Benefits and Barriers to Electronic Laboratory Results Reporting for Notifiable Diseases: The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Experience
- 1 April 2007
- journal article
- Published by American Public Health Association in American Journal of Public Health
- Vol. 97 (Supplement), S142-S145
- https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2006.098996
Abstract
Objectives. Despite national support for electronic laboratory reporting (ELR), the transition from paper to electronic reporting has been slow both nationally and locally. We assessed the ELR experience of New York City’s surveillance programs to identify barriers to ELR implementation and generalizable lessons about automated electronic notifiable disease surveillance. Methods. We conducted interviews with key staff of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to evaluate ELR implementation. A review of paper and ELR disease reports enabled a comparison of the reporting systems. Results. The completeness and timeliness of ELR were similar to, and sometimes better than, paper reporting for certain diseases. Incorporating electronic data into surveillance databases created new problems with data quality, shifted work demands, and required additional skills for data monitoring. ELR improved the handling of high-volume and time-sensitive diseases but did not completely automate reporting for diseases that required complicated assessments by staff. Conclusions. Although ELR streamlines data processing, electronic reporting has its own limitations. A more successful use of ELR can be achieved by understanding its strengths and limitations for different disease types.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- Progress in improving state and local disease surveillance--United States, 2000-2005.2005
- Electronic Laboratory Reporting for the Infectious Diseases Physician and Clinical MicrobiologistClinical Infectious Diseases, 2005
- A Review of Strategies for Enhancing the Completeness of Notifiable Disease ReportingJournal of Public Health Management & Practice, 2005
- Sensitivity of the Swedish statutory surveillance system for communicable diseases 1998–2002, assessed by the capture–recapture methodEpidemiology and Infection, 2005
- Electronic reporting improves timeliness and completeness of infectious disease notification, The Netherlands, 2003Eurosurveillance, 2005
- Evaluation of reporting timeliness of public health surveillance systems for infectious diseasesBMC Public Health, 2004
- Automatic Electronic Laboratory-Based Reporting of Notifiable Infectious DiseasesEmerging Infectious Diseases, 2002
- Completeness of Notifiable Infectious Disease Reporting in the United States: An Analytical Literature ReviewAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 2002
- Statewide System of Electronic Notifiable Disease Reporting From Clinical LaboratoriesJAMA, 1999
- A Health Information Network for Managing Innercity Tuberculosis: Bridging Clinical Care, Public Health, and Home CareComputers and Biomedical Research, 1999