Kahler W Stone1, Marilyn Felkner2, Eric Garza3, Maria Perez-Patron4, Cason D Schmit5, Thomas J McDonald6, Jennifer A Horney7. 1. 5235 Department of Health and Human Performance, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA. 2. 12330 Department of Public Health, University of Texas School of Human Ecology, Austin, TX, USA. 3. 8193 Emerging and Acute Infectious Disease Branch, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, TX, USA. 4. 14736 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Texas A&M School of Public Health, College Station, TX, USA. 5. Department of Health Policy and Management, Texas A&M School of Public Health, College Station, TX, USA. 6. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Texas A&M School of Public Health, College Station, TX, USA. 7. 5972 Department of Epidemiology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to characterize the changes in timeliness and completeness of disease case reporting in Texas in response to an increasing number of foodborne illnesses and high-consequence infectious disease investigations and the Texas Department of State Health Services' new state-funded epidemiologist (SFE) program. METHODS: We extracted electronic disease case reporting data on 42 conditions from 2012 through 2016 in all local health department (LHD) jurisdictions. We analyzed data on median time for processing reports and percentage of complete reports across time and between SFE and non-SFE jurisdictions using Mann-Whitney t tests and z scores. RESULTS: The median time of processing improved from 13 days to 10 days from 2012 to 2016, and the percentage of disease case reports that were complete improved from 19.6% to 27.7%. Most reports were for foodborne illnesses; both timeliness (11 to 7 days) and completeness (20.9% to 23.5%) improved for these reports. CONCLUSIONS: Disease reporting improvements in timeliness and completeness were associated with the SFE program and its enhancement of epidemiologic capacity. SFEs were shown to improve surveillance metrics in LHDs, even in jurisdictions with a high volume of case reports. Adding epidemiologist positions in LHDs produces a tangible outcome of improved disease surveillance.
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to characterize the changes in timeliness and completeness of disease case reporting in Texas in response to an increasing number of foodborne illnesses and high-consequence infectious disease investigations and the Texas Department of State Health Services' new state-funded epidemiologist (SFE) program. METHODS: We extracted electronic disease case reporting data on 42 conditions from 2012 through 2016 in all local health department (LHD) jurisdictions. We analyzed data on median time for processing reports and percentage of complete reports across time and between SFE and non-SFE jurisdictions using Mann-Whitney t tests and z scores. RESULTS: The median time of processing improved from 13 days to 10 days from 2012 to 2016, and the percentage of disease case reports that were complete improved from 19.6% to 27.7%. Most reports were for foodborne illnesses; both timeliness (11 to 7 days) and completeness (20.9% to 23.5%) improved for these reports. CONCLUSIONS: Disease reporting improvements in timeliness and completeness were associated with the SFE program and its enhancement of epidemiologic capacity. SFEs were shown to improve surveillance metrics in LHDs, even in jurisdictions with a high volume of case reports. Adding epidemiologist positions in LHDs produces a tangible outcome of improved disease surveillance.
Entities:
Keywords:
disease reporting; epidemiologic capacity; epidemiology; public health practice; surveillance
Authors: Kahler W Stone; Marilyn Felkner; Maria Perez-Patron; Cason Schmit; Thomas J McDonald; Jennifer A Horney Journal: Health Secur Date: 2019-11-26
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