from across the IDS, a first in the country.
Bailey’s career spanned 35 years. In addition to building data linkage capacity, Bailey performed research and analyses and provided consultation to untold numbers of organizations. He also served as adjunct professor at both the University of South Carolina in Columbia and the Medical University in Charleston. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics, 1965, from Huntingdon College, Montgomery, Alabama, and a Master in Public Health in Biostatistics, 1969, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Pete Bailey passed away in 2021. His vision and legacy live on through the capacity he built for South Carolina and through this award and peer community.