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Lai Patrick

Completeness of public health information is essential for the accurate assessment of community health progress and disease surveillance. Yet challenges persist with respect to the level of completeness that public health agencies receive in reports submitted by health care providers. Missing and incomplete data can jeopardize information reliability and quality resulting in inaccurate disease evaluation and management (1). Additionally, incomplete data can prolong the time required for disease investigators to complete their work on a reported case. Thus, it is important to determine where the scarcity of information is coming from to recognize the characteristics of provider reporting.

Objective

To examine the completeness of data elements required for notifiable disease surveillance from official, provider-based reports submitted to a local health department.

Submitted by knowledge_repo… on

Preventing communicable disease spread is a primary objective for public health (PH). Reaching contagious people in a timely manner is essential to limit disease spread. Notifying patients of their infectious status also serves as an official reminder of social and legal responsibilities. The Marion County Public Health Department (MCPHD) sends disease information and Notice of Privacy Practices to patients using the United States Postal Service (USPS). We examined communicable disease cases with undelivered mail to ascertain failure causes and rates.

Objective

Explore causes of undelivered letters sent by public health departments to patients with communicable diseases.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

Timeliness of reports sent by laboratories and providers is a continuous challenge for disease surveillance and management. Public health organizations often collect communicable disease reports with various degrees of timeliness raising the concern about the delay in patient information received. Timely reports are beneficial to accurately evaluate community health needs and investigate disease outbreaks. According to Indiana state law, chlamydia reports are required to be sent to public health within 3 days after a positive test result confirmation. Therefore, laboratories and providers must be accountable and comply with regulation to ensure accurate data quality of disease assessment.

Objective

To analyze the time delay between a chlamydia positive test diagnosis and when a laboratory and/or a provider sends a report to a local public health department.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
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