Syndromic Surveillance Reporting for Urgent Care

The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) is actively working to broaden syndromic surveillance beyond eligible hospitals to include urgent care facilities as more patients in Tennessee utilize these services for immediate medical needs. Syndromic surveillance data can be used to monitor and detect changes in disease frequency and guide preventive measures. Public Health uses an enhanced surveillance approach to syndromic surveillance that integrates traditional public health surveillance methods with the near real-time surveillance syndromic surveillance provides to detect conditions and health trends of immediate public health interest. The Tennessee Department of Health currently receives syndromic surveillance data from more than 120 hospital emergency department and urgent care sites across the state.

Urgent care facilities who can establish a Syndromic Surveillance Messaging interface with TDH can meet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Promoting Interoperability program’s active engagement requirements. TDH also supports eligible clinicians participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) using the online registration system. TDH’s Trading Partner Registration (TPR) site produces documents for participating partners that can used to document active engagement status and uploaded as proof for attestations. View the Declaration of Readiness at Meaningful Use Summary (tn.gov) to learn more about TDH public health reporting.

To satisfy TDH’s requirements for Public Health Reporting using electronic health record technology, all potential trading partners must first register their intent to exchange data on the TPR site.

For more information about Syndromic Surveillance Messaging please contact CEDS.Informatics@tn.gov with “Syndromic Surveillance” in the email subject line.