Measuring the performance of telephone-based disease surveillance systems in local health departments.
OBJECTIVE
We tested telephone-based disease surveillance systems in local health departments to identify system characteristics associated with consistent and timely responses to urgent case reports.


METHODS
We identified a stratified random sample of 74 health departments and conducted a series of unannounced tests of their telephone-based surveillance systems. We used regression analyses to identify system characteristics that predicted fast connection with an action officer (an appropriate public health professional).


RESULTS
Optimal performance in consistently connecting callers with an action officer in 30 minutes or less was achieved by 31% of participating health departments. Reaching a live person upon dialing, regardless of who that person was, was the strongest predictor of optimal performance both in being connected with an action officer and in consistency of connection times.


CONCLUSIONS
Health departments can achieve optimal performance in consistently connecting a caller with an action officer in 30 minutes or less and may improve performance by using a telephone-based disease surveillance system in which the phone is answered by a live person at all times.
Dausey
David J
DJ
RAND Corp, 4570 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. dausey@rand.org
Chandra
Anita
A
Schaefer
Agnes G
AG
Bahney
Ben
B
Haviland
Amelia
A
Zakowski
Sarah
S
Lurie
Nicole
N
D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009111:Local Government; D008330:Management Audit; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards*; D040442:Public Health Informatics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013689:Telephone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D014481:United States