Meaningful Use & Syndromic Surveillance

Last revised July 15, 2011

NC DETECT is North Carolina's statewide syndromic surveillance system that receives syndromic surveillance data to meet the Stage 1 public health reporting menu option.

Information for Eligible Providers / Non-Hospital Medical Practices

NC DETECT will NOT receive data from Eligible Providers until Stage 2 of meaningful use; therefore, eligible professionals are not required to meet this objective in Stage 1. No testing will be conducted at this time.

Information for Hospitals Submitting Emergency Department Data to NC DETECT via NCHESS

(Source: the North Carolina Division of Public Health's Meaningful Use page: http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/gcdc/meaningful_use/syndromic.html)

Currently all civilian North Carolina hospitals operating a 24/7 acute-care emergency department are required to contribute data for syndromic surveillance to the North Carolina Hospital Emergency Surveillance System (NCHESS). NCHESS data are then incorporated into North Carolina's statewide syndromic surveillance system, NC DETECT.

Syndromic surveillance reporting from civilian 24/7 acute care emergency departments is mandated by North Carolina General Statute § 130A-480 and requires that “For the purpose of ensuring the protection of the public health, the State Health Director shall develop a syndromic surveillance program for hospital emergency departments in order to detect and investigate public health threats that may result from (i) a terrorist incident using nuclear, biological, or chemical agents or (ii) an epidemic or infectious, communicable, or other disease.”

Eligible hospitals submitting their emergency department data to NC DETECT via NCHESS can meet the Meaningful Use Syndromic Surveillance public health menu reporting option in three ways:

1. Participation in the NCHESS-Investigative Monitoring Capability (NCHESS-IMC) program.

The NCHESS-IMC program provides hospital-wide syndromic surveillance in real-time using technology from Thomson Reuters. The NCHESS-IMC technology has been certified for 11 meaningful use objectives, including 170.302(l) public health surveillance, by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT). The name of the certified product is "Thomson Reuters (Healthcare) Inc. North Carolina Hospital Emergency Surveillance System" and the CCHIT certification number is CC-1112-352290-4. Hospitals that currently submit data using the IMC module meet the requirements for meaningful use certification; no additional activity is needed.

2 & 3. Participation in the NCHESS-Emergency Department Data Initiative (NCHESS-EDDI) program.

The NCHESS-EDDI program, mandated by North Carolina General Statute § 130A-480, requires that civilian hospital 24/7 acute care emergency departments must submit 22 required data elements at least once per day using a format prescribed by the NHCESS-EDDI Data File Collection Cookbook, maintained by the North Carolina Hospital Association (NCHA).

a.  Eligible hospitals may request that their current vendor seek certification through one of the ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCB), or a hospital may self-certify an existing NCHESS-EDDI solution through the CCHIT EHR Alternative Certification program for Hospitals (EACH) program. Upon such certification, the hospital can then attest to meeting the Syndromic Surveillance meaningful use objective.

b.  Hospitals may negotiate with a vendor who has a certified complete EHR or a certified EHR module to provide a data submission to NCHESS.  With a vendor who provides a certified complete EHR or EHR module, the hospital may then attest to having met the Syndromic Surveillance objective. NCHA will test messages from the certified EHRs; messages must follow the format laid out in the NCHESS-EDDI Cookbook.

The message testing for Meaningful Use for hospitals submitting emergency department data via NCHESS will be provided by the North Carolina Hospital Association.  Please contact the NCHA Help Desk.

Summary of Meaningful Use Requirements Specific to Syndromic Surveillance

The International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have worked together to develop guidance for the Meaningful Use objective that relates to syndromic surveillance. View the ISDS Final Recommendation to learn more about the goals of syndromic surveillance, its use in public health practice and the recommended list of data elements to be sent to public health agencies. View the CDC PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance (Document ID: 1.4 Draft for Review) for technical specifications for syndromic surveillance data transmissions based on the ISDS Final Recommendation.

Meaningful Use Additional Resources

North Carolina Medicaid EHR Incentive Payment Program: Eligible Professional Attestation Guide

North Carolina Division of Public Health's Meaningful Use Page: http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/gcdc/meaningful_use/

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO): ASTHO HIT Rule Summary

ISDS Meaningful Use Home Page: http://syndromic.org/projects/meaningful-use

Questions?

Please contact Amy Ising with any questions. ising (AT) ad (DOT) unc (DOT) edu.

Last revised July 15, 2011