Electronic case reporting (eCR) of COVID-19 to public health: implementation perspectives from the Minnesota Department of Health

Abstract

Electronic case reporting (eCR) is the automated generation and transmission of case reports from electronic health records to public health for review and action. These reports (electronic initial case reports: eICRs) adhere to recommended exchange and terminology standards. eCR is a partnership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) received eICRs for COVID-19 from April 2020 (3 sites, manual process), automated eCR implementation in August 2020 (7 sites) and on-boarded ∼1780 clinical units in 460 sites across 6 integrated healthcare systems (through March 2022). Approximately 20,000 eICRs/month were reported to MDH during high-volume timeframes. With increasing provider/health system implementation, the proportion of COVID-19 cases with an eICR increased to 30% (March 2022). Evaluation of data quality for select demographic variables (gender, race, ethnicity, email, phone, language) across the six reporting health systems revealed a high proportion of completeness (>80%) for half of variables and less complete data for rest (ethnicity, email, language) along with low ethnicity data (<50%) for one health system. Presently eCR implementation at MDH includes only one EHR vendor. Next steps will focus on onboarding other EHRs, additional eICR data extraction/utilization, detailed analysis, outreach to address data quality issues and expanding to other reportable conditions.

A Population Health Informatics Workshop for Promoting Team Science Between Public Health and Nursing Informatics and Increasing Conference Participant Diversity

“…It is comprised of half-day of content delivery and was organized by two faculty with expertise in public health informatics and nursing informatics. [13][14][15][16] Attendees from underrepresented communities were recruited by community partners (specifically, Hue-MAN partnership 17 and the Hmong Nurses Association 18 ). Their registration was paid for the entire 3-day conference event, including the workshop, to support attendance and provide opportunity for informatics training.…”

“…The PHI workshop was delivered as a preconference option in the context of the Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science conference 12 at the UMN. It was promoted under the title, “Looking at the Crystal Ball—The Power of Partnerships across Public Health and Nursing Informatics.” It is comprised of half-day of content delivery and was organized by two faculty with expertise in public health informatics and nursing informatics 13–16 . Attendees from underrepresented communities were recruited by community partners (specifically, Hue-MAN partnership 17 and the Hmong Nurses Association 18 ).…”

Navigating the Landscape: Barriers and Facilitators in Electronic Case Reporting Implementation Across Public Health Agencies

“…In response to these identified limitations, funding and initiatives have been fast-tracked to aid in the augmentation of the public health infrastructure 3,4. One of these initiatives is focused on enhancing public health case surveillance information through electronic case reporting (eCR) 4-7. eCR is a national effort led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE).…”

“…Accordingly, this data ecosystem entails participation across health care organizations (HCOs), electronic health record (EHR) vendors, Health Information Networks, and PHAs (national, state, local, and tribal). 5,6,[8][9][10] In early 2020, only 3 jurisdictions received case reports using eCR. 4 By March 2023, more than 23 000 health care facilities across all 50 US states sent case report information through eCR for COVID-19.…”

“…eCR is a solution that promotes a more timely, accurate, and complete transfer of case information from clinical information systems to public health agencies (PHAs). Accordingly, this data ecosystem entails participation across health care organizations (HCOs), electronic health record (EHR) vendors, Health Information Networks, and PHAs (national, state, local, and tribal) 5,6,8-10…”