Electronic Case Reporting (eCR)

Electronic Case Reporting (eCR) is a modern approach to public health reporting that allows healthcare providers and systems to automatically send information about diagnosed or suspected cases of infectious diseases to public health departments as permitted by statute. eCR captures this data directly from electronic health records (EHRs) and sends it securely in real-time through HIPAA compliant systems. This helps speed up the detection of diseases and allows for faster interventions, response, and communication to the public.  

 eCR is a significant advancement in how public health identifies and prevents the spread of diseases. It reduces the burden on healthcare workers and ensures that public health departments receive timely, accurate information to better manage outbreaks. This seamless, automated process helps protect communities by improving the speed and accuracy of public health responses, ultimately saving lives and preventing the spread of infectious diseases.

To meet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Promoting Interoperability Program (PIP) requirement, critical access hospitals (CAHs) and eligible hospitals (EHs) are required to submit eCRs to DSHS. DSHS is currently only onboarding CAHs and EHs. For more information on eCR and onboarding requirements, please visit the DSHS Electronic Case Reporting Onboarding Page. 

eCR data surpasses manual reporting in comprehensiveness, encompassing patient demographics, diagnoses, comorbidities, occupation, travel history, immunizations, medications, pregnancy status, and additional treatments.  

Benefits of eCR  

For Public Health Departments

• Provides more timely, complete, and accurate data to support outbreak management and monitor disease trends.
• Efficiently monitors the spread of reportable diseases during outbreaks and public health emergencies.
• Reduces response time with automated information.
• Improves communication and collaboration with healthcare organizations by enabling bidirectional data exchange.
• Supports the submission of anonymized case-based data to CDC from state and local public health agencies through the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS).

For Healthcare Providers

• Saves time by eliminating manual data entry and reporting, thereby reducing the burden for providers without disrupting the clinical workflow.
• Streamlines reporting across public health jurisdictions.
• Fulfills the CMS requirement for eCR and other legal reporting requirements.

Questions on eCR onboarding in Texas should be submitted to TexasECR@dshs.texas.gov.