Audience: Healthcare Providers, Pharmacists, and Other COVID-19
Testing Providers
Early in the pandemic, NJDOH issued “COVID-19 Reporting Guidance” that contained reporting requirements for electronic lab test reporting (positive and negative) through the Communicable Disease Reporting and Surveillance System (CDRSS).
As a reminder, Public Law 116-136, § 18115(a), the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, requires “every laboratory that performs or analyzes a test that is intended to detect SARS- CoV-2 or to diagnose a possible case of COVID-19” to report the results from each such test to public health authorities. In this context, “laboratories” include testing locations operating as temporary overflow or remote locations for a laboratory, and other facilities or locations performing testing at point of care (POC) or with at-home specimen collection related to SARS-CoV-2.
While traditional commercial and hospital laboratories routinely report results, clinicians, pharmacists, and other test administrators in New Jersey who provide POC testing may not be aware of this requirement to report all SARS-CoV-2 results to the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH).
This updated guidance document contains information about a new option for reporting POC test results using SimpleReport. Those that are currently successfully reporting POC results via CDRSS may continue to do so. Those who are not currently using CDRSS will likely find that SimpleReport is an easier, more user-friendly alternative for POC reporting.
Onboarding with SimpleReport should take about one week. Until that process is complete, testing providers must continue to report COVID-19 test results, either through CDRSS or by reporting to the local health department.
The updated guidance will be posted online on the NJDOH COVID-19 website for healthcare professionals
under “All Healthcare Providers:” https://www.state.nj.us/health/cd/topics/covid2019_healthcare.shtml
This information has been broadcast to: Community Health Centers (FQHCs); Long-term Care; Health Care Facilities / Other; Health Care Organizations; Health Care Providers; Hospital Infection Control Practitioners; Local Boards of Health; NJDOH Staff; NJLINCS and Local Contacts; NJLINCS Community; Public Health Associations; Public Health Council; Public Health Sector; Hospital Staff Directory