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In this case study:
Client: Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (GA-DBHDD)
Industry: Public Sector
Products and Services:
- Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Azure OpenAI Service
- Cosmos DB
- Azure App Service
- Airo AI Accelerator
- AI Managed Services
Country: USA
About GA-DBHDD
The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (GA-DBHDD) is the state agency responsible for providing treatment, support, and prevention services for individuals with mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and intellectual or developmental disabilities.
With a network spanning state hospitals, community providers, and crisis services, GA-DBHDD serves thousands of Georgians each year. The department is committed to improving outcomes across the behavioral health continuum while ensuring care remains compassionate, compliant, and data-informed.
As demand for services grows, so does the need to operate more efficiently without compromising clinical integrity.
The Challenge: Clinical Time Constrained by Documentation
Within inpatient forensic services, risk assessments are essential to determining appropriate care and placement decisions.
Each assessment required physicians to manually review and synthesize information from up to 20 documents across multiple systems, including SharePoint and other repositories. Evaluators spent 8 to 12 hours per assessment compiling and summarizing unstructured data before they could even begin applying clinical judgment.
With more than 300 assessments conducted annually, the process created a significant administrative burden. Highly trained clinicians were dedicating substantial time to document retrieval and summary preparation instead of direct patient care.
GA-DBHDD leadership recognized the opportunity to modernize this workflow using AI - but only if it could be done securely, transparently, and with full clinical oversight.
The Approach: From AI Use Case to Operational Workflow Framework
GA-DBHDD partnered with Quisitive and Microsoft to accelerate information retrieval and summary preparation while preserving governance and accountability.
Quisitive began with an AI Strategy and Design engagement to identify a focused, high-impact starting point. The result was a Retrieval-Augmented Generation solution powered by Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search.
The platform securely indexes structured and unstructured data across enterprise systems and enables clinicians to query and synthesize information within a single workflow. Instead of manually searching through dozens of documents, evaluators receive structured, context-aware draft summaries to support their clinical findings.
Expanding Into Structured Agents and Workflows
As adoption matured, the solution evolved beyond a single summarization capability into a modular agent framework aligned to how clinical work actually occurs.
Built on Quisitive’s Airo™ AI Accelerator, the system now includes specialized agents supporting:
- Risk assessment domains such as demographics, forensics, legal history, offenses, diagnoses, social history, psychology, and de-escalation documentation
- Annual and nursing assessment reporting
- Progress documentation and longitudinal case review
- Psychiatric evaluations and therapy assessments
- Domain-specific notes across psychology, psychiatry, social work, activity therapy, rehabilitation, and post-discharge records
Each agent performs a defined function within a governed workflow. Through visual workflow orchestration, administrative users can configure how agents retrieve, analyze, and synthesize information across designated data sources.
This structured architecture ensures flexibility without sacrificing compliance. Clinicians remain fully responsible for final assessments and decisions. AI enhances preparation; it does not replace professional judgment.
The solution is now supported under Quisitive’s Managed AI Operations Services model, providing ongoing governance, monitoring, optimization, and strategic guidance as GA-DBHDD expands its AI initiatives.
The Impact: Capacity Returned to Care
At full deployment scale, GA-DBHDD projects:
4+ Hours
saved per assessment
1,200+
clinician hours returned annually
$100K+
saved in projected administrative cost reduction
The most meaningful outcome is not simply time saved. It is capacity regained.
Building a Foundation for Responsible AI Growth
What began as a targeted workflow improvement has evolved into a secure and extensible AI foundation.
With Airo™ and Managed AI Services in place, GA-DBHDD now benefits from:
- Azure-native, secure AI architecture
- Configurable, agent-based workflows aligned to clinical domains
- Centralized governance and oversight
- A scalable model for expanding AI across behavioral health operations
Rather than a one-time pilot, the department has established a structured path for responsible AI adoption aligned to its mission and regulatory environment.
“The partnership with Quisitive and Microsoft has been instrumental in helping us take a thoughtful, secure, and measurable approach to AI adoption in behavioral health.” "
Jason McSwain, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Operations & CIO, GA-DBHDD
