Onboarding FAQs

Guidance

Please find basic information—including guides, manuals, job aids and helpful articles—on the Onboarding Resources page.

FAQs

What is the timeline for onboarding a new site?

A new site onboarding window typically lasts 10 to 12 weeks, depending on how many sites participate. The length of site preparation before each new site onboarding window will vary.

How long does it take for a new facility to get approved for production?

The speed of onboarding varies depending on facility readiness and issues identified during onboarding. For new-facility onboarding, once a facility has established data flow to the staging environment, the site administrator may request a review of the data by submitting a ticket to the NSSP Service Desk or by changing the facility’s MFT status to Active. If no data quality issues are identified, a facility can be approved within one to two business days. If data quality issues are identified or NSSP has other priorities, approval for production can take longer.

See the Onboarding Guide or New Facility “STEPS TO VALIDATE” Job Aid for details on when to request a facility for production review.

What is the timeline for onboarding new facilities?

The timeline will vary depending on facility and vendor readiness, facility connection to the data feed, and identification of issues throughout onboarding.

Once a new facility establishes a data flow to the onboarding environment, the site administrator may request a review of the data by submitting a ticket to the NSSP Service Desk or by changing the Facility Status on the Master Facility Table (MFT) to Active:

• If no data quality issues are identified, the facility will usually be approved within one to two business days.
• If data quality issues are identified or facility prioritization is a concern, approval for production can take about two weeks. On average, two weeks are needed for the NSSP onboarding team to communicate the issue to the site administrator and for the site administrator either to resolve or respond to each problem.

Should I add multiple lines for facilities with multiple IDs?

Some facilities may use unique identifiers (IDs) for the same building. How you enter this information determines how ESSENCE will view these data. A batch template can contain only one facility ID, but additional associated IDs may be added manually:

1. To create multiple facilities, enter separate lines for each identifier during the batch upload.
2. To create (and view as) a single facility, enter one identifier during the batch upload. Later, add additional identifiers either as an associated facility or as an additional. Both methods will map messages from unique identifiers to the main facility.

An ideally formed HL7® message1 will have the main facility ID in the MSH-4.2 and the individual departments in the EVN-7.2.

In the MFT, are the Primary FacilityID_UUID and Facility National Provider Identifier (NPI) sometimes the same number?

Yes, these can be the same number if that is what the site chooses to use as its FacilityID_UUID.

What does the NSSP onboarding team look for when they validate data quality?

NSSP's approach to validating data quality provides two levels of minimum data quality requirements:

• Priority 1 Data Elements—Minimum Required Data Elements to onboard to NSSP BioSense Platform (compliance with PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance).
• Priority 2 Data Elements—Minimum Required Data Elements to comply with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) certification. ONC supports adoption of health information technology and promotes nationwide health information exchange to improve healthcare. See HealthIT.gov at https://www.healthit.gov/topic/about-onc.

NSSP encourages sites and facilities to achieve 100% compliance with data completeness, timeliness, and validation. Sometimes, however, considerable effort is needed to develop production-ready HL7® messages that fully comply with the messaging guide. Changes to messages can require considerable time and planning to implement correctly. Some nice-to-have changes might not be identified until late in the onboarding process, becoming prime candidates for integration into vendor software upgrades. Issues can also result from outdated documentation, vendor mergers, and user errors. Given these potential obstacles, having two levels of minimum data quality requirements is a practical solution.

What are onboarding guides and job aids intended to do, and who are they designed for?

The guides and job aids are designed to help site administrators onboard new facilities to the BioSense Platform and set up initial feeds in a manner consistent with NSSP guidelines. Facility managers, administrators, technical staff, vendors, health information exchanges, and individual hospitals or medical facilities that transmit syndromic data will also find the information useful. (For onboarding information specific to your local public health jurisdiction, please work directly with your site administrator.)

Can sites submit personally identifiable information?

Please avoid—or limit—sending personally identifiable information (PII) to the BioSense Platform. NSSP can scrub PII from specific fields listed in the New Facility Onboarding Guide for the BioSense Platform. PII sent in other fields (those not listed) cannot be scrubbed and should not be sent. NSSP issues weekly PII reports to alert sites of problems and works with site administrators to identify solutions.

Why aren't onboarding facilities displayed on the Data Quality dashboard?

The facilities in the Data Quality Dashboard are updated once a week. If more than a week has passed and you don't see the facility but are certain data have been received, please submit an NSSP Service Desk ticket.

How should I respond to a status of Pending Site Review?

The onboarding team has asked that site administrators check their MFT for facilities with a Review Status of Pending Site Review. The reason for this review is that a site administrator or MFT Edit User might have requested that the facility status be updated to Active and, following a review, the NSSP onboarding team declined the activation request.

The only way to clear this status is for a site administrator or MFT Edit User to click Cancel Requested Changes to revert the facility entry to its previous status before the activation request was made. If you're a site administrator or MFT Edit User, please review your site's MFT Review Status column for facilities with a Review Status of Pending Site Review, and then click Cancel Requested Changes.

Reaching out to NSSP

Please reach out to NSSP for technical assistance or to share ideas, needs, and concerns. Email us at nssp@cdc.gov or create an NSSP Service Desk ticket (account access required).