As Oregon Health Authority adapts how it reports COVID test results to align with Governor Kate Brown’s new framework effective today, OHA anticipates an additional benefit. The change will eliminate some of the recent issues processing laboratory test reports because OHA will need only to process positive test results in the database. Negative results will be counted in the Electronic Lab Results (ELRs) totals. The Oregon communicable disease reporting system was designed to collect information for reportable diseases (i.e. cases), with information reported by laboratories and collected by case investigators during the course of a case interview. The system allows OHA to collect demographic and risk information, establish epidemiologic links between cases, identify cases who need additional wraparound services, and collect information on close contacts. Because all COVID-19 results are reportable in Oregon, OHA has strained the database capabilities by using it for an additional purpose – keeping track of how many people tested negative for COVID-19. The volume of records slowed down the system. OHA is reestablishing the database for its intended purpose—to only track cases. Test results will remain in the system, but OHA will only create cases for those who test positive. This allows OHA to alleviate the performance issues, track cases and calculate a test-based percent positivity.
