Syndromic surveillance: hospital emergency department participation during the Kentucky Derby Festival.
BACKGROUND
Electronic syndromic surveillance may have value in detecting emerging pathogens or a biological weapons release. Hospitals that have an agile process to evaluate chief complaints of patients seeking emergency care may be able to more quickly identify subtle changes in the community's health. An easily adaptable prototype system was developed to monitor emergency department patient visits during the Kentucky Derby Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, from April 16-May 14, 2002. Use of the system was continued during the same festival periods in 2003 and 2004.


METHODS
Twelve area hospitals in Louisville, Kentucky, participated in a prospective analysis of the chief symptoms of patients who sought care in the emergency department during the Kentucky Derby Festival during 2002. Six hospitals were classified as computer record groups (CRG) and used their existing computerized record capabilities. The other 6 hospitals used a personal digital assistant (PDA) with customized software (PDA group). Data were evaluated by the health department epidemiologist using SaTScan, a modified version of a cancer cluster detection program, to look for clusters of cases above baseline over time and by Zip code.


RESULTS
All 12 hospitals were able to collect and provide data elements during the study period. The 6 CRG hospitals were able to perform daily data transmission; however, 3 CRG hospitals were unable to interpret their data because it was transmitted in pure text format. In contrast, data from all 6 PDA group hospitals were interpretable. Real-time data analysis was compared with post-event data, and it was found that the real-time evaluation correctly identified no unusual disease activity during the study period.


CONCLUSIONS
The 12 hospitals participating in this study demonstrated that community-wide surveillance using computerized data was possible and that the 6 study hospitals using a PDA could quickly interpret emergency department patients' chief complaints. The emergency department chief complaints group could serve as a disease sentinel for the community.
Infection Control, University of Louisville Hospital, Kentucky 40202, USA. ruthca@ulh.org
Ruth
R
Carrico
Linda
L
Goss
D023482:Bioterrorism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods*; D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems / Q000458:organization & administration; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D007629:Kentucky; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000193:education; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D013192:Staff Development / Q000458:organization & administration