Stream: Covid-19 Response
Topic: FEMA
Keith Boone (Mar 31 2020 at 23:27):
AHA has link to FEMA Spreadsheet here: https://www.aha.org/advisory/2020-03-30-coronavirus-update-administration-requests-hospitals-report-daily-covid-19
Hans Buitendijk (Apr 01 2020 at 00:57):
It's here in gitHub: https://github.com/AudaciousInquiry/saner-ig/blob/master/resources/Template%20for%20Daily%20Hospital%20COVID-19%20Reporting.xlsx for direct link.
Andrea Pitkus, PhD, MLS(ASCP)CM, CSM (Apr 01 2020 at 03:19):
In reviewing the lab test portion of the sheet, looks like they want hospital based reporting, but it doesn't clarify whether they want all lab results performed by a hospital lab, even if for smaller community hospitals (where a larger hospital lab serves as a reference lab), or all the ambulatory physician providers in their community to which they are contracted or if only for inpatients of the hospital. It also doesn't clarify if the hospital is sending their specimens to their state public health labs, if these would be in the counts (assume not, since not performed by the hospital lab).
Are those of you working on reporting planning on getting these data directly from the hospital's laboratory information system (LIS)? If feeds are from the EHR, it might miss tests performed for the ambulatory providers and those sent out to other laboratories if the hospital isn't performing testing in house/onsite, such as those performed by public health or independent labs. Not sure if CLIA required Specimen Rejection Reason is also available in the hospital EHR for community providers (say those not part of health system and have their own EHR interfaced to the lab's LIS) which order/result from a performing hospital laboratory bypassing that hospital lab's EHR system.
Gino Canessa (Apr 01 2020 at 20:44):
Working through the FEMA sheet and have a question... For the cumulative fields (e.g., "Cumulative Diagnostic Tests Ordered/Received" - "All tests ordered to date."), what is the period? Is this asking for all tests a facility has ever ordered, from when they started reporting this data, or some other date I haven't found?
Josh Mandel (Apr 01 2020 at 20:47):
I definitely don't know, but would guess "ever" to the extent the reporting system can calculate.
Michael Donnelly (Apr 01 2020 at 21:58):
In the current case, we could go back to the first identified case of COVID-19
Andrea Pitkus, PhD, MLS(ASCP)CM, CSM (Apr 02 2020 at 01:28):
What reporting system? ;) I think for most they will need to build a custom report. My laboratory colleagues are integrating data from the LIS and EHR for their facilities.
Andrea Pitkus, PhD, MLS(ASCP)CM, CSM (Apr 02 2020 at 01:33):
I'd argue the first order for a COVID-19 test for a suspected case/PUI. It'll likely be whenever a facility began offering capability to order said testing whether via a Misc choice for rare/reference lab testing or when it was validated and offered by the hospital lab. Although a number are sent to other hospitals offering testing such as Northwell, Northshore University Health, Stanford, or other independent reference labs such as Sonic.
Gino Canessa (Apr 03 2020 at 21:42):
Another question: what is the proper way to fill out the spreadsheet? We've had a few ideas here, and they all feel plausible.
Right now, I'm thinking that A1 gets overwritten with the date, and the rest of row 1 receives the numerical data. B4 and B5 then get the state (e.g., WI) and county (e.g., Dane).
Does that sound right? (Context - working on tooling to export these)
Keith Boone (Apr 03 2020 at 22:41):
Sounds right based on my visual memory of it.
Ryan Howells (Apr 20 2020 at 21:29):
Here's the latest guidance (April 10) from FEMA on what the hospitals are required to send to FEMA/HHS. https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2020/04/10/coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-hhs-letter-hospital-administrators.
Key phrases in the guidance: Authorize your health IT vendor or other third-party to share information directly with HHS. Publish to the hospital or facility’s website in a standardized format, such as schema.org. https://schema.org/docs/cdc-covid.html.
Are there projects that are being worked on to send this information electronically beyond schema.org? @Hans Buitendijk @Grahame Grieve @Isaac Vetter Maybe the work going on in Chicago?
Hans Buitendijk (Apr 20 2020 at 21:41):
@Ryan Howells : For CDC NSHN there is progress to submit to CDC electronically and "copy" state/local. Last I heard last week was CDC was almost ready with their specs to submit electronically. I might have missed the latest, although it is not on the CDC site yet. There is another project in Chicago that is working on something FHIR based, but have not heard yet what their specs will look like.
For FEMA they had a spreadsheet, but per the link you referenced, little further down below the schema.org reference, they indicate that everybody received a special link and can submit data on tests through that form. Unfortunately, beyond the 8 measures for FEMA, no further links, information, formats, provided.
Ryan Howells (Apr 20 2020 at 22:11):
Yea, @Hans Buitendijk I was trying to see if we could better coordinate across these efforts. It seems like the CDC request, the Chicago work (which is being sent to their local public health agency), and this latest guidance could be the same data feed? It's also my understanding FEMA, CDC, et.al didn't specify a format because they didn't know one exists (which I don't believe it does, yet).
We're all running in parallel paths. I was just hoping we could make this easier on everyone. I know there are a lot of "third-parties" who are doing this on behalf of their clients and building their own solutions. It seems highly duplicative at a time when hours/days matter . . . thoughts?
Hans Buitendijk (Apr 20 2020 at 22:17):
@Ryan Howells : that's exactly what we are hoping to drive through SANER initiatives. EHRA has been asking for this as well and hard to coalesce.
Isaac Vetter (Apr 20 2020 at 22:51):
(Ryan - I'm tagging in @Michael Donnelly , who's been leading on the Epic side).
Michael Donnelly (Apr 22 2020 at 15:33):
What action are you folks looking for?
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
