2. Deadline for Reporting by Providers:
• Monday by 3pm every week for the previous week( Sunday- Saturday)
Medium most commonly used for reporting.
• Fax
Providers
• Schools
• Clinics
• Daycare facilities
• Assisted living facilities
Cases are reported to DSHS 7 on Monday before 5 pm

4.  The following tasks were assigned for the practicum:
1. Collate the history flu data from 2009 till date on one
excel file and create the Macros to auto-update the
graphs.
2. Sort the current providers into two categories and see
who is reporting to the department.
3. Create a Standard Operating Guidelines for the Flu
Surveillance activity at the Waco-McLennan County
Public Health District.
4. An optional assignment to improve the current contact
database.

5.  Collate the history flu data from 2009 till date on
one excel file and create the Macros to auto-update
the graphs.
 Used a previous excel file as a template.
 Electronic reporting files were used to update the
excel sheet.
 Yearly tabs were created starting from week 35 of
2009 till week 34 of 2010 and so on till date.
 (Ref: WeeklyFluActivityMontyUpdate_Final.xlsm)

10.  Sort the current providers into two categories and
see who is reporting to the department.
 They were sorted In two excel sheets with Schools
& Daycares in one and the Hospitals& Clinics in
another .
 Two more excel sheets were created which Auto-
generated various categories by the input provided.
 (Ref: Clinic Hospital Providers.xlsx & Auto Clinic
Hospital Providers.xlsx)

12. = IF('2015-2016 All'!G4= 0, 2, IF('2015-2016 All'!G4>0, 1, IF('2015-2016 All'!G4< 0, 0)))

14.  Create a Standard Operating Guidelines (SOG) for
the Flu Surveillance activity at the Waco-McLennan
County Public Health District.
 The Texas Influenza Surveillance Handbook was
used to create the SOG suited for the health
department.
 This SOG will give us the framework of our future
operations.
 (Ref: Standard Operating Guidelines for Influenza
Reporting)

16.  PURPOSE
 The SOG provided a guideline for the Waco- McLennan Health
District (WMHD) to conduct both routine & passive surveillance
activities for Influenza in the McLennan County.
 SCOPE
 The Scope of this document is limited to the ways in which we can
perform influenza surveillance in the Waco-McLennan Health District.
Influenza surveillance is essential to:
 Determine when and where influenza viruses are circulating
 Determine if circulating influenza viruses match the vaccine strains
 Detect changes in the influenza viruses
 Track influenza-like illness
 Develop, evaluate, and implement control and prevention measures
needed to respond to major influenza outbreaks.

18.  Providers:
WMHD receives weekly incidence reports of various
Influenza cases, ILI and Non-diagnosed (ND) influenza
like conditions through a variety of means including fax,
email, online survey system and electronic messaging
from laboratories directly into the state surveillance system
(Texas-National Electronic Disease Surveillance System,
Tx-NEDSS).
 Provider Responsibility:
The Providers have to submit the weekly influenza reports
to the WMHD and report any increase in influenza cases
in their facility or a novel case too. In the case of reporting
schools and daycares the providers also should submit the
absenteeism related to flu or ILI. This should be done in a
timely manner in the method the provider is comfortable
with i.e fax/ email/ online survey.

19.  Waco-Mclennan County Public Health District
responsibility:
The Epidemiologists at WMHD are the primary personnel
responsible for maintaining the influenza surveillance
records and reporting the DSHS of weekly influenza
incidence reports.
1. Timely notifications have to be sent out to the providers
for a better coverage of flu data.
2. Weekly review of new providers and potential providers
by population.
3. Monthly plan for improving surveillance and a plan for
recruiting new providers.
4. Investigate any special situations like outbreaks/ novel
cases/ flu related mortalities.
5. Creating monthly Flu reports.

20. Recruit Providers
Friday - Weekly Reminder
Notification
Providers give weekly
Incidence Reports
Report DSHS with WMHD
Influenza cases
Tuesday - Review Providers
who sent/ did not send
report
Yes
Send a thank you email
No
Send 2 notifications/week
Provider Report next week
Yes
Send a thank
you email
No
Send 3
notifications/
week

21. Incentives are methods to motivate reporting.
Recognition activities provide a mechanism for the health department to thank the reporter and highlight the importance of
reporter participation.
Initiate and monitor reporting.
Provide the reporter with instructions and materials
Approach potential reporters via phone, email or fax.
Phone book and internet searches are also good tools to locate potential reporters in your jurisdiction. (eg. The Texas
Medical Board website, Texas Education Agency, etc.)
Consider geographic and population coverage in your jurisdiction
Identify who currently submits regular influenza reports to you.

22.  Create an online survey to ask the providers the most
convenient way to report to us:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1CG_aFoTEaPPA5TknJ45J
u9v9AzGFLB0n5NIlWrE4Ceg/viewform
 Create an online reporting system to ease the process of
reporting by providers:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1sdx9RIWsyrlvnmFaCHrpk3
VyI-f_ahLxvPy6msUZU04/viewform
 Also the contact database is being updated for the
providers.

23. Report to DSHS
3. Update WeeklyFluActivityMontyUpdate_Final.xlsm
4. Update Auto Clinic Hospital Providers.xlsx
2. Weekly notification with link
1. Survey
Dispatch emails to Providers
Update contact database
Recruit new providers

24.  Using the online reporting system we have
auto generation of excel sheets for a week.
 After just copying the above to our Auto
Clinic Hospital Providers.xlsx we get a auto
weekly report for our providers.
 Auto graph generation using
WeeklyFluActivityMontyUpdate_Final.xlsm
 These can be used to send our providers
monthly reports with their performance in
reporting.