In New Jersey, real-time emergency department (ED) data are currently received from EDs by Health Monitoring Systems Inc.’s (HMS) EpiCenter, which collects, manages and analyzes ED registration data for syndromic surveillance, and provides alerts to state and local health departments for surveillance anomalies.
EpiCenter receives pre-diagnostic chief complaint data from 78 of 80 acute care and satellite EDs. The need for more specific information raises the possibility that other data elements from EDs such as triage notes can be of utility in detecting outbreaks without a significant delay. This study evaluates the inclusion of triage notes in EpiCenter to detect a recent increased usage of synthetic cannabinoids. At the time of this evaluation, three New Jersey hospitals were providing triage notes in their EpiCenter data.
Objective
Describe the inclusion of triage notes into a syndromic surveillance system to enhance population health surveillance activities.