Undetected hearing loss is a developmental emergency, and EHDI providers and their staff play a critical role in ensuring all infants receive timely and appropriate hearing healthcare follow-up. Working collaboratively with the EHDI Team we can ensure that hearing differences are detected as soon as possible. Together we can support children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families.
To help your patients find diagnostic audiology center or get additional assistance, please contact the EHDI program staff at 833-496-8040.
Forms included on this page are meant to be a resource to support newborn hearing screening and follow-up. Information submitted to the EHDI program shall be submitted electronically through the EHDI database. Please contact EHDI staff with questions.
This link should be used to refer children diagnosed with hearing loss to early intervention services. This can also now be done through the database system.
This form should be used to assist families with next steps when their child has been diagnosed with hearing loss. This form is a guide for possible referrals that may be necessary to establish a comprehensive healthcare plan for a child with hearing loss.
These forms should be used if a parent wishes to decline hearing screening for their child. These forms should only be signed following education about newborn hearing screening.
This form should be used if a parent wishes to decline diagnostic hearing assessment for their child. This form should only be signed following education about diagnostic hearing assessments.
This form should be used if a parent wishes to decline Congenital Cytomegalovirus (cCMV) testing. This form should only be signed following education about cCMV testing.
Iowa Newborn Screening Information System (INSIS) is an integrated, web-based data system that serves as the statewide tracking and surveillance system for children from birth to age 3 for all newborn screening programs in Iowa. These programs are; EHDI, Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) and Dried Blood Spot.
INSIS is a password-protected data system and access into the system is only available to approved parties. To gain access into INSIS (because you screen or diagnose children under the age of 3), receive a copy of a previously recorded training or to schedule a live training, please contact EHDI staff.
For INSIS training documents, please contact EHDI Personnel.
NANI is the application that accepts and processes ADT messages that contain demographic (contact) information about newborn patients. The information is used to follow-up with a newborn’s contact for follow-up care. Therefore, it is critical that the contact information be as complete and accurate as possible when the outreach takes place. NANI outperforms human data entry in two measurable ways: it works during labor shortages and outages, and it gathers even the most up-to-date information available for the patient’s contact. Addresses and phone numbers are not infrequently updated after a patient is discharged, and if that new information is shared with your facility, NANI will receive and process it. All data is exchanged using industry standards to protect patient information.
Hospitals have the ability to electronically import all important demographic information directly from their electronic medical health records system (or admitting or patient account systems) using the demographic import tool in INSIS. No software is needed to set up the import. INSIS has the capability of electronically populating the majority of the required reporting fields- except for the infant’s primary care provider at this time. An import file is created by the hospital’s IT department that contains demographic information for each patient born the previous day. Many IT departments write ASCII files to interface with other hospital databases and this is the same concept.
You might ask how this works. The hospital IT department will run a query or job to create an import file on a daily basis. This file will contain the demographic information that you select as necessary for your patient records in INSIS. An INSIS user at your hospital will use the import function daily to import the demographics file which will automatically create new patient records.
The hospital’s hearing screening manager, along with the hospital’s IT department should work together to determine the contents of the ASCII file. Please set up your import to capture as many fields as you can. Most hospitals choose to enter risk factors manually versus through the import but some have also been able to import those. If you import all the necessary fields, you will only need to enter the primary care provider, risk factors (if you cannot capture them through the import) and then move the patient from inpatient to outpatient and enter the discharge date! Importing information from hospital records saves time and also reduces the number of data entry errors. Below you will find a data dictionary which includes a list of possible elements to include in the file and how they must be coded. It is NOT necessary to include every element, if you do not have that element, however, some are required fields that you will recognize. Once you have a sample file ready, OZ Systems (our vendor), will test the file before going “live.” This helps us to ensure the file is set up correctly and everything is working properly. Please contact EHDI staff when you are ready to have the file tested or have specific questions about the process.
Once IT creates the file and it has been tested by the vendor, a one-time setup in INSIS is required and the configuration can be saved for repeated use. The final document below, Importing Instruction Sheet, is for creation of the import map. It outlines the decisions that will need to be made as to what type of file to create (i.e. tab delimited, inclusion of headers, etc.) EHDI staff will schedule an online meeting to walk INSIS users through the steps to set up the import map and do the import after the file is tested and approved by the vendor.
These example test files will provide a visual of what a sample file may look like. It is not complete but will give your IT contacts an idea of what is needed.
Making decisions throughout the hearing screening process requires accurate information. Explore the common misconceptions surrounding hearing differences below.
Fact: Children identified with hearing differences after 6 months of age are more likely to have speech, language, and cognitive delays than children identified before 6 months. Children identified early can avoid these delays through evidence-based early intervention programs.
Fact: Hearing difference affects about 1 to 3 children per 1,000 births, and is considered to be one of the most common birth defects.
Fact: Before newborn hearing screening, most children were not found to have a hearing difference until 2-3 years of age. Children with milder hearing difference weren't found until 4 years of age.
Fact: As many as 50% of infants born with hearing differences have no known risk factors.
Fact: Babies younger than 3 months can typically be tested without need for sedation.
Fact: Children as young as 1 month of age can now be fit with and benefit from hearing aids.
Fact: 95% of babies born with hearing differences are born to parents with normal hearing.
Due to the serious ramifications of undetected hearing loss, Iowa legislature passed a law which requires universal hearing screening of all newborns and infants in Iowa. It further provides that any birthing facility, including Area Education Agencies (AEAs), as well as providers, such as physicians, audiologists or other health care professionals are legally required to report the results of a hearing screen, re-screen or diagnostic assessment for any child under three years of age to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services within six business days.
Read below to learn more about your role in the law and the administrative structure required for this program to work within your facility.
