Electronic Case Reporting

In accordance with Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-2a and Conn. Agencies Regs. §19a-36-A2, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Health (DPH) shall issue a list of reportable diseases, emergency illnesses and health conditions on an annual basis. Disease reporting is required under Conn. Agencies Regs. §19a-36-A3 and Conn. Agencies Regs. §19a-36-A4 and Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-2a and §19a-215. To facilitate timely reporting of diseases and conditions and to reduce the burden on health care agencies and personnel reporting, DPH declared readiness for electronic case reporting (eCR) as of January 1, 2022.

In 2022, eCR became a required measure for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Current requirements: Promoting Interoperability Program

eCR is managed in the DPH Informatics Program in the Infectious Disease Branch. eCR is the automated, real-time exchange of initial case report information between a healthcare organization’s electronic health records (EHR) and DPH. The DPH eCR project is coordinated with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) eCR project, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

DPH uses HL7 Clinical Document Architecture R2, STU Release 3.1 for Electronic Initial Case Report standards.

The figure below depicts how eCR messages flow from the healthcare organization to DPH. eCR messages are triggered from the EHR and determinations of reportability are performed on the centralized platform. Reportable conditions are authored in the RCKMS software based on each state’s criteria and regulations. If a condition meets the reportability requirements then the message is sent to the applicable public health agency. More details are provided upon HCO enrollment in the Connecticut local implementation guide for eCR.

Steps for Participation and Certification in eCR with DPH

Registration

• Healthcare organizations (HCO) interested in participating in eCR should determine their readiness by reviewing the Readiness and Implementation Checklist.
• DPH requires the use of the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ Informatics Messaging System (AIMS) and the Reportable Conditions Knowledge Management System (RCKMS) for reporting participation.
• If your EHR vendor is ready with eCR capabilities and the HCO is mandated to report:
  • Email DPH.ECRInformatics@ct.gov to register intent to participate:
    • Include organization’s name and address
    • EHR vendor and product version

Testing and Validation

• Review the CT eCR Validation Guide.
• Once registered with DPH, DPH will refer the HCO to the CDC eCR team for initial connectivity and validation testing: eCR initial onboarding process.
• After completing initial testing and validation with CDC and AIMS, DPH will contact the healthcare organization to perform pre-production validation testing for all diseases that are currently authored. During this period, the parallel processing phase, paper reporting or other approved methods should continue as required by law.
• Once a HCO’s data is fully validated and flowing to the production system, providers will be notified via email that they can discontinue paper reporting.
• Please find DPH local implantation guide attached. This guide includes information regarding validation and testing and requirements to discontinue paper reporting

For additional questions, please contact DPH.ECRInformatics@ct.gov

For Connecticut-based eligible clinicians and hospitals, enrollment to report using the eCR specific messages is required under CMS Promoting Interoperability Requirements, please visit Promoting Interoperability.

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