The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #64733

Larry Garrett, MPH, Kansas Integrated Public Health System Project, 650 North 670 East, American Fork, UT 84003, 801-492-1936, lgarrett@kiphs.com

The three basic tenets of communicable disease control are: detection, identification and intervention. Many activities are currently underway to improve the detection and identification of disease through improvement to the nation’s public health laboratories and integration of surveillance systems. However, the majority of these improvements have ignored the importance of intervention, the role of local disease investigators and the associated case management activities.

Current disease intervention activities are best described as categorical. For example, STD’s, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis all have separate intervention strategies even though the underlying workflow associated with case investigations is similar. A commonly heard complaint from local health departments is that that each program is different, has it’s own method of investigation and associated disease management system. The problem with these categorical case management systems is that they are intended as reporting tools and do not support the work tasks associated with disease control. This fundamental shortcoming forces local disease investigators to complete their work twice; once to complete the work associated with controlling disease and second to enter that work into a reporting system.

A project funded by the Kansas Health Foundation in cooperation with the Sedgwick County Health Department has recently been completed that has taken a systematic approach to intervention activities associated with disease investigation, case management and the resultant policies and procedures. This was accomplished by working across programs, identifying common workflows and the day-to-day business practice associated with disease management. This presentation will report on the findings of this project.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session the participants will be able to :
• Recognize the need for standard case investigation technique between investigators;
• Identify methods to develop standard case investigation protocols;
• Understand methods and tool sets used to identify the underlying business rules and processes associated with case management activities.

Keywords: Epidemiology, Case Management

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: The presenter is an employee of KIPHS, Inc.