Completeness and Timeliness of Reporting Notifiable Medical Events, U.S. Military Active Component and Other DOD Beneficiaries, 2018-2022.

Abstract

Complete and timely reporting of notifiable medical conditions among the Department of Defense (DOD) beneficiary population is important for the control of communicable and preventable diseases and injuries. The Defense Medical Surveillance System was used to identify all hospital and ambulatory care encounters during 2018-2022 for which a notifiable medical condition was indicated among active component service members as well as all other DOD beneficiaries. Inci-dent cases with diagnoses of DOD-notifiable medical conditions were matched with reportable medical events entered through the Disease Reporting System internet (DRSi). During the study period, 61.2% of notifiable hospitalized cases and 65.5% of notifiable ambulatory care cases at a military hospital or clinic among active component service members were reported. Among other beneficiaries treated at a military hospital or clinic, only 15.2% of notifiable hospitalized cases and 22.1% of notifiable ambulatory care cases were reported to DRSi. Reporting percentages were much lower for care at outsourced facilities, regardless of the population. The timeliness of reporting for active component service members fluctuated annually, but in both 2018 and 2022, 64.2% of notifiable cases at a military hospital were reported within 1 week. For ambulatory care cases, timeliness of reporting decreased over time, with 50.1% reported within 1 week in 2018 and 43.3% in 2022. A total of 1,306 hospitalized and 100,163 ambulatory incident cases for notifiable medical conditions among active component service members occurred from January 2018 to December 2022. Reporting of these events though the DRSi (Disease Reporting System Internet) increased since the last report in 2015, but timeliness decreased. Data on other beneficiaries and outsourced care facilities were added to the analysis for this report. Improvements to reporting and timeliness of active component service member notifiable medical conditions is needed to effectively track and mitigate communicable diseases and preventable injuries. Although reporting currently is not required for all non-service member beneficiaries, they present another source of communicable diseases that could affect disease among service members, making them a potential population for report consideration.