Urgent: Long-Term Care Data Required by July 14, 2020, 6PM EDT

On July 1, 2020, the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) announced that it will create a long-term care facility COVID-19 data dashboard by late July.  To accomplish the creation of a comprehensive dashboard, all licensed and unlicensed long-term care facilities, including assisted living communities, are required to complete the following:

• Complete the following spreadsheet (updated July 10 to fix an SSN data entry field error) following spreadsheet to report all historical COVID-19 cases and deaths among the facility’s residents and staff that were confirmed positive through a COVID-19 PCR test since March 1, 2020, regardless of where the exposure occurred.  Facilities are encouraged to use their Surveillance Line List from the LTC Toolkit to begin their data collection process.
• In the case that a resident or staff member does not have a SSN, but rather a Visa, leave the field blank at this time until further guidance from ISDH is provided.
• The following document includes instructions and definitions on the data required for each field in the spreadsheet.  It is important that you review this document carefully.
• The completed spreadsheet is due by July 14, 2020 at 6 PM EDT and should be submitted here.
• Please note, even those long-term care facilities that have had no COVID-19 cases since March 1^st must submit a spreadsheet by July 14th. To complete the report, COVID free facilities should enter “NONE” into the patient first and last name fields, then enter the facility name in the appropriate field and submit.      
  

The ISDH instruction document also discusses continuation of current REDCaps survey reporting and future changes, which will occur after additional guidance is issued and beginning July 14, 2020.  Those elements are as follows:

• Facilities are required to continue to submit any new COVID-19 cases and deaths among residents and/or staff within 24 hours to the current REDCap Survey and are asked to update EMResources daily.
• Beginning July 14, 2020, all facilities will be required to use a new REDCap Project (further ISDH guidance will supply a link) to report any new suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths among residents and/or staff within 24 hours and will also be required to submit the NHSN-required data elements to the same REDCap Project daily to ensure updated data for testing, staff, bed, ventilators, and PPE is captured.  ISDH’s intent is to streamline reporting into one system.
• ISDH will be releasing a Lab and Electronic Health Record System Vendor Survey in the coming week that all facilities will be asked to respond to as well.  IHCA/INCAL will distribute the survey as soon as it is available.  Questions will include whether your facility has an Electronic Health Record system and whether your facility currently works with a lab to obtain COVID-19 test results for your residents and/or staff—and if so, which system and/or lab your facility utilizes.

If you have any questions, please contact Zach Cattell, zcattell@ihca.org, Lori Davenport, ldavenport@ihca.org or Laura Brown, lbrown@ihca.org.