Electronic Health Record Incentive Program (“Meaningful Use”)
“Meaningful Use” Submissions of Syndromic Surveillance Data
Included in the strategies for demonstrating “meaningful use” of the EHR systems is the submission of electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies.
Syndromic surveillance is a strategy used by public health for early event detection and monitoring health trends of the community. It uses pre-diagnostic information such as “chief complaints” from people seeking acute care to identify patterns of illness. In Georgia, syndromic surveillance is used to monitor seasonal trends such as influenza-like illness along with a broad spectrum of other syndromes to help identify possible outbreaks and other issues of public health concern in the community.
Data is transmitted to GDPH from participating facilities on a daily basis. It is generally sent after midnight and contains brief information on each patient visit from the preceding day. The data are grouped into syndromes and statistical algorithms are applied to identify unusual temporal and geographic patterns that might indicate situations of public health concern.
Patient-identifying information in the transmissions is limited. Technical and administrative measures at GDPH ensure the security of the data and protect the confidentiality of the information that is submitted.
Syndromic surveillance messages are requested from:
- Hospitals for all emergency room visits
- Urgent care centers for all visits
- Primary care physician offices for all visits
Data submission is coordinated from the state health department. Your submissions to this central point are disseminated to the appropriate health district personnel within public health using centralized data systems with role based access.
Sending information to GDPH electronically does not by itself satisfy the Meaningful Use criteria. The information must be sent in specific formats that have been developed to send health-related information between healthcare information systems. See the links below for more details on the specifications.
Frequently Asked Questions
Standards and Requirements
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