Infectious Disease Reporting and Outbreak Management Improvement Project

Introduction Specific communicable diseases have to be reported by law within a specific time period. In Ohio, prior to 2001, most of these disease reports were on paper reports that were reported from providers to local health departments. In turn the Communicable Disease Nurse mailed the hardcopies to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH). In 2001 the Ohio Disease Reporting System (ODRS) was rolled out to all local public health agencies in Ohio.1 ODRS is Ohio’s portion of the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System. ODRS should not be confused with syndromic surveillance systems that are for detecting a disease outbreak before the disease itself is detected.2 Chronic disease surveillance system data has been evaluated for long term trends and potential enhancements.3 However, the use of communicable disease reports vary greatly.4 However, the export data has not routinely been used for quality improvement purposes of the disease reporting process itself. In December 2014, Greene County Public Health (GCPH) begain a project to improve reporting of communicable diseases and the response to disease outbreaks.