VPHIB Repair and Upgrade Throughout Tuesday 5/15

On Tuesday, May 15^th the VPHIB Web servers will be replaced one at a time.  The replacement will take place throughout the day.  We are planning to keep the system up and running while moving to the new servers, but periodic outages may be needed as the system is moved and upgraded to the newest operating system.  We apologize for the ongoing performance issues over the past couple weeks.

Each month OEMS provides two reports; a Compliance Report and a Data Validation Dashboard.  The reports are generated from VPHIB for the Director of EMS.  The report is also provided to the Division of Compliance and Regulation, RSAF program, and the EMS system.

The Compliance Report is based on the requirement that each EMS agency submit all EMS responses to VPHIB within 30 days.  The volume of anticipated responses is also measured and is based on licensure information and historical data submissions.  The report can be found in the VPHIB support suite or VPHIB knowledgebase as May 2012 VPHIB Compliance Report.

The Data Validation Dashboard report is based on the requirement that agencies submit the required minimum dataset in the specified technical format.  The validation dashboard will provide agencies with a snapshot of the quality of their data.  Detailed validation reports may be requested from OEMS through support suite.  For agencies using third party vendor software these reports are available through the upload process.  The report can be found in the VPHIB support suite or VPHIB knowledgebase as May 2012 Data Validation Report Compliance Report.

pport suite or VPHIB knowledgebase as May 2012 Data Validation Report Compliance Report.

The VPHIB system has gone off-line.  The Virginia Information Technology Agency/Northrup Grumman Partnership (VITA/NG) has been notified to correct the problem.  We apologize for the inconvenience.

OEMS will soon be developing the May 2012 compliance report.  Please have your agency’s submissions and uploads up to date prior to May 1st.  All EMS responses up to March 31^st should be submitted by this time.

As a reminder:

• Low volume agencies that have not run an EMS response during a calendar month should go into VPHIB and submit a “No Runs to Submit (NRS).”  Instructions on how to submit NSR are located in the Support Suite knowledge base under “No Runs to Submit.”  NRS notations are manually reviewed to confirm their validity.
• Agencies that use a third party EMS software vendor need to ensure that their data uploads are up to date.
• Agencies that use a third party to submit their data i.e. “the county” or billing agency should ensure that they have provided their data to these parties and that the 3^rd party had submitted it to OEMS.  Instructions on how to check your agency’s runs per month can be found in the knowledge base in the document “Runs per Month – Instructions.”
• Submission requirements can be found in the knowledge base in the document “What must be submitted.”

Don’t forget VPHIB will be changing come January 2013!  Those not using OEMS’ State Bridge and Field Bridge license should ensure they will be prepared for the change.  Additional information can be found in the VPHIB Knowledgebase, VPHIB Support Suite, OEMS website, or VPHIB-VAv3 Wikipage.

A new Report Writer user level has been added to the VPHIB system.  The new role called “local EMS system” user provides limited access to statewide EMS data and has no true patient identifiable data elements included within its standard or ad-hoc reporting capabilities. However, used in conjunction with other data sources and/or other information the role has the potential to become identifiable. 

For this reason, the local EMS system role is limited to EMS system leaders/planners including;

• Local government officials who have an official role in overseeing EMS services in their jurisdiction by written agreement, ordinance, or other formal agreement.
• EMS agency officers:  OEMS will validate that the requester has an active VPHIB agency administrator account or if there is a need for a letter from another administrator or agency officer giving permission to establishing a “local EMS system” user account.
• Active operational medical directors (OMD), as confirmed via the VDH/OEMS certification database.
• Regional EMS council staff(s), limited to employees of the council as defined by the Internal Revenue Service and not a contractor, volunteer, or by other association.

To access more information and download the Local EMS System User logon request form and user security agreement go to the knowledge base article “Local EMS System User Report Writer Access” in the administrative folder of knowledge base.

Validation Rule Update

Additional validation rules focusing on a logical combination of the “incident disposition” (E20_10) and the “type of destination” (E20_17) have been added to the VPHIB system.  For example if E20_10 states the patient was treated and released, then E20_17 should not state the type of destination was a hospital. 

Details on the additional validation rules can be found in the knowledgebase article “Validation Rule Exports (Updated 4-17-12)” rules 1116 thru 1127 (excluding 1126).