During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) temporarily made lab-confirmed influenza hospitalizations reportable. Reporting of influenza hospitalizations is resource intensive for hospitals and local health jurisdictions. As a result, electronic sources of influenza hospitalization data are being explored. A Regional Health Information Exchange (HIE) in Washington currently sends DOH ICD9 coded discharge diagnoses and microbiology laboratory orders and results for all patients admitted to 17 hospitals throughout Washington, including four of the five hospitals in Spokane County. The HIE hospitalization and laboratory data may be a valuable replacement for mandatory notifiable condition reporting to monitor the basic epidemiology and severity of influenza in Washington.
Objective
To evaluate the sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), timeliness, completeness, and representativeness of lab-confirmed influenza hospitalization data from a health information exchange with respect to traditional notifiable condition reporting.