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What does my hospital need in order to get started?
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If your hospital or laboratory sends reportable laboratory results to CDPH, you are eligible to take advantage of electronic laboratory reporting. Our team will need to access electronic data from your laboratory and ADT tables. We can process the data either through HL7 messages routed to our server or from data extracts. Our team has worked with several hospitals and if requested, we will try to guide you through the process. We will provide an ELR server and the software necessary to read the data into the ELR server, identify notifiable diseases that are mandated to be sent to the Chicago Department of Public Health, map the data to standard vocabularies, and send the data through a secure messaging system. To protect identifiable clinical date, the server we provide will be installed behind your hospital’s firewall.
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What is the cost to our healthcare facility?
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There is no direct cost to your facility. Indirect costs include provision of personnel time to prepare the data extract or route the HL7 message to our server. Also, there will be discussions with laboratory personnel to identify the notifiable diseases, and there will need to be time to train the infection preventionists on use of the system. Since the Chicago Department of Public Health is transitioning to a new web-based data entry system, training on the new system will eventually be required even if electronically laboratory reporting has not been implemented in your facility.
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Which hospitals are currently implementing electronic laboratory reporting?
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In Chicago, we are in varying stages of implementation at the following five hospitals:
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Northwestern Memorial Hospital
- Provident Hospital
- Rush University Medical Center
- Stroger Hospital of Cook County and
- University of Illinois Medical Center
- St. Bernard Hospital and
- Roseland Hospital
Electronic laboratory reporting to public health departments has successfully been implemented in several other regions.
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Who will maintain the software and the server?
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In the first year, the ELR solutions team will provide software upgrades and technical assistance. Further support will need to be negotiated with the Chicago Department of Public Health. Server maintenance will be the responsibility of the local institution.
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What is the messaging standard used to transmit data?
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We will send data from conditions that are mandated to report to CDPH using CDC’s Public Health Information Network Messaging System (PHINMS). The system securely sends and receives encrypted data over the Internet using Electronic Business Extensible Markup Language (ebXML) technology. Details about PHINMS can be found on CDC’s website: http://www.cdc.gov/phin/activities/applications-services/phinms/index.html
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What if we can’t send an HL7 message to your server?
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We also can process data extracts that can be routed to the server that we will provide to your hospital. For systems that can not provide an HL7 message or a data extract, we can discuss providing assistance with the extract or steps that may need to be taken to realize electronic laboratory reporting.
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What if I have a technical problem, who do I call?
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- For technical problems related to processing or sending the HL7 message, contact the ELR solutions team; please click here or send an email to: elr@ccbh.org.
- For technical problems related to missing or erroneous notifiable disease reports, contact the ELR solutions team; please click here or send an email to: elr@ccbh.org.
- For technical problems related to the Chicago Department of Public Health’s website, please click here.
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How long does the implementation process take?
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There is variability in the implementation process. The time required varies due to the ability of the institution to provide the required message or data extract, establishment of data use agreements, and the need for concurrent implementations. We estimate a process that should take approximately 20 weeks.
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Who do I contact to discuss implementation of electronic laboratory reporting?
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You can contact the ELR solutions team using the contact us link below. You can discuss implementation with the Chicago Department of Public Health by emailing Dr. Josh Jones at: Jones_Joshua@cdph.org.
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Would we be able to install a server at your institution without a data use agreement?
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Most facilities choose to establish a data use agreement between your institution and the ELR solutions team. This agreement allows the ELR solutions team to view your data and provide the mapping from your system's vocabularies to standard vocabularies (e.g., SNOMED and LOINC). We need to temporarily view your data. We can view your data without transferring identifiable data outside of your system through establishment of a VPN.
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What if the grant that allows us to provide this service is not renewed, what will happen?
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The majority of the grant is needed for the start up costs of electronic laboratory reporting. The maintenance costs will be dramatically lower; however, there will be some ongoing costs. Although we anticipate annual public health funding for electronic laboratory reporting, there is no certainty that funding will be continued. In the absence of funding, there will not be any software upgrades or technical assistance. If this occurs, and the system becomes inoperable, reporting notifiable diseases will need to be performed using manual data entry through a web-based browser.
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