{"84a051cd-1f3d-42ba-be23-26f3f9856933": "<p>Sharing data between health departments and other healthcare organizations makes conducting public health activities like investigations, identifying and addressing issues, and evaluating intervention efforts easier and more effective. However, data sharing between state, local and private health entities is not without challenges. </p><p>Data sharing and reporting outbreaks of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is one of the most pressing issues. The success of this type of outbreak response hinges on access to accurate, timely data. While technology limitations represent some challenges, like data system access for public health professionals and system interoperability, other challenges are administrative like dedicating resources for up-to-date data systems and informatics and having access to staff with informatics expertise. Any solutions must also carefully balance public awareness and patient confidentiality. </p><p>Even if challenges in accessing and using available electronic health information are overcome, gaps in collecting or reporting data between health departments and local healthcare organizations may still exist. For instance, demographic data that could identify populations disproportionately impacted by HAI outbreaks and individual cases of antimicrobial resistance (AR) are not collected consistently, posing a challenge to understanding health inequities. </p><p>Manually sharing reports between healthcare organizations and public health can further strain thinly stretched healthcare staff. The best time to work through technical issues and reporting inconsistencies is prior to an outbreak incident. It is integral to effective outbreak response efforts. Some ways to work through challenges include establishing data dictionaries, checking data system interoperability, mandating reporting perimeters, and standardizing data. </p><p><a href=\"https://www.corha.org/corha-governance-committee-members/corha-workgroups/\">CORHA’s Policy Workgroup</a> aims to advocate for and establish more transparency related to data collection and reporting. We recognize that accomplishing this goal requires additional guidance, resources, and buy-in from leadership across public health and healthcare. Given the variations from state to state in public health data sharing rules, national-level mandates and public health law advocacy may also be necessary to address this challenge. </p><p>The CORHA Policy Workgroup continues to develop resources on public data sharing and reporting of HAI/AR outbreaks with the goal of balancing public data sharing and the protection of patient confidentiality. The following CORHA resources can be used to inform policies and legal frameworks for outbreak reporting, investigation, notification, and disclosure: </p><ul style=\"list-style-type:disc;\"><li><a href=\"https://www.corha.org/resources/corha-framework-for-healthcare-associated-infection-outbreak-notification/\">Framework for HAI Outbreak Notification</a> </li><li><a href=\"https://www.corha.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/HAI-Patient-Notification-Framework-one-pager_Oct-2023.pdf\">Framework for HAI Outbreak Notification One-Pager </a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.corha.org/resources/corha-principles-and-practices-for-outbreak-response/\">Principles &amp; Practices Chapter 4: Outbreak Detection and Reporting</a> </li><li><a href=\"https://www.corha.org/resources/corha-principles-and-practices-for-outbreak-response/\">Principles &amp; Practices Chapter 8: Notification and Communication</a> </li></ul>", "acf2caae-0773-4eb2-bb10-57a01b19e200": "Moon Kim, MD, MPH, Dawn Terashita, MD, MPH, & Jaclyn Abramson, MPH"}