BACKGROUND: Reporting to public health by health care providers in Tennessee is currently completed via a paper case report form, faxed or mailed to the local, regional, or state health department. Frequently, these reports are missing pertinent information requiring public health to contact the provider to obtain the necessary information required to follow-up on a case. In addition, not all of the laboratories reporting to public health are reporting via electronic laboratory reporting (ELR), and therefore traditional paper-based methods continue to be used. In an effort to improve the timeliness, completeness and accuracy of reports from providers, and offer laboratories not yet reporting via ELR an online reporting option, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) utilized the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) software to design a web-based case reporting database to offer online reporting in 2017.
METHODS: The case reporting database includes three instruments: 1) a secure, public-facing survey for all reporters to report; 2) a printable case report for the surveillance staff conducting the investigation; and 3) an administrative form that collects details on when the case report was processed. Reporters will report suspected or known cases of reportable diseases online via REDCap. After submission, the reporters will receive a confirmation email which includes details about the case report, contact information for TDH, and a link to submit another report, if needed. TDH will be notified via email each time the case reporting survey is completed. Leveraging REDCap's Application Programming Interface (API), the information submitted online will then be transformed automatically in SAS via the API and pushed back into REDCap to be processed by TDH.
RESULTS: In November 2016, TDH piloted online reporting via REDCap with interested providers. We used feedback from the pilot to revise the database and develop a user guide with detailed REDCap reporting instructions. The SAS program was modified to assign jurisdiction and program (i.e., foodborne). A secondary REDCap database was developed to streamline the process of creating custom URLs for reporters, which pre-fills reporter/provider information via a query string.
CONCLUSIONS: Although we recognize electronic case reporting is on the horizon, this online reporting mechanism would allow for immediate collection of data from reporters electronically, thereby reducing the burden on reporters. Throughout 2017, TDH will evaluate the online reporting process for the impact on timeliness and completeness, and determine if automatically transmitting the case report data to Tennessee’s NEDSS Base System (NBS) is an appropriate next step.