An Overview of the Reportable Conditions Trigger Codes (RCTC)

BACKGROUND:  The Reportable Conditions Trigger Codes support the initial step in the electronic case reporting flow from clinical care reporters to public health.  The RCTC is a set of standardized codes that are implemented in the clinical care system and matched against information in a patient encounter record to initiate generation of an Electronic Initial Case Report (eICR).  The trigger codes act as a coarse net enabling the clinical care system to identify only those encounters that may be associated with reportable conditions, and send them on to the next step in the eCR flow for further processing.  While the RCTC are a national set of codes intended to be inclusive of what all jurisdictions may want to consider for further evaluation, they do not stand alone.  Encounter records identified based on the trigger codes must undergo a secondary round of evaluation (e.g., Reportable Conditions Knowledge Management System [RCKMS], ESP).  The secondary round of evaluation applies jurisdiction-specific criteria against the eICR and sends matching records to the jurisdiction for follow-up and management.   

RCTC development began in 2015 with an initial set of trigger codes drafted by APHL in the summer/fall of 2015.  This set was subsequently evaluated and refined, resulting in a May 2016 release that included LOINC, SNOMED and ICD-10 codes for five conditions (Chlamydia, gonorrhea, pertussis, salmonellosis, and Zika).  Additional conditions will be added to the RCTC during the remainder of 2016.  Development is funded by CDC; design and development is guided by a collaborative with leadership from CSTE, CDC, APHL and other public health, health care delivery, and health information technology stakeholders. RCTC supports the Stage 3 Meaningful Use Objective for electronic case reporting.

This session will be interactive and provide a forum for discussion and audience input on outstanding questions related to trigger codes as a part of the eCR flow.  The eCR flow should be guided predominantly by what public health wants to receive, but be qualified by what clinical care systems can implement with consistency, and without excessive cost or complexity.  This session provides an opportunity for both jurisdictions and vendors to engage in discussion and provide their perspectives on trigger code implementation as it affects the case reporting flow.

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