Contacts
- Candice Louw (Unlicensed)
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.
Contact Directory
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:
The default view "Contacts" is the preselected view when calling up the contact directory and contains a tabular overview of selected information such as: Contact classification, contact status, contact category, vaccination status and type of contact
In the detailed view, in addition to the columns known from the contact list, further personal information on the respective contact person is displayed, such as gender, age, district, etc: Gender, age, district and address as well as the linked index case and the reporting SORMAS user are displayed.
The follow-up entries made for the respective contact situations are listed under Follow-up/ calls. These can be created in two ways: Either calls made are documented in the Follow-up tab in the corresponding contact file (see chapter 3.3.2.7) or the entry is generated by the contact person using a symptom diary (the latter can be recognized by a cell phone image within the rectangle).
In the overview of follow-up calls, the first and last name of the contact person is listed with the date of the last contact and an overview of the follow-up calls made in the last 10 days. The legend of the different colored fields is listed below the table
(A). You can use this list to get a quick overview of the follow-up status of the individual contacts. The time period displayed can be precisely adjusted using the "From" and "To" fields displayed directly above the list (B) or using the "Previous" and "Next" buttons.
Export
In the header area of the contact directory, SORMAS offers the option of exporting the currently displayed data. The export is made to a CSV file, which can then be read and edited in a spreadsheet program. The export button is only displayed in the two views "Contacts" and "Detailed".
The exported data corresponds to the data records shown in the list, which can be customized using the filter function. This is described in the following chapter. Depending on the number of selected data records, the export may take a moment.
Three different export formats are offered:
Simple export: This file contains basic information on the respective contact event such as contact classification and status, first and last name as well as the ID of the assigned index case and the reporting:n SORMAS user:in.
Detailed export: This file contains the basic information of the "simple export" and additional information from the contact sheet such as address, telephone number, quarantine periods, reported symptoms and any assigned events.
Tracking export: This export contains the information from the tracking view as well as detailed information on the individual calls such as date and time, the status of the person called (available, cooperative) and the symptoms of the contact person.
Filter functions
The contact directory offers the option of filtering the displayed data according to various criteria. For this purpose, there is a series of selection fields directly above the tabular display, which can be used to limit the contact situations according to Active contact, Converted to case and Contacts with follow-up status dropped (A).
Click "Show more filters" (B) to open additional filter options, which can be activated by clicking the "Apply filter" button or deactivated by clicking the "Reset filter" button (C). The extended filter options can then be collapsed again via "Show fewer filters" (not shown in the illustration).
Some filter options can be found directly under the heading Contact Directory. Here, for example, only contacts of a certain contact definition category (A) can be displayed. Contacts that are currently being traced can be found using the "Follow-up status" filter. It is also possible to search specifically for the name, the case ID, the EPID number (C) or a contact situation that is linked to an event (D).
Below you will find filter options such as "Vaccination status" (E) or "Relationship with case" (F), which you can use to filter contacts who live in the same household, for example.
Under "Show more filters", options are also offered to filter according to the type of quarantine (status: Domestic, Institutional, None, Unknown or Other). Furthermore, the guarantee of care can also be selected as a checkbox for filter options. For the normal and detailed contact list, it is possible to switch the display from active, i.e. currently relevant, contacts to closed contacts. SORMAS closes the contact files as soon as the associated case has been closed or automatically after 90 days (or the number of days configured in the office) if no case is linked.
Create and edit contacts
The following describes how to manually create a new contact situation and how to view and edit existing contacts.
Creating a new contact situation
A new contact situation can be created either using the "New contact" button or using the Line listing for contacts can be created in the header of the contact list.
Creating a single new contact situation via “New Contact”
A window with the title "Create new contact" will open. Fields that must be completed (mandatory fields) are marked with a red star. These are:
First name, surname and gender of the contact person
The notification date of the contact
The disease of the index case (COVID-19) - preset
The region anddistrict/
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.
Assignment of an existing index case
If the index case is known by name and already recorded in the system, it can be searched for and linked to this contact by clicking on the "Select case" button.
Clicking on the "Select case" button opens a search window in which you can search for the name or ID of the case. Clicking on the index case found, which can be identified by the date of birth, for example, highlights the corresponding line and clicking on the "Confirm" button transfers the case to the current contact. The assignment can also be made at any time later after the contact has been created.
Contact situations without a known index case
If no index case is known, the index case has not yet been created in SORMAS or, for example, travel returnees are created, the step of assigning an index case via the "Select case" field described above can be omitted. To record the link to an index case that does not yet exist in SORMAS but does exist in other databases, the field below "Case ID in external system" can be used instead of the "Select case" field. Although this does not create a link between the two persons in SORMAS, the information can be viewed and the link can be created as soon as the index case has also been created in SORMAS.
Checking the box under Type of contact automatically selects the corresponding contact category.
However, this can also be selected/changed manually. The latter requires that the check mark is also changed or removed. As only one checkmark can be set here, the more epidemiologically relevant situation should be selected under Type of contact, i.e. the description of the situation that indicates the highest risk of infection.
The type of contact determines whether tracing can be continued or not, as tracing is only intended for close contacts. Tracing cannot be continued if the following "Type of contact" has been selected:
Medical personnel at a safe distance or if an ad. Protective clothing was worn.
Medical personnel with contact > 2m, without direct contact with secretions or excretions of the patient and without aerosol.
Family members who have not had at least 15 minutes of face (or voice) contact.
Saving the new contact
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
This chapter explains the detection of potentially duplicate persons, cases, contacts and events in SORMAS - how the process works in general and which variables are taken into account:
General information
Duplicate detection is always based on the responsibility of the user who creates or imports persons, cases, contacts or event participants into the system. Data that the user does not have access to is not taken into account, meaning that it is theoretically possible for duplicates to be created even if every user makes consistent use of duplicate detection. To remedy this, users with the appropriate rights have access to the special "Merge duplicates" view (for cases and contacts), which is accessible via the respective directories. The system can be cleaned up here by merging duplicate data.
Please note that there is currently no duplicate detection when data is transferred to SORMAS via the ReST interface!
Persons
Whenever a user attempts to create data concerning persons - cases, contacts or event attendees - the system checks for similar persons before performing a subsequent duplicate detection of the actual case, contact or event attendee. A person is classified as a potential duplicate if it meets the following requirements. Any variable that is not specified for the person created is ignored in this calculation.
⮚ The person must have a similar name.
To recognize similar names, the pg_trgm module of PostgreSQL is used, which uses trigrams to calculate the similarity between two strings, in this case the names of two people. The default threshold for similarity is 0.65. This threshold can be adjusted by changing the value of the server property namesimilaritythreshold.The higher the value, the more similar the names must be for them to be recognized. An exchange of first and last names is recognized; UE/ Ü is recognized for first and last names (e.g. Müller and Mueller); separators are recognized for first and last names.
⮚ Both persons must have the same gender or no gender (if specified for the person created).
⮚ The gender "Unknown" matches any other gender, so the system would recognize a person with the gender "Unknown" as a potential duplicate of a person with the gender "Male", "Female" or "Other" as long as all other requirements are met.
⮚ Both persons must not have a different year, month or day of birth (the date of birth must be identical).
⮚ Persons are also recognized as potential duplicates if their year, month or day of birth is blank. They are only excluded if there is an actual different value.
⮚ 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.
A configuration option allows you to activate the following setting, which is deactivated by default:
The person must be linked to at least one case, contact or event participant. If the server property duplicatechecks.excludepersonsonlylinkedtoarchivedentries is activated, the associated case or contact or the event to which the event participant belongs must also be active, i.e. not deleted and not completed.
Contacts
If a user attempts to create a contact and identifies and selects a potentially duplicate person, the system also checks for similar contacts of the selected person. A contact is classified as a potential duplicate if it meets the following requirements. Any variable that is not specified for the contact created is ignored in this calculation. Only contacts that have not been marked as deleted are considered, including contacts from closed cases.
⮚ If no initial case has been selected, both contacts must have the same illness.
⮚ If an output case has been selected, both contacts must have the same output case.
⮚ Both contacts must be reported within 30 days of each other. (Otherwise it is a reinfection)
⮚ The dates of the last contact of both contacts must be within 30 days (if specified for the contact created).
Create several new contact situation via the line listing for contacts
You can also use the line listing function for contacts to quickly enter contact situations. This allows you to create several contact persons from the same responsible federal state and district by creating a line for each contact using the blue "Add line" button. Fill in at least the mandatory fields here; the selection options are identical to those described in the previous chapter.
Contact Directory
Open, view and edit a contact situation that has already been created
Starting from the contact directory (Contacts ribbon), individual contact situations that were previously searched for using filter options, for example, can be called up by clicking on the contact ID in the first column of the displayed list.
Contact - first page of the contact file
You are then in the Contact tab of the contact file (A). The "Contact list" button (B), which you can see on the far left, closes the currently open file and takes you back to the contact overview.
If an index case has already been assigned, this is indicated in the header (C). Please note that the ID in brackets is the ID of the contact and not that of the assigned index case. In this example, the ID "XO4YT5" is the ID of Grasshopper Flip. You can see Karl Käfer's ID in the first grey box on the right half of this page (D). Another button "Case contacts" (E) is displayed, which allows direct access to all contacts assigned to this index case.
This Contact tab contains all relevant information about the contact situation. The tab is divided into two areas. The left-hand section (F) contains the main form with information on the contact classification ("unconfirmed", "confirmed", "no contact"), the quarantine, the type of contact and the contact category as well as medical information (previous illnesses). The individual sections are explained in more detail below.
On the right-hand side (G), there are various boxes that can be used to create links to the index case as well as to events, tasks, samples and immunizations, document templates and to display existing links or existing tasks or sample results. If no index case is linked to the contact, the top button
"Select index case", which can be used to create the corresponding link with an index case that already exists in the system. If the contact is already linked to an index case, brief information on the respective case is displayed in the upper box (see following illustration), together with the option to change or remove the case link.
Below the information on the index case, there are four further boxes that can be used to create and link events, tasks and samples for this contact situation. About the fourth box
"Document templates", quarantine notices can be created using stored templates. Your municipality's templates can be imported by the administrator.
Contact details
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).
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".
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:
After clicking on "Save", the query takes place:
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:
Once you have made your selection, you will find yourself in the newly created case file of Grasshopper Flip:
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.
Definition of quarantine
A quarantine can be entered below the contact category. The quarantine location, differentiated according to domestic (e.g.: the private address) and institutional (e.g.: the address of a retirement or nursing home) quarantine and the respective period can be specified. The automatic calculation of the quarantine end date can be configured - please contact your SORMAS administrator). The quarantine end date can also be changed manually in the contact file. Please always observe the specific country related guidelines.
Pre-existing conditions and other medical information
In the "pre-existing conditions" section in the Contact tab, it is possible to document medically relevant information on previous illnesses (A) and whether there is any immunosuppressive therapy or underlying illness (B). It can also be recorded whether the person is involved in the medical/nursing care of patients or people over the age of 60 (C) or whether immunosuppressive therapies or underlying illnesses exist.
Above the pre-existing conditions, it can be determined whether this is a high-priority contact (D).
Immunization
The contact's vaccination status is displayed under the "immunization" section.
Contact Follow-up
The settings for contact follow-up can be found at the bottom of the contact tab.
In addition, a SORMAS user can be defined as the contact person, provided that you have decided to assign these user rights in the office (in SORMAS, you can work with different user roles, each with different user rights).
Tracking can be cancelled or marked as impossible using the two buttons Cancel tracking and No tracking possible (A). In both cases, a comment is required in the Follow-up status comment field (B). The follow-up is automatically cancelled by the system if the contact is converted to a case or if "No contact" is selected in the contact classification. This is then automatically indicated in the follow-up status comment field.
The "Overwrite end of tracing" selection box (C) can be used to manually adjust the contact tracing period. It can only be shortened if there is an earlier symptom onset.
The type of contact determines whether tracing can be continued or not, as tracing is only intended for close contacts. Tracing cannot be continued if the following "Type of contact" has been selected:
Medical personnel at a safe distance or if an ad. Protective clothing was worn
Medical personnel with contact > 2m, without direct contact with secretions or excretions of the patient and without aerosol
Family members who have not had at least 15 minutes of face (or voice) contact
Tracing is not possible in these situations. Furthermore, the contact category is also subordinate to the contact situation, so that even if the contact is classified in contact category 1, for example, tracking is not possible for the above-mentioned "types of contact".
At the end of the Contact tab, you can see the "Deletion date". This shows when the contact will be deleted from your SORMAS instance. Deleting or closing cases, contacts and events is only possible with the administrator user role. Further information can be found in the deletion chapter or in the admin manual.
Contact person
The Contact person tab displays all information relating to the current contact person. This includes, for example, title, first and last name, gender and date of birth. If a date of birth has been saved, the person's current age is automatically calculated and displayed. The "Current status of the person" tab shows whether the person is alive or deceased.
In addition, information on employment (e.g. "working in healthcare") and place of residence can be entered. If the home address is an institution such as a retirement home, this must have already been entered by the administrator in the SORMAS instance. In order for the facilities to be selected, it is important to select the federal state and the municipality beforehand. The address of the facility, if entered by the administrator, is filled in automatically.
If an exact address is available, it can be linked to GPS coordinates to enable it to be displayed on the contact map in the contact overview (see section 1.2.4). To do this, click on the black symbol (geo button) after entering the address. The GPS coordinates are then automatically transferred to the two fields provided for latitude and longitude and linked to the dashboard. Click on the eye symbol to display a small overview map with the calculated position.
Additional addresses, such as a second home or workplace, can be added using the "New entry" button above the "Addresses" table.
A window opens that corresponds to the input mask of the home address. Further contact information such as telephone number or e-mail address can be found at the end of the tab.
A window for entering contact details opens under "New entry". Under "Type of contact details", email, telephone or other contact addresses can be selected.
The number or email address is entered under "Contact information". Notes on availability or similar can be entered under "Further information". By ticking "Primary contact details", you specify that these contact details appear in directories and can be used for the symptom diary (if the latter is used).
Epidemiological data
All known information on the incidence of infection is summarized under the Epidemiological data tab. Detailed information, also with additional entry of the exposure localization, can be entered under Exposure details known. Click on "Yes" to display a table. New entries are then added using the "New entry" button.
In the input window that opens, the exposure details, such as start and end, as well as a detailed description can be recorded. The only mandatory information is the type of activity, such as: Work or return from a trip.
In addition, information can be provided on the circumstances of the exposure (e.g.: "Were masks worn?", "Did the exposure take place indoors or outdoors?", "Was the distance less than 1.5m?",
"Was the exposure longer than 15 minutes?") and the location of the exposure. The entry of the location is based on the already known mask from the "Contact person" tab.
Follow-up calls
The Follow-up calls tab summarizes all information on calls made and provides the option of documenting new calls. All recorded calls made to date are displayed in a table; new calls can be recorded using the "New call" button. The last column of the table (not shown here, "Origin of call") shows the name of the employee who entered the call. If a follow-up call is created for a contact that has already been converted to a case, the message "This contact has already been converted to a case. Please add new follow-up calls for this case."
Create a new follow-up call
When documenting a new call, the date and time should be entered first (the default setting shows the current time when the window is opened), as well as whether the person called was available and cooperative. If the person is unavailable or uncooperative, no further entries are possible.
If the person called is available and cooperative, the body temperature and symptoms, if available, can be entered below. There are also three buttons available to speed up data entry: "Delete all", "Set blank to No" and "Set blank to Unknown":
Delete all: Removes all entries from the list of symptoms.
Set blank to No: Sets all symptoms for which no entry has been made to "No".
Set blank to Unknown: Sets all symptoms for which no entry has been made to "Unknown".
At the end of the form, it is possible to record the first of the symptoms that occurred and the date of occurrence. Only symptoms for which the setting has been set to "Yes" can be selected.
All symptoms that are entered via a follow-up call automatically appear in the Symptoms tab when they are saved or the information there is added if further symptoms are added. Setting "No" for symptoms in the follow-up call, on the other hand, does not change the entries in the Symptoms tab of the contact file. For the comment field for the symptoms in the follow-up call, notes written here are transferred to the Symptoms tab or added separated by a comma.