CRE Case Reporting in Marion County

Effective July 1, 2015, all nursing facilities in Marion County will be required to immediately report confirmed or suspected cases of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) to the Marion County Public Health Department. The new requirement stems from an amendment to The Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County code that adds CRE as a reportable communicable disease. Section 7-201 requires any physician or other health care provider who has knowledge of, diagnoses or treats a communicable disease case and every manager of an extended care facility in which there is a communicable disease case to report that case or suspected case to the Marion County Public Health Department. Section 7-202 requires CRE be immediately reported. Laboratories are also required to report evidence of a communicable disease. Failure to properly report could be up to a $1,000 fine, upon conviction. Additionally, The Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County may seek to abate the public health nuisance or violation of this ordinance in any court of competent jurisdiction. The code can be found at https://www.hhcorp.org/hhc/images/HHCcode/codechapter7.pdf.

Nursing facilities are required to report a case or suspected case of CRE. Consulting with clinicians to learn the signs of CRE and other communicable diseases, as defined in the ordinance, is necessary to properly identify cases. The facility should still report known CRE cases even if the laboratory has already reported them to avoid any possibility of penalty. IHCA expects the Indiana State Department of Health to amend its communicable disease rule later this year to require this same reporting statewide.