Key elements for successfully implementing an online surveillance and reporting system

The North Carolina Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NC EDSS) is a centralized Web-based system for disease reporting that is expected to improve the timeliness, reliability and accuracy of verifying and tracking reportable diseases in North Carolina. By the end of 2007, 14 local health departments (LHDs) in North Carolina were using NC EDSS to report tuberculosis to the North Carolina Division of Public Health. This presentation discusses the challenges related to preparing LHDs to transition to NC EDSS during this first phase of system implementation. Furthermore, it describes the key elements that contributed to a successful implementation of NC EDSS in these local health departments. These elements include 1) conducting an initial on-site assessment and educational visit at the health department to demonstrate the system to help staff better understand the changes it will bring to their daily jobs; 2) developing curriculum that focuses on practical public health investigation and reporting scenarios as part of a required face-to-face training; 3) providing on-site technical assistance during the week that the health department begins using NC EDSS; 4) using a two-phase evaluation: a written evaluation that provides immediate feedback on the face-to-face training and a follow-up oral evaluation that addresses how well the training prepared staff for using NC EDSS and identifies any current difficulties in use of the system; and 5) providing online refresher training sessions for staff who attended the face-to-face training sessions and are having difficulty with certain NC EDSS features.