The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) uses ED syndromic surveillance to monitor near real-time trends in pneumonia visits. The original pneumonia algorithm was developed based on ED chief complaints, and more recently was modified following a legionella outbreak in NYC. In 2016, syndromic data was matched to New York State all payer database (SPARCS) for 2010 through 2015. We leveraged this matched dataset to validate ED visits identified by our pneumonia algorithm and suggest improvements. An effective algorithm for tracking trends in pneumonia could provide critical information to inform and facilitate public health decision-making.
Objective:
To validate and improve the syndromic algorithm used to describe pneumonia emergency department (ED) visit trends in New York City (NYC).