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NPIRS CLINICAL DATA MART

Division of Environmental Health Case Study (NDECI)

Background

The Notifiable Disease and External Cause of Injury (NDECI) project originated in the Albuquerque Area, Division of Environmental Health Services (DEHS). The DEHS had a need to track specific health issues that must be reported to State health officials. For purposes of the NDECI application, a notifiable disease was defined as "environmentally-related medical condition(s) treated in IHS operated facilities that must be reported to the New Mexico Department of Health." The DEHS also needed to track injuries that were being treated at their medical facilities throughout the Albuquerque Area.

There was no easy way for the DEHS to easily obtain aggregated data for either health issue. Since health facilities enter treatment data into a local Resource Patient Management System (RPMS) repository, there was no easy way to compile data from all RPMS sites and then share these data with appropriate health officials.

Solution

The DEHS teamed with the National Patient Information Reporting System (NPIRS) program to develop a workable solution. Using data from the agency’s National Data Warehouse (NDW) project, the NPIRS program developed a web-based NDECI data mart. This was the DEHS’ first experience using data mart technology. Working closely with DEHS staff, reports were designed to meet reporting requirements. Automated data movement and handling routines were developed to routinely and automatically update the NDECI database with new data received by the NDW. A security model was developed specific to the needs of DEHS program staff. A "version 1" was released in CY 2006 for the Albuquerque area.

Current Status

The value of the NDECI application had been noted by other IHS areas. A "version 2" application included all Oklahoma and Nashville area sites and added additional health areas. In addition to reporting notifiable diseases and injuries, the application now also reports data related to Asthma, intestinal diseases and vector borne diseases. A National application version "v2.5" was released that includes the ability to report data for all five health areas for all IHS facilities across all IHS Areas.