eCR Overview

Electronic case reporting (eCR) is the automated generation and secure transmission of case reports from health care organizations’ electronic health records (EHR) systems to public health agencies. eCR captures and reports required information digitally and will greatly reduce the burden of manual reporting.

eCR is reported through the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ APHL Informatics Messaging Services (AIMS) platform and distributed to the appropriate public health agencies.  Technical onboarding is handled by a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and APHL.

Health care organizations (HCOs) must be using an EHR that is on the Certified Health IT Products List in order to participate in eCR.

Declaration of Readiness
The state of South Carolina uses the HL7 electronic initial case report (eICR) standards (R1.1 and R3.1) for electronic case reporting and to support the new CMS Promoting Interoperability regulations for eCR. It is these standards that we will use to eventually eliminate manual reporting requirements. We also require the use of APHL AIMS and the Reportable Condition Knowledge Management System (RCKMS) to ensure appropriate reporting.

Steps to Onboarding eCR

Step 1: Initial Orientation

• Confirm that your EHR is on the Certified Health IT Products List.
• Partner with your EHR vendor to discuss implementing eCR.
• Communicate your intent to report eCR by completing the state registration form linked here and emailing it to MUHelpDesk@dhec.sc.gov.
• Familiarize yourself with the materials for health care providers on the APHL eCR website.

Step 2: Technical Onboarding

• Health care organizations using EHRs that currently support the generation of electronic case records can move forward with the CDC/APHL team for technical onboarding along with the assistance of their EHR.
  • Please check the CDC – Getting Started with eCR page for list of available EHR products.
• HCOs will have to establish a connection to the AIMS platform during this step.

Step 3: Go Live and Validate Data Quality

• Once onboarding is complete with CDC/APHL, the process of validating data quality begins with the state.
• DHEC will reach out to give feedback once they are able to review your messages and discuss potentially turning off manual reporting processes.

Key Information

The following documents and links provide guidance for health care organizations seeking to send eCR messages to DHEC.

• South Carolina eCR Registration Form
• APHL - eCR for Healthcare Providers
• Certified Health IT Products List
• CDC – Getting Started with eCR

For additional information or questions regarding the eCR at DHEC, please send an email to muhelpdesk@dhec.sc.gov.