Healthcare Technology Featured Article

September 10, 2012

CDC Looking for Better Way to Submit Data to National Healthcare Safety Network


More than 55 percent of physicians have adopted electronic health record (ehr) technology, and of those who have, almost half said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their EHR system, according to a 2011 survey.

Here’s some more good news – more than 9,000 facilities are enrolled and entering data into the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) regarding healthcare associated infections, blood safety, public health surveillance, mandatory reporting, and process measurement and improvement, according to a story at healthdatamanagement.com.

The NHSN is a secure, web-based system that integrates and expands legacy patient and healthcare personnel safety surveillance systems managed by the division of healthcare quality promotion at The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

But there are still some bumps in the road. It’s not at all easy to submit data to the NHSN, so the CDC has sent out an SOS for quotes for a health information service provider to “implement secure messaging of Health Level Seven CDA (clinical document architecture) documents using the federally developed Direct Project protocols,” the story noted.

The contracted organization will be quite busy, providing an infrastructure capable of managing up to 500 incoming messages a day. With this infrastructure in place, facilities will be able to belong to any health information service provider of their choice, and the network will manage digital certificates and complement a security and penetration test on the technology with documented results sent to CDC.

The secure transport standard will assist providers “in transmitting data from EHRs and other healthcare information systems using the Health Level 7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) standard for automated entry into the agency’s safety surveillance system, according to an Aug. 28 announcement in Federal Business Opportunities,” Mary Mosquera revealed. 

Mosquera added that the CDC’s safety network collects and tracks information about “infection control, healthcare worker safety, blood safety, measurements of care processes and improvement, public health reporting and prevention research,” to give healthcare providers knowledge about what’s going on nationwide to better care for their patients.




Edited by Brooke Neuman
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