Informatics Office
Configuration and Environment
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) leverages Rhapsody as its enterprise interoperability engine for making HL7 connections with the state Health Information Exchange (HIE), OneHealthPort, and the Association of Public Health Labs’ (APHL) Informatics Messaging Services, to exchange millions of records every year. Having a reusable tool for interoperability is critical for reducing the WA DOH IT footprint and automating data exchange with clinical partners. During the pandemic in particular, this has been mission critical given the need to process the large volumes of data needed for public health action. DOH’s health IT data exchange offerings are online at www.doh.wa.gov/healthit.
The following DOH programs leverage Rhapsody for data exchange purposes:
ELR
The ELR team uses Rhapsody to bring in lab results for required notifiable conditions reporting from laboratories. With the need to track COVID-19 test results during the pandemic, this has expanded greatly to include many non-traditional lab partners like schools, jails, and long-term care facilities.
Electronic Case Reporting (eCR)
Just like ELR, eCR is a way to meet notifiable conditions reporting requirements for providers. DOH receives automated reporting via APHL and is working to integrate this data into its surveillance systems.
Syndromic Surveillance
Syndromic Surveillance reporting is a requirement for all hospital emergency departments (EDs) by state law. The Syndromic team leverages Rhapsody to bring in this data not only from EDs, but also from many outpatient clinics, including urgent care sites.
Cancer Registry
Cancer case reports come in from partners via the state HIE and APHL.
Immunization Registry
The Immunization Registry is a great example of how public health not only can receive important data, but also how DOH can give valuable information back to a health care provider (the immunization history of their patient). This registry leverages Rhapsody to bring in vaccine administrations and respond to vaccine history requests.
Newborn Screening Registry (coming soon)
The Newborn Screening (NBS) Registry provides critical early detection for babies with rare but treatable disorders. DOH is working to finalize its Rhapsody routes to bring in screening orders and to send results back to providers.
Lead
WA DOH is receiving blood lead tests. Rhapsody reconfigures the message to an application readable file close to (HL7).
