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This section describes the handling of contacts in SORMAS. At this point, it should be noted that SORMAS works with contact situations, which ensures accurate epidemiological documentation. This becomes clear when contact persons were involved in several contact situations for different index cases - as a result, several contact situation files are created for the same contact person (the program recognizes these by means of duplicate detection, see Chapter 2.1.2.1).
Advantage: The personal data and recorded follow-up calls are synchronized between the individual contact situations created and do not have to be entered again.
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The contact directory is accessed via the Contacts menu item in the blue ribbon on the left-hand side. It contains a tabular overview of all contact situations and offers the option of filtering and exporting them in a similar way to the case directory (you can find out more about the filter options in chapter 3.1.2). The contact directory can be sorted in ascending or descending order according to the various criteria shown by clicking on the respective column heading. Please note that the visibility and editing options of contact situations depend on your user role and the limited responsibility assigned to you. Depending on the user rights, it is also relevant in which responsibility the index case of the contact situation is located. Detailed information on user rights can be found in the document "User roles" at www.sormas-oegd.de and in the admin manual.
The different views of the contact list can be selected using the buttons at the top of the screen; the selection is highlighted in dark blue:
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All other fields are optional, but can be used to enter further relevant information directly, e.g: Contact details such as telephone number or e-mail address. You can use the magnifying glass symbol to search whether the person you are creating is already stored in the system. This function is in addition to the duplicate detection in SORMAS.
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Assignment of an existing index case
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After completing the form, the new contact can be saved with the "Save" button or all entries can be deleted with "Discard". Once the contact has been successfully saved, the view of the newly created contact situation is automatically called up - the view switches directly to the contact file. The following also applies here: If the person (even in a similar spelling) has already been created in the program, duplicate detection is triggered (see the following chapter).
Mechanisms for recognizing duplicates
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⮚ Both persons must not have a different national health identifier (not relevant for German systems).
health insurance number, this field is used for duplicate detection. Since version 1.68, the passport number and health insurance number fields are no longer available, so they can only be used to compare duplicates in previous cases if both cases have the fields titled. Otherwise, the fields are not taken into account in a comparison. If you have used this field for other purposes, duplicates will not be recognized as these fields are used for duplicate recognition.
⮚ If available, both persons are stored with the same reinfection date.
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The Contact tab contains various information on the contact situation in the Contact data section, such as the contact classification (A). The contact is considered "confirmed" if the contact person or a parent or guardian has agreed that a contact situation actually existed for the index case. Please note that this selection must be set to "confirmed" if you need to convert the contact into a case at a later date. The external ID and the file number (B) are filled in when using the corresponding IfSG specialist application, e.g.: SurvNet using the interface provided. The external ID corresponds to the GUID (Global User ID) in SurvNet and is filled in automatically as soon as the data record is received in SurvNet. This means that the office must not make any entries of its own here. The external file number is set by SORMAS as soon as the data record has been sent to SurvNet. The responsible region and the responsible district must be specified directly below (C). It can also be documented whether the contact event is a return trip (D).
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Contact categorization
Below the contact details, you will find the settings for contact categorization or the type of contact. These correspond to the selection options already described in detail in section 3.2.
Conversion to new case
If a new case develops from a contact, it can be created directly from the contact situation by clicking on the Convert to case button. This can only be done for "confirmed contacts". As soon as a contact situation has been converted into a case, SORMAS cancels the follow-up in this contact situation file and marks it as "Converted to case" under "Contact classification".
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The follow-up is then continued via the case file. Please check the notification date in the case file of the converted contact and change it to the date of the positive result if necessary.
If there are other contact situation and event participant files for the person in the contact situation that you want to convert into a case, you will be asked during the conversion whether you want to define the newly created case file as the resulting case for all other files for the same person at the same time. If you confirm this with Yes, all contact situation or event participant files for the same person will show that they have been converted into a case. This is useful if the contact situations or participation in the event are related/close in time. Older contact situation files from other contexts, where a corresponding conversion would not make sense, can be omitted by selecting "only for some" instead. In detail, this looks like this: You click on "Convert to case" in the contact situation file and this takes you to the following window, in which you create a case file for the person:
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After clicking on "Save", the query takes place:
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In this example, the person Grasshopper Flip was once a contact person for the Tonka Bean case - "Convert" was clicked in this contact situation file - and once a contact person for the Maya the Bee case and once involved in an event as an event participant. Select "Yes, for all" to mark Grasshopper Flip as a converted case in both other files, the contact situation file for Maya the Bee and the event participant file. In the event participant list, the case ID in the "Case ID" column will immediately show that Grasshopper Flip is a case.
If you select "Yes, for some" instead, you can specify the files for which the conversion link should be made by ticking the box:
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Once you have made your selection, you will find yourself in the newly created case file of Grasshopper Flip:
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The two contact situation files are therefore still available, but with tracking cancelled by the system and marked accordingly as "converted to case".
When converting contacts with known index cases, the index case is now also directly referenced in the resulting exposure in the newly created case record. This information appears in the info box on the right and - if the exposure was previously noted as a table entry under Epidemiological data in the contact record - is also listed in the table of exposures. The example illustration shows the resulting case file of Willi Biene, who was previously known as a contact situation for the Grasshopper Flip case and was converted from this contact situation into a case. In Willi Biene's epidemiological data, Grasshopper Flip is therefore automatically noted as an index case and the exposure entry was also taken from the contact situation file.
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4.3.2.
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