Overview
Since 1972, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a federally recognized Public Health Authority, has been charged to protect the public from unreasonable risks of injury and death related to more than 15,000 types of consumer products. CPSC works with manufacturers to improve safety standards, issues product bans and recalls, and educates U.S. consumers about product safety and injury prevention.
Data fuel the public health policies and interventions that CPSC develops. The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) is CPSC’s largest and most dynamic data collection and follow-back surveillance system, providing timely data on consumer product-related injuries. NEISS monitors emergency department visits related to injuries involving consumer products for CPSC.
NEISS is based on a nationally representative probability sample of hospitals in the U.S. and its territories. Participating NEISS hospitals report patient information for every emergency department visit associated with a consumer product or a poisoning to a child younger than five years of age. The total number of product-related emergency department visits nationwide can be estimated from the sample of cases reported in NEISS, making NEISS an important public health research tool, not just for CPSC, but for researchers and consumers throughout the U.S. and around the world.
As a federally recognized Public Health Authority, CPSC utilizes electronic health records from hospital emergency departments to generate national injury estimates associated with consumer products. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) permits covered entities to disclose EHI to public health authorities without patient authorization under 45 C.F.R. § 164.512(b). Under the Department of Health and Human Services’ information blocking regulations (45 C.F.R. Part 171), healthcare organizations are required to make electronic health information (EHI) available to public health authorities, such as CPSC, upon request, unless a specific exception applies. If an organization believes a permitted exception under the information blocking rule applies, the regulation requires that it be documented in writing.
Benefits of Participation
Participating hospitals will advance national consumer product safety by working with CPSC to validate, improve, and automate NEISS data submission.
How it Works
Under HIPAA, protected health information (PHI) is securely and lawfully shared with CPSC to facilitate injury prevention and consumer product safety. CPSC has partnered with KONZA Health to collect NEISS data electronically, which will reduce manual reporting burden, improve data accuracy, and enhance national injury surveillance.