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2004 SESSION

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SB 565 Health-related data elements; Secretary of Health & Human Resources to create a reference database.

Introduced by: Benjamin J. Lambert III | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles | history

SUMMARY AS PASSED SENATE:

Secretary of Health and Human Services; development of health-related database. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a reference database of statewide health-related data elements. In order to develop the reference database, each agency within the Health and Human Resources Secretariat shall submit to the Secretary (i) a list of the names and a general narrative description of its existing automated systems containing statewide health-related data; (ii) the hardware and software platforms upon which each identified system is running; and (iii) a data dictionary describing the data fields comprising the system, which data dictionary shall include a narrative description of each data field. The Secretary shall ensure that each agency within the Secretariat uses the database information to the greatest extent possible to improve the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the services rendered by such agencies.

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Virginia Health and Human Services Metadata Clearinghouse. Requires the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) to conduct an inventory of the databases or data repositories within the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources that will be revised every three years or at such shorter intervals as the chief information officer of VITA and the Secretary determine appropriate. The inventory must be developed in the manner of a metadata clearinghouse for health and human services delivered in and around the Commonwealth that is comprised of technical and general system documentation and aggregate descriptions of the data, including, but not necessarily limited to: hardware platforms, software environments, and general system documentation, such as date of creation, date of last update, data fields, field level descriptors, and samples. The Secretary will direct the development of the Metadata clearinghouse. The inventory will be for the purpose of facilitating the implementation of a consistent, reliable, and secure information technology infrastructure for the data-sharing partnership established by § 32.1-127.1:04 relating to the use and disclosure between the departments within the Secretariat of Health and Human Services of protected health information in compliance with federal patient privacy protections and to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the services reflected in the databases and data repositories within the Secretariat. The metadata clearinghouse will be developed and implemented in three, interrelated and interdependent phases, as follows: Phase I will consist of a survey of the agencies in the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources to identify the presently used systems that contain protected health information and development of a browser-based database that will facilitate queries of such information by such agencies; Phase II will consist of a survey of the agencies in the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources to determine the technical and high level data architectures supporting the systems identified in Phase I, including, but not limited to, hardware, operating systems, database management systems, and database structures, such as tables, and populating the browser-based database developed in Phase I with the Phase II information; and Phase III will consist of compiling information on the systems of each of the agencies in the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources relating to data structures, e.g., data element name, description, and type and incorporating this information into the browser-based database developed in Phase I and enhanced in Phase II. In simple terms, Phase I will determine which systems contain protected health information and communicate the systems across the agencies; Phase II will determine the technical requirements to support each database; and Phase III will categorize and standardize the data across the databases.

The Secretary must appoint an agency liaison for each of the agencies subsumed by her secretariat that are data-sharing partners to work with and assist VITA in conducting and compiling the inventory or metadata clearinghouse. In addition, the Secretary will determine whether the development of the metadata clearinghouse will continue through Phase II and III. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying Lead-Poisoning Prevention as a means of enhancing the already productive data-sharing partnership--an initiative of the Joint Subcommittee in 2002. The data-sharing partnership estimates that it has saved the Commonwealth more than $2 million in 2003 through data matching and through the sharing of intellectual property relating to compliance with the federal patient privacy requirements. The benefits to the efforts to prevent lead poisoning are substantial because of the close relationships between the primary partners in this effort, i.e., the Departments of Health and Medical Assistance Services and an increasingly close relationship with other data-sharing partners.