Orange County NC Website
Page 3 of 9 <br />Revised July 2019 <br />i. Strengthen ability to quickly scale testing as necessary to assure that optimal utilization <br />of existing and new testing platforms can be supported to help meet increases in testing <br />demand in a timely manner. <br />ii. Build local capacity for testing of COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 including within high-risk <br />settings or in vulnerable populations that reside in their communities. <br />b. Enhance laboratory testing capacity for COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 outside of public health <br />laboratories. <br />i. Establish or expand capacity to coordinate with public/private laboratory testing <br />providers, including those that assist with surge and with testing for high-risk <br />environments. <br />ii. Secure and/or utilize mobile laboratory units, or other methods to provide point-of-care <br />(POC) testing at public health-led clinics or non-traditional test sites (e.g., homeless <br />shelters, food processing plants, prisons, Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs)). <br />c. Enhance data management and analytic capacity in public health laboratories to help improve <br />efficiencies in operations, management, testing, and data sharing. <br />i. Improve efficiencies in laboratory operations and management using data from <br />throughput, staffing, billing, supplies, and orders. <br />ii. Improve the capacity to analyze laboratory data to help understand and make informed <br />decisions about issues such as gaps in testing and community mitigation efforts. Data <br />elements such as tests ordered and completed (including by device/platform), rates of <br />positivity, source of samples, type will be used to create data visualizations that will be <br />shared with the public, state health department, and community partners. <br />3. Advance Electronic Data Exchange at Public Health Labs <br />a. Enhance and expand laboratory information infrastructure, to improve jurisdictional visibility <br />on laboratory data (tests performed) from all testing sites and enable faster and more <br />complete data exchange and reporting. <br />i. Enhance laboratory test ordering and reporting capability. <br />1) 100% of results must be reported with key demographic variables including age/gender/race via the NC COVID reporting tool (NC COVID). <br />2) Report all non-Electronic Lab Reporting (ELR) positive test results to the state health department using NC COVID. <br />4. Improve Surveillance and Reporting of Electronic Health Data <br />a. Use NC COVID to assure complete, up-to-date, automated reporting of morbidity and <br />mortality to NC DHHS of COVID-19 and other conditions of public health significance by: <br />i. Establishing or enhancing community-based surveillance, including surveillance of <br />vulnerable populations, individuals with severe illness, those with recent travel to high- <br />risk locations, or who are contacts to known cases. <br />ii. Monitoring changes to daily incidence rates of COVID-19 and other conditions of <br />public health significance at the county or zip code level to inform community <br />mitigation strategies. <br />b. Establish complete, up-to-date, timely, automated reporting of individual-level data through <br />electronic case reporting to NC DHHS via NC COVID. <br />DocuSign Envelope ID: 2695E0C0-30FB-4AF9-8AAD-38BDC8738C11