CDC looking for partner to help improve the collection of COVID-19 lab test results
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants an improved system for tracking every COVID-19 test performed in the United States.
CDC officials want to partner with an organization that has technology to make it easier for testing facilities to report their data. And the new system should capture more complete demographic information about patients, according to a CDC announcement.
Under the program CDC will partner with one or more organizations that has the infrastructure, capability, scalability, and safeguards to enable centralized public health laboratory data reporting from testing entities to state and large local health departments.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act requires every testing entity to report results of every test it performs to detect SARS-CoV-2 or to diagnose a possible case of COVID-19.
New guidance released in June specifies what data must be reported to comply with the COVID-19 laboratory reporting requirement. It also requires facilities and providers ordering laboratory tests to gather more complete patient demographic information and send it to state and large local public health departments, who will then send deidentified data to the CDC and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Over 200 large-scale and multi-state testing entities (including large chain drug stores, pharmacies, private laboratory networks, healthcare providers and healthcare networks, pharmacy data aggregators) have inquired about options for centralized reporting of results as opposed to developing individual or using multiple reporting solutions.
COVID testing entities have communicated they are challenged by the reporting requirements to individual state, local, and county health departments. Some organizations stated they provide daily reporting of test results to over 70 public health departments, each differing in format and elements required.
Officials hope to fix this situation with the new reporting infrastructure.
Read more HERE.
