Volume 8, Number 7—July 2002
Research
Automatic Electronic Laboratory-Based Reporting of Notifiable Infectious Diseases
Anil A. Panackal*, Fu-Chiang Tsui‡, Joan McMahon§, Michael M. Wagner‡, Bruce W. Dixon§, Juan Zubieta*, Maureen Phelan*, Sara Mirza*, Juliette Morgan*, Daniel B. Jernigan*, A. William Pasculle‡, James T. Rankin†, Rana A. Hajjeh*, Lee H. Harrison‡
, and Nkuchia M. M’ikanatha
, and Nkuchia M. M’ikanatha
Table 3
Electronic false positives and missed reports in UPMC reporting systema
| Errors | No. (%) of electronic or paper-based only reports | Nature of problem |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic false positives | ||
| Incorrect use of free text with organism codes | 6 (60) | Culture report reads “No [free text]” followed by organism ID code |
| Inability to retrieve sent false reports | 3 (30) | Unable to retrieve preliminary reports |
| Failure of logic detection | 1 (10) | Data extracted from wrong portion of result field by logic detection |
| Total | 10 | |
| Electronic false negatives (missed reports) | ||
| Incorrect use of free text | 22 (88) | Organism name typed out as free text in result field |
| Unknown (failure of transmission?) | 3 (12) | Found to be in UPMC hospital computer terminal system by using organism ID code properly but not found in UPMC electronic database |
| Total | 25 |
aUPMC, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System.
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