Policy and Procedure Manuals

The Policy and Procedure Manuals of the Indiana State Cancer Registry serve as a reference for hospitals and other healthcare providers who report cases of malignant disease to the State Cancer Registry. Reporting entities are assigned a three-digit ID number by the State Cancer Registry. There are two separate Policy and Procedure Manuals, each directed to a particular audience. There is a Policy and Procedure Manual for hospitals, and one for all other facilities, which are referred to collectively as "non-hospitals."

Hospitals

Hospitals have ID numbers from 001 to 199.

Non-Hospitals

All other facilities that are not hospitals are considered non-hospitals for reporting purposes (physician offices, pathology laboratories, outpatient facilities, etc.)

Starting January 1, 2026, please avoid paper reporting through faxing, emailing scanned records, or mailing of paper records. Follow the new manual above to transition to electronic reporting by using resources on this page and at our dedicated site for educational materials at FLccSC.

Policy and Procedure Manual *

*This manual will be retired on December 31, 2025. ISCR will no longer be utilizing its traditional fax machine (317) 233-7722 from October 1, 2025. Only E-fax (317) 232-1906 will be used going forward as the only fax number for correspondence. Instead of faxing, we prefer your facility to use the WebPlus file upload system (or HL7 submission for path labs) to report cases. If your facility needs to be set up for access to WebPlus file upload, please request access by contacting us at: CancerRegistry@health.IN.gov to obtain your user ID and password.

Additional Instructions for Hospitals and Non-Hospitals

Death Clearance

One of the tasks that ISCR performs under federally required mandates is following back on cases where a death certificate indicates that a patient had cancer, but that cancer case was not reported to ISCR. Healthcare facilities that may have information about these missed cancer cases are requested to assist in the death clearance process as part of state-mandated cancer surveillance.

Death clearance is done by ISCR securely following back on cases in question. The healthcare facility must respond on whether the case will be reported (abstracted and submitted to ISCR) as a cancer incidence case or clarify if the provider has not provided cancer-related care to that patient.

Starting from December 2025, ISCR is moving to monthly death clearance follow back instead of annual requests to avoid backlog and to evenly spread the workload throughout the year.

For additional information, contact Patrick Sweany by email at PSweany@health.in.gov or call 317-233-7158.

WebPlus Onboarding FAQs

1.) I have attempted to create an abstract, however we do not have the majority of the information that is being requested. We only have the patient’s demographic information and the path sheet from the lab. We don't do anything with the rest of the information to put this information in.

We don't get tumor sizes, staging, anything like that.

For situations like this where you are worried about what to enter with only limited info available, enter as much information as you can from the records available to you. If there are any "required" fields (the ones indicated by an asterisk *) that you don't have information to complete, just enter "Unknown" for those fields (usually 9 or 99 numeric in the dropdown).

Many clinics and ambulatory centers don't have full documentation of all aspects of diagnosis and/or treatment for the full case; however, multiple clinics/hospitals/physicians in a patient's care will report their own "versions" of the case, which we then consolidate together into one "combined" case at the state level.

Any information you can include in text about any other physicians or facilities you are aware of that participated in the patient's care will help ISCR to do follow back to those facilities to obtain the remainder of the information needed.

2.) I do have a question about reporting as we only diagnose cancers in our surgery center and do not have follow-up information on the pathology after they go to surgery or their treatment.

You are still required to report all instances of diagnosed cancer at your facility whether they are referred out to a surgeon or never seen again afterwards. You can refer to the requirement in the ISCR Non-hospital reporting manual.

Something to consider when completing an abbreviated abstract:

“Please just enter as much information as you can from the records available to you. If there are any "required" fields (the ones indicated by an asterisk *) that you don't have information to complete, just enter "Unknown" for those fields (usually 9 or 99 numeric in the dropdown).”

Here are some additional tips when completing an abstract in WebPlus:

WebPlus Education Tip:

Fields in WebPlus marked with an asterisk (*) are required to be completed.
- "Date 1st Crs Rx" and "Directly Assigned SS2018" are examples of required fields. These areas can fail edits if they are blank.
- If there is no information available for a given field, complete text boxes with "unknown" and the appropriate digit length of "9's" for numeric fields.
Save work frequently while abstracting for peace of mind and prevention of data loss.
Running Edits feature will not work despite "saving" unless the case is validated, all edits are cleared and the abstract is released.
- Run edits by clicking Edits button at the top of the WebPlus screen.
- Resolve any edits by selecting the "red edit link shown" which will bring you to the specific field.
- Once edits are cleared, release the case by selecting "yes".
- Only select "no" when you're awaiting more information for the case or had to save while performing other job duties.
- To locate a saved case, go to the "find/open abstract" tab and search for the patient by last name or SSN. Click on "open” and the case will load.
Only release cases once all "critical field edits" have been corrected and cleared.
- Warnings are recommended to be reviewed and corrected but aren't required to pass edits and prepare for release.
Finding Open/Incomplete/In Progress cases within WebPlus:
- From the home screen, click on "Find/Open Abstract".
- On that status drop-down, select "incomplete", click "find".
- Under the status drop-down, you can also view cases that have been "released" and "complete".
Different types of fields and how to use their functions:
- Magnifying glass fields indicate that there is a search option. Click on the magnifying glass and search for the data item needed.
- Drop-down fields indicate selections are provided. Click on the down arrow and the selection will be provided for you.
- Calculator field specifies that the age for the patient will be automatically calculated after the DOB is entered.
Importance of adequate text:
- Enter supporting text for coded fields (dropdowns, numeric and magnifying glass fields) for ISCR to confirm accuracy of coding for quality and case consolidation purposes
- If unsure about accuracy of coded fields provided, include a comment in the text box fields to ensure that ISCR can establish accuracy when quality reviews and case consolidation are performed.
Include pertinent information regarding other diagnosis and treatment facilities in text if the information is available.
- This data will be helpful for ISCR to perform adequate follow-back AND
- Will assist in the case being "completed" with all information being collected from all facilities and doctors involved in the patient's care.

*If you have additional questions or would still like to do a virtual Teams Q&A session with an ODS (Oncology Data Specialist) from our team, please let us know, and we can provide availability so a call can be scheduled. *

Policy and Procedure Manuals