The Consumer Product Safety Commission is not requiring hospitals to join its overhauled emergency room injury-reporting system, despite internal guidance that told hospitals otherwise, Nextgov/FCW reported Aug. 24.
The program, called NEISS-R, would expand CPSC’s injury surveillance sample from roughly 70 hospitals in 36 states to 100 hospitals across all 50 states, replacing manual chart review with automated data pulls from hospitals’ electronic health records.
Under the new model, hospitals would send records to contractor KONZA Health, which would filter the data before forwarding only what CPSC needs to identify hazards tied to consumer products such as lawn mowers, knives and booster seats. CPSC expects NEISS-R to be fully operational by 2027.
CPSC had already begun contacting individual health systems, including Detroit-based Henry Ford Health and Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health, requesting emergency room records, with those hospitals indicating at the time that they were still reviewing the request rather than taking a position.
A slide deck CPSC gave hospital officials in late July stated hospitals are required to participate, with the word “required” bolded and underlined, Nextgov/FCW reported. Peter Feldman, the CPSC’s acting chairman, told the outlet that framing was wrong.
“This historically has been and will remain a voluntary program,” Mr. Feldman said.
The American Hospital Association had already pressed CPSC in an Aug. 12 letter to limit NEISS-R data collection to the minimum necessary information. Mr. Feldman said the agency is now working directly with the AHA to address hospitals’ privacy concerns and increase participation.
CPSC has said only a small number of hospitals have declined to join NEISS-R so far, though it has not disclosed how many have signed on.
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