COVID-19 Electronic Case Reporting for Healthcare Providers
Improving public health action with real-time data flow
Starting on January 1, 2022, eCR will be required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Promoting Interoperability Program for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Promoting Interoperability Performance Category for eligible clinicians.
Electronic case reporting (eCR) is the automated generation and transmission of case reports from the electronic health record (EHR) to public health agencies for review and action. eCR makes disease reporting from healthcare to public health faster and easier. It moves data quickly, securely, and seamlessly from EHRs in healthcare facilities to state, tribal, local, and territorial public health agencies. eCR also allows public health to provide information back to healthcare professionals.
Benefits of eCR
- Provides real-time reports to public health officials to guide the state, tribal, local, and territorial response to public health threats
- Facilitates communication and collaboration between healthcare and public health
- Reduces burden for healthcare providers without disrupting the clinical workflow
- Saves time by eliminating manual data entry and reporting
- Streamlines reporting to multiple jurisdictions
- Receives information from public health associated with the reportable condition
- Fulfills the CMS Promoting Interoperability Program requirement for eCR
- Can fulfill legal reporting requirements
- Improves COVID-19 reporting immediately and allows expansion to all reportable conditions
“Our implementation of eCR improved the quality and timeliness of public health reporting for COVID-19 across the 19 states we serve. This national gateway was a cost-effective solution that helped close critical data gaps in wide-scale reporting that saved front line providers valuable time and money.” – Paul Matthews, chief technology officer, OCHIN, Portland, Oregon
- Onboard quickly with most EHR systems
- Use the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) App if your EHR is not eCR-enabled
- Participate through eHealth Exchange or Carequality without additional legal requirements
- Learn and share experiences with a growing network of implementers nationwide
Getting Started
- Email ecr@cdc.gov to express your interest and learn about onboarding for eCR.
- Work with the eCR team to connect with your public health agency.
- Register your intent for eCR with the appropriate public health agency.
- Partner with your EHR vendor to discuss options for implementing eCR.
- Get approval from your organization to implement eCR.
- For more details, go to Getting Started with eCR.