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Public Health Registries: Syndromic Surveillance

This is the onboarding page for syndromic surveillance. Onboarding refers to the testing and validation process that providers and public health programs engage in prior to ongoing submission of production data from certified electronic health record (EHR) technology (CEHRT). This page contains information on the Division of Public Health (DPH) Syndromic Surveillance, including:

  • Technical capacity to receive data.
  • Resource/administrative capacity.
  • Information required to register.
  • Detailed onboarding checklist.

Technical capacity to accept data and specifications

DPH has the technical capacity to accept syndromic surveillance data from all facility types. DPH is currently transitioning to collecting identifiable data locally. For more information see the syndromic data page.

Health care organizations have two options for submitting syndromic surveillance data:

Regardless of transmission path DPH will send de-identified data onto the CDC's National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) via the BioSense Platform, a secure nationwide public health tracking tool.

Regardless of which transmission path is used, any hospital wanting to satisfy the Syndromic Surveillance Reporting Measure must use the required edition of federally certified health information technology, i.e., the technology that generates the syndromic surveillance messages has to meet the HL7 2.5.1 standards and conform to the specifications found in the Public Health Information Network (PHIN) messaging guide for syndromic surveillance.

DPH is capable of accepting ambulatory syndromic surveillance data from select eligible professionals based on their Provider Type and Specialty code (directly or via WISHIN). Refer to the table in Appendix B of the Eligible Professional Attestation Guidance for Stage 3 Public Health and Clinical Data Registry Reporting Objective, P-01850-21, to determine if syndromic surveillance data is being collected from your Provider Type and Specialty. For guidance on how to attest to the Syndromic Surveillance Reporting measure, refer to Syndromic Surveillance Measure Guidance for Eligible Professionals, P-01254.

Resource capacity

DPH has the resource capacity to support testing and data validation of syndromic surveillance data for hospitals and prioritized outpatient facilities in the queue awaiting an invitation to begin onboarding for syndromic surveillance data submission (directly or via WISHIN).

Hospitals and eligible professionals participating in the Promoting Interoperability Program can meet the Syndromic Surveillance Reporting Measure even if they do not begin testing during their EHR reporting period as long as they register with DPH no later than 60 days after the start of their reporting period, are responsive to DPH communications, and have health information technology that is federally certified for syndromic surveillance data submission.

Information required to register

To register, you will need the following information:

  • Organization name
  • Primary technical contact information (phone number and email address)
  • Primary Meaningful Use contact information (phone number and email address), if applicable
  • Primary address
  • Meaningful Use stage and year, if applicable
  • EHR vendor name
  • EHR product name and version
  • Submission option (direct to DPH or through WISHIN)

Once DPH has resources to support the testing and validation of a facility’s syndromic surveillance data, the onboarding process will begin only for those facilities that have registered with DPH. To register with the Syndromic Surveillance, please visit the PHREDS Enrollment and Registration of Intent page.

Onboarding materials

The Syndromic Surveillance Onboarding Checklist, P-00553A is a quick guide for facilities wishing to submit syndromic data to Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Implementation Guide for Syndromic Surveillance, P-00290 is a comprehensive document for administrators who wish to submit syndromic data to Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance, P-02231 is the technical guide which gives specifications and business requirements for submitting syndromic data to Wisconsin.

Questions?

For questions about the technical onboarding process, email the Wisconsin Syndromic Surveillance team.

For questions about the registration process, email the Wisconsin eHealth Program.

Glossary

 
Last revised February 7, 2023