Montana Syndromic Surveillance (ESSENCE)
Overview
Montana has declared readiness to receive syndromic surveillance data from eligible facilities to fulfill the CMS Promoting Interoperability Program (PIP) and Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPS) requirements for syndromic surveillance within the Public Health and Clinical Data Exchange Objective. Attestation letters can be requested via the Promoting Interoperability Attestation Letter Request Form.
Syndromic Surveillance supports public health professionals in Montana in monitoring the health and safety of Montanans using near-real time health data. The primary data source used for this is emergency department (ED) visits. Syndromic surveillance data are accessed via ESSENCE. The Montana Syndromic Surveillance Program can be contacted at syndromic@mt.gov.
Syndromic Surveillance is the collection of health-related data to identify trends in community health. Data are collected from more than 90% of hospitals across the state and include nearly 98% of ED visits that occur in Montana. ESSENCE is the platform used to access Syndromic Surveillance data in Montana. Data sources that are available in Montana ESSENCE include:
- Emergency department visits
- Select inpatient hospitalizations
- Select urgent care data
- Mortality data
- Select laboratory testing data
- Weather data
- Air quality data
Any tribal, local, or state public health practitioner and select hospital employees in the State of Montana may request access to ESSENCE using the appropriate access request form. For State of Montana employees, please complete the Internal Access Request Form. For tribal, local, or hospital employees, please use the External Access Request Form.
Data analyses can be requested using the appropriate data pull/data analysis request form: State of Montana Employee Data Pull Request Form or External Data Pull Request Form.
To access the above forms, you will need an Okta account. Additionally, all data from ESSENCE is subject to the State of Montana Department of Health and Human Services data release policy
For questions regarding access or data analyses/data pulls, please contact syndromic@mt.gov.
Requirements for onboarding a new syndromic surveillance interface include use of an Electronic Health Record (EHR), ability to send HL7 messages via SFTP, and sufficient resources to ensure high data quality.
Onboarding Resources:
- Prior to onboarding, a BioSense Onboarding Process Acknowledgment (BOPA) must be completed. This form is signed by a representative of the eligible facility and is an acknowledgement of the requirements for onboarding to Syndromic Surveillance.
- Information for facilities about the onboarding process can be found on the National Syndromic Surveillance Program’s (NSSP’s) website: Onboarding overview.
- Certain HL7 message data elements are required within syndromic surveillance. The priority hierarchy can be found here: Data Element Prioritization.
Please reach out to syndromic@mt.gov with questions or to initiate the onboarding process.
ESSENCE Resources:
- The BioSense Platform is the landing page for ESSENCE, where you can access ESSENCE, see which hospitals are onboarded, and see which data sources you have access to. To access ESSENCE, select the “ESSENCE Production” link from the “NSSP Applications” box on the BioSense Platform Access & Management Center.
- ESSENCE can be accessed by individuals who have an active account. If you have forgotten your password or otherwise need help accessing your account, contact syndromic@mt.gov.
- For new (or experienced!) ESSENCE users, a 7-part training course can be found on the Syndromic Surveillance Knowledge Repository, and additional learning resources can be found on the CDC ESSENCE homepage
