title: Completeness and timeliness of electronic vs. conventional laboratory reporting for communicable disease surveillance--Oklahoma, 2011.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act encourages the meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology. A HITECH-compliant core component is nationwide electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) implementation for communicable disease surveillance. In Oklahoma, laboratories with ≥400 positive tests/year for reportable diseases must use ELR. Of 18 such laboratories, two have adopted ELR. We compared completeness and timeliness of ELR reports from these two laboratories with conventional reports from all other Oklahoma laboratories.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed confirmed reportable disease cases for January 1-December 31, 2011, excluding tuberculosis, hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, diseases without laboratory diagnoses, and immediately reportable diseases. Probable reportable tickborne disease cases were included. We compared ELR with conventional reporting (i.e., mail, fax, telephone, and Internet). We assessed data completeness based on eight demographic and two laboratory fields in each disease report and timeliness by percentage of cases reported in ≤1 business day.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 1,867 reports met the inclusion criteria; 24% of these reports had been submitted by ELR. Data completeness was 90% for ELR and 95% for conventional reporting. Patient addresses accounted for 97% of the missing data fields for ELR reports. Timeliness was 91% for ELR and 87% for conventional reports.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although early in the transition to ELR compliance in Oklahoma, ELR has already yielded improved timeliness for communicable disease surveillance. However, ELR did not yield more complete reports than conventional reporting. Requiring specific demographic data fields for ELR reports can improve the completeness of ELR.
authors.affiliation: Oklahoma State Department of Health, Acute Disease Service, Oklahoma City, OK ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Epidemic Intelligence Service, Atlanta, GA ; Current affiliation: Duke University Medical Center, Division of Infectious Diseases, Durham, NC.
authors.forename: Matthew G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Oklahoma State Department of Health, Acute Disease Service, Oklahoma City, OK.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Oklahoma State Department of Health, Acute Disease Service, Oklahoma City, OK.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Oklahoma State Department of Health, Office of the State Epidemiologist, Oklahoma City, OK.
authors.forename: Kristy K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Bradley
mesh_terms: D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009825:Oklahoma; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies