NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) – The Metropolitan Board of Health approved a limited interim process that will allow the Metro Public Health Department to share with first responders the addresses and names of confirmed COVID-19 cases until a long-term solution can be configured, tested and implemented.

The Board of Health approved the measures during a board meeting on Thursday.

Metro anticipates the long-term solution to be in place in around six weeks.

The new process will allow the Emergency Communication Center dispatchers to let first responders know if there is a case living at the address without providing a name. First responders will only be provided the name of a confirmed cases if the individual needs to be transported to a hospital or to a Davidson County Sheriff’s Office facility.

The decision comes after the board voted at its June meeting to stop the health department from sharing data regarding COVID-19 cases with Metro Police and the Department of Emergency Communications. During the June board meeting members were presented a long-term solution to share data, but the new system could take months to implement.

During the June meeting, board member Dr. Thomas Campbell agreed to lead a work group that included community stakeholder organization representatives to identify a solution for sharing the information until the long-term police is in place.

Campbell was joined by stakeholder organization representatives that included:

• Jill Fitcheard, Executive Director, Metro Nashville Community Oversight Board
• Dr. Cherae Farmer-Dixon, Head of Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry
• Melody Fowler-Green, Executive Director, Metro Human Relations Commission
• William Swann, Nashville Fire Department Chief
• Keith Durbin, Metro ITS Chief Officer
• Dr. Michael Caldwell, Chief Medical Director of Health
• Tom Sharp, MPHD Policy Director and Governmental Liaison
• Stephen Martini, Director, Metro Nashville Department of Emergency Communications

Members of the workgroup developed and approved the interim process that was presented to the Board at Thursday’s meeting.

The interim process is detailed below.

Process of Providing Address: The Health Department provides daily a database of Covid-19 positive patients and associated addresses to the IT Division of the Metro Nashville Police Department. The MNPD IT Division scrubs this data to remove duplicate names and addresses from previous reports and correct any misspelled addresses to align with the address database within the Computer Aided Dispatch System managed by the Metro Nashville Department of Emergency Communications (DEC). The MNPD IT Division provides the cleaned data to the DEC, then deletes that clean data from its system without retaining the data or entering any portion of the data within any MNPD software applications. The DEC enters the addresses into the Computer Aided Dispatch system as alerts on individual addresses, slated to expire and automatically delete after 30 days assuming no reinfection at that address occurs. This information is communicated to all responders, law enforcement, fire and EMS only when an incident requires responders to be dispatched to a location where a Covid-19 positive patient resides. No identifying patient information will be included or relayed to responders as part of this solution.

Process of Providing Name: Upon receipt of this daily cleaned database from MNPD IT Division, the Department of Emergency Communications will make available to law enforcement radio dispatchers the list of individuals who have actively tested positive for Covid-19. Officers, at the time they are prepared to transport an individual from a scene, will inquire of the radio dispatcher whether the name of the person they are transporting appears on the latest Covid-19 positive persons list, provided by the Health Department daily. Radio dispatchers will attempt to confirm the identity of the individual being transported identifying information so law enforcement may make the most appropriate transport decision. This solution assumes a small amount of risk, as the accuracy of the name provided relies solely on the information provided to law enforcement by the individual, which could result in a failure to identify a Covid-19 positive patient if the identify provided does not exactly match the name listed in the database.

The intention of the data-sharing arrangement is to protect the health of those transporting Covid-19 cases as well as the health of the staff members at the receiving agency, whether a hospital, an incarceration facility, a mental health facility or any other.

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