Kentucky Community Surveillance goes live in Northern Kentucky
(LOUISVILLE, KY) - On May 27, 2008, the Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) and Emergint Technologies launched a public health disease surveillance project for healthcare facilities in Northern Kentucky. The Kentucky Community Surveillance project utilizes Emergint's Data Collection and Transformation System (DCTS) software that provides infectious disease reporting from the St. Elizabeth Medical Center to the Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Department (NKIDHD) serving residents and visitors of Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties within the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Dick Bartlett, Emergency Preparedness/Trauma Coordinator at the KHA, states "Emergint has been very good to work with. They have been willing to work with our partner facilities and organizations in several communities to find the best consensus approach, and then follow-up to make sure that they have delivered on the expectations. We are planning on continuing the relationship with Emergint on development of the Community Surveillance project in other areas of the Commonwealth as funding becomes available."
DCTS integrates significant public health capabilities with hospital information systems to provide two-way communication between Hospitals and Public Health Departments. In Northern Kentucky, clinical data is validated and filtered for epidemiological importance and provides computer-assisted reporting for infectious diseases.
Reduction in clerical overhead is clearly the preeminent aspect of this system. "Receiving an electronic version of the EPID 200 form is great, but getting it with a majority of it already filled in is absolutely fantastic! In the past, it took anywhere from five to fifteen minutes to complete a form, then I had to fax it. Now it takes literally seconds to complete most forms and I no longer use the fax machine." In addition to saving time, "the system is extremely user-friendly, it was easy to learn how to use and it required very little transition time to move from our previous system to DCTS." states Patricia Burns, Infection Control Coordinator at St. Elizabeth Medical Center.
Kentucky Community Surveillance currently provides automated reporting for the following diseases: Bordetella pertussis, Campylobacter spp., Hepatitis A, Neisseria meningitidis, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus Group A (including pyogenes and Beta hemolytic.) In addition to surveillance, the software provides early event detection, outbreak management and response, and direct support for implementing countermeasures.
Public Health Department officials and the public also benefit from the Kentucky Community Surveillance system because the system improves reporting accuracy and timeliness for infectious diseases. Hospitals receive benefit because the computer software reduces clerical overhead, saves time and improves the accuracy on the EPID 200 form. In Northern Kentucky, Joyce Rice is the Health Department official who receives this data. Joyce says "we receive an alert whenever a reportable disease has been identified and we know that the EPID 200 form will be arriving soon. Before we had DCTS, it took hours and days to get this information, now I know within minutes."
Patient privacy is improved because all transactions are encrypted to ensure that their information is transmitted securely to the health department. This process eliminates any chance of losing the paper form and prevents facsimiles from being read by unauthorized persons. The software is designed so users see only the information that they need to see. The public also benefits because they will be able to respond in a timely manner to a notice of any outbreak.
An audit of all data transmitted between the facility and the Health Department is available for review and follow-up as needed.
In addition to collecting and transforming data, integration between DCTS and the CDC Early Aberration Reporting System (CDC EARS) assists Public Health officials with event detection support. Public Health users may view CDC EARS data showing syndromic disease analysis reports. To assist Public Health officials with outbreak management and response support, a geographical view of the reported cases may also be viewed using a Geographic Information System (GIS).
The system is running smoothly; however, Emergint continues to provide on-going support and communication to the healthcare professionals at the St. Elizabeth Medical Center and the NKIDHD.
About Emergint
Emergint is committed to providing consultation and IT services to meet the evolving management and IT demands of our clients. Through these services, Emergint enhances the client's ability to achieve their strategic mission through measurable results.
About KHA
KHA is "an advocate for the healthcare facilities, hospitals and healthcare organizations of the State." Their vision is to "represent hospitals, related health care organizations, and integrated health care systems dedicated to sustaining and improving the health status of the citizens of Kentucky." Source: http://www.kyha.com/vision.HTM
Contacts:
Ms. Theodora Giagtzis
Director of Business Development
(866) 681-0149 ext. 6105
theodora.giagtzis@emergint.com