Reuse of Clinical Data for Public Health Needs, a Healthcare Perspective

In 2008, CHRISTUS Health, a Catholic, faith-based, not-for-profit health system, began participation in BioSense with 11 of their hospitals, six in Texas and five from Louisiana sending data into BioSense. CHRISTUS Health, as a large healthcare provider, can contribute valuable clinical data to Public Health through BioSense, which supports the health of the communities serviced by CHRISTUS.

As any healthcare provider does, CHRISTUS Health also has a responsibility to report notifiable diseases to public health.  In the past, this has largely been accomplished through paper-based processes. As part of ongoing research to expand the utility of existing infrastructure, CHRISTUS Health was approached to be the first pilot utilizing the BioSense Integrator to produce both de-identified BioSense laboratory messages and Electronic Laboratory Result (ELR) messages from a single inbound lab feed. The re-identified ELR messages are sent via PHINMS from four of the Texas facilities to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) whenever a positive result for a reportable organism is received by the BioSense Integrator system.  CHRISTUS Health is evaluating the current processes for submitting notifiables diseases and analyzing the benefits and new workflows that come along with ELR reporting necessary to ensure completeness and accuracy, as well as streamlining of processes.