Evaluation of the timeliness and completeness of a Web-based notifiable disease reporting system by a local health department

This article evaluates the completeness and timeliness of the Colorado Electronic Disease Reporting System, a statewide system for local health departments to conduct surveillance evaluations to identify areas of improvement. Reports received by Colorado were categorized as either Tri-County Health Department (TCHD) reports or reports for the rest of Colorado. Report completeness and timeliness were compared followed up by TCHD for both datasets. Six of 12 selected data fields were 95% or more complete for both datasets. 24-hour notifiable diseases were reported a median of 2.0 days for reports in the TCHD dataset and a median of 3.0 days for reports in the rest of Colorado, with seven-day notifiable diseases at a median of 4.0 days for both datasets. Both Colorado datasets were found to be relatively complete and timely. Improved data collection by interviewers will help better determine demographic information of reported cases and timeliness of reports.