While electronic public health reporting has grown significantly in recent years, hospitals and physicians continue to report barriers to public health data exchange.

According to a recent ONC blog post, 96 percent of hospitals engaged in at least one form of electronic public health data exchange. However, approximately three-quarters of hospitals reported at least one obstacle to public health reporting in 2022 – pointing to ongoing public health data exchange barriers.

One of the main barriers was hospitals' perception that public health authorities (PHAs) could not electronically receive information. There were also reported technical complexities and exchange costs as other barriers.

The goal of public health reporting is to enhance overall preparedness and response in the event of another pandemic. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the value of public health reporting was thrust into the spotlight, where deficiencies in the overall public health infrastructure became apparent. 

To address this need, RosettaHealth launched NHSN Direct in May 2021. Specifically, the solution offers a streamlined process for long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) and nursing home facilities to meet the new CMS COVID-19 POC reporting requirements.

Typically managed through the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), this CMS data-reporting requirement is a manual process, which can be challenging for facilities that have limited staff, and no available time to fully manage this process.

Thanks to RosettaHealth’s NHSN Direct solution, LTPAC and nursing home facilities can easily gather the vaccination data locally, and then submit it with a few mouse clicks via a simple web browser.

As an alternative to manually entering test results into the NHSN portal, NHSN Direct’s streamlined reporting capabilities offer a less-intensive solution, allowing facilities to free up their internal resources for other priorities.

NHSN Direct is a prime example of how hospitals and care facilities can overcome key barriers to public health reporting, as recently highlighted by the ONC. .

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