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Budget Amendment - Additional Funding for Conversion to Electronic Test Ordering and Results System
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INFORMATION CONTACT:
Traci Colley, Human Services Agency - Public Health Department, Director, 704-296-4801
ACTION REQUESTED:
1) Recognize, receive, and appropriate $6,000 in additional funding from the North Carolina Division of Public Health Agreement Addendum FY25-26, 510 General Communicable Disease Control, Revision #1 and 2) approve Budget Amendment #10.
PRIOR BOARD ACTIONS:
None.
BACKGROUND:
To help better control, detect, and monitor communicable diseases, the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health (NCSLPH) is implementing a new system: the Electronic Test Ordering and Results (ETOR) system. Currently, local health departments send thousands of paper test requisition forms to the NCSLPH each week, which results in thousands of paper results being sent back. This manual process is time consuming and inefficient for everyone. To significantly reduce paper and streamline operations, the NCSLPH is phasing in the implementation of the ETOR system. The local health departments’ part in the onboarding process will be during the Bidirectional Interface Project. Local health departments will be phased into this process and notified of their timeline by the project manager at the NCSLPH. This project will connect each local health departments’ Electronic Health Record (EHR) system directly with the NCSLPH Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) through the North Carolina Health Information Exchange (NCHIEA). This new bidirectional interface will allow every local health department to place lab test orders with NCSLPH electronically (i.e., paperless) and to receive lab test results automatically back into the local health department’s EHR system via the NCHIEA. This change will make test ordering and receipt of results much more efficient, benefiting all local health departments across North Carolina.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The County is awarded $6,000 from the North Carolina Division of Public Health through May 31, 2026. No County match is required.