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Although sexual violence is a pressing public health and safety issue, it has historically been challenging to monitor population trends with precision. Approximately 31% of incidents of sexual violence are reported to law enforcement and only 5% lead to an arrest1, making the use of law enforcement data challenging. Syndromic surveillance data from emergency departments provides an opportunity to use care-seeking to more accurately surveil sexual violence without introducing additional burdens on either patients or healthcare providers.

Objective: To describe characteristics of sexual violence emergency department visits in Washington State.

Submitted by elamb on

During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) temporarily made lab-confirmed influenza hospitalizations and deaths reportable. As reporting influenza hospitalizations is resource intensive for hospitals, electronic sources of inpatient influenza surveillance data are being explored. A large Health Information Exchange (WA-HIE) currently sends DOH the following data elements on patients admitted to 14 hospitals throughout eastern Washington: hospital, admission date, age, gender, patient zip code, chief complaint, final diagnoses, discharge disposition, and unique identifiers. WA-HIE inpatient data may be valuable for monitoring influenza activity, influenza morbidity, and the basic epidemiology of hospitalized influenza cases in Washington.

Objective

To evaluate the timeliness, completeness, and representativeness of influenza hospitalization data from an inpatient health information exchange.

Referenced File
Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) temporarily made lab-confirmed influenza hospitalizations reportable. Reporting of influenza hospitalizations is resource intensive for hospitals and local health jurisdictions. As a result, electronic sources of influenza hospitalization data are being explored. A Regional Health Information Exchange (HIE) in Washington currently sends DOH ICD9 coded discharge diagnoses and microbiology laboratory orders and results for all patients admitted to 17 hospitals throughout Washington, including four of the five hospitals in Spokane County. The HIE hospitalization and laboratory data may be a valuable replacement for mandatory notifiable condition reporting to monitor the basic epidemiology and severity of influenza in Washington.

Objective

To evaluate the sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), timeliness, completeness, and representativeness of lab-confirmed influenza hospitalization data from a health information exchange with respect to traditional notifiable condition reporting.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

The following syndrome was developed to explore emergency department visit records involving people experiencing homelessness. Trends over time, patient demographics, geographic distribution, and primary reasons for seeking care were explored. Additionally, we have been using this definition, in combination with other illness/injury specific definitions to assess the trends in among people experiencing homelessness (e.g., cold-related illness among people experiencing homelessness during record low temperatures).

Submitted by Anonymous on

In WA, we've been using a series of increasingly broad queries to monitor measles. The number of visits mentioning measles increases during an outbreak as a result of people seeking care because they were (or think) they were exposed, seeking titers, vaccinations, or having seen reports of measles on the news and concerns than an illness could be measles. As a result, it is important to focus in on visits of highest suspicion as mentions of measles increase.

Submitted by Anonymous on

Objective: This is an updated to the All Traffic-related submitted in 2018. The goal is to capture all traffic-related injuries presenting for healthcare, regardless of intent or vehicle type, to allow monitoring of long-term trends in traffic-related injuries as well as short-term aberrations due to holidays, events, or weather.

Syndromic Surveillance System: ESSENCE (NSSP)

Data sources: Emergency Department and Outpatient Clinic Visits

Submitted by Anonymous on

Objective: Capture all traffic-related injuries presenting to the emergency room regardless of intent or vehicle type to allow monitoring of long-term trends in traffic-related injuries as well as short-term aberrations due to holiday, events, weather.

Syndromic Surveillance System: ESSENCE

Data sources: Emergency Department Visits

Fields queried: SubSyndrome Free Text, Chief Complaint History, Admit Reason Code, Admit Reason Combo, Discharge Diagnosis History

Submitted by Anonymous on

Prior to June 2016, there were 45 registered users of syndromic surveillance data in Washington State, with 29 (64.4%) representing 5 of Washington’s 35 local health jurisdictions and 16 (35.6%) at the state level. Of those registered users, 9 (8.8%) had logged into ESSENCE at least once in the 6 months before October 2016. In June 2016, the Washington State syndromic surveillance program began accepting Meaningful Use data and sought to increase its user base. To accomplish this, the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) designated a staff member to oversee outreach efforts to increase the visibility of syndromic data in the state, including the establishment of a Community of Practice.

Objective:

To grow and facilitate a community of syndromic surveillance data users in Washington State, improving and expanding local syndromic practice.

Submitted by elamb on

As syndromic surveillance reporting became an optional activity under Meaningful Use Stage 3 and incentive funds are slated to end completely in 2021, Washington State sought to protect syndromic reporting from emergency departments. As of December 2016, Washington State emergency departments had received $765,335,529.40 in incentive funding, with facilities receiving an average of three payments of $479,974.04 each.1 Considering the public health importance of syndromic surveillance reporting and the fiscal impact of mandatory reporting, the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) sought a new statute to require reporting from all emergency departments within the state.

Objective:

To protect syndromic surveillance data reporting from emergency departments in Washington State beyond the cessation of Meaningful Use incentive funding in 2021.

Submitted by elamb on
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