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Syndromes

Between 2006 and 2013, the rate of emergency department (ED) visits related to mental and substance use disorders increased substantially. This increase was higher for mental disorders visits (55 percent for depression, anxiety or stress reactions and 52 percent for psychoses or bipolar disorders) than for substance use disorders (37 percent) visits. This increasing number of ED visits by patients with mental disorders indicates a growing burden on the health-care delivery system. New methods of surveillance are needed to identify and understand these changing trends in ED utilization and affected underlying populations. Syndromic surveillance can be leveraged to monitor mental health-related ED visits in near real-time. ED syndromic surveillance systems primarily rely on patient chief complaints (CC) to monitor and detect health events. Some studies suggest that the use of ED discharge diagnoses data (Dx), in addition to or instead of CC, may improve sensitivity and specificity of case identification.

Objective: The objectives of this study are to

(1) create a mental health syndrome definition for syndromic surveillance to monitor mental health-related ED visits in near real time;

(2) examine whether CC data alone can accurately detect mental health related ED visits; and

(3) assess the added value of using Dx data to detect mental health-related ED visits.

Submitted by elamb on

This syndrome was developed to conduct surveillance for hazardous materials events in Maricopa County.  It has been included in enhanced surveillance for Mass Gathering events such as the 2017 Lost Lakes Festival and is an updated version from the version included in the 2017 NCAA Men's Division I College Basketball Championship (Final Four) enhanced surveillance.

The syndrome was developed in ESSENCE using chief complaint terms from emergency room and inpatient data.

Submitted by williamsmith@m… on

This syndrome was created to explore the possibility of Kansas Syndromic Surveillance Program data for agriculture-related injuries. This topic could potentially cover trauma, injury, occupational public health, and child health. This syndrome is still a work-in-progress and a proof of concept, but has given some promising results so far in Kansas. One point to note is farmers are not particularly descriptive in triage and tend to not complaint excessively so we had to turn to Diagnosis Codes to get the most reliable results.

Syndromic Surveillance System - ESSENCE

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

This syndrome was created to capture Kansas ED Visits with chief complaints related to carbon monoxide poisoning/exposure or similar diagnosis codes. The terms "heater" and "generator" are included to potentially capture cases of improper heater and generator use that did not receive relevant CO poisoning terms or codes.

Syndromic Surveillance System - ESSENCE

Data Source - Emergency Room Visits

Fields Used - CCDD (an ESSENCE-concatenated field of Chief Complaint and Discharge Diagnosis)

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

This syndrome was created to capture records where the "exposure to forces of nature" diagnosis codes are sent, excluding Heat/Sunlight codes. The original syndrome captured all weather-related events that are explicitly stated and diagnosed, but the majority of these cases were sunburns and heat stroke. The original syndrome is also uploaded, but this syndrome will serve similar purposes as the original while excluding Heat/Sunlight cases when these are not of interest.

Syndromic Surveillance System - ESSENCE

Data Source - Emergency Room Visits

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

This syndrome was created to capture cases where the "exposure to forces of nature" diagnosis codes are sent. This was created as a starting place for weather surveillance and should capture all weather-related events that are explicitly stated and diagnosed. Please note that if your region receives a lot of sun, the primary case counts in this syndrome definition will be sunburns. KDHE has uploaded a second similar syndrome that excludes these cases.

Syndromic Surveillance System - ESSENCE

Data Source - Emergency Room Visits

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

This syndrome was created as a way to monitor Frostbite, Cold Exposure, & Hypothermia in Kansas Emergency Department visits. **Please note that the hypothermia portion of this syndrome was created to ONLY include hypothermia associated with low environmental temperature.

Syndromic Surveillance System - NSSP ESSENCE

Data sources - Emergency Room Visits

Fields Used - CCDD (an ESSENCE-concatenated field of Chief Complaint and Discharge Diagnosis)

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

This syndrome was created to query NSSP ESSENCE for KS ED visits related to fireworks, particularly around the United States Independence Day holiday. Legality and slang for firework injuries will vary by region and some terms in this query are fairly region-specific.

Syndromic Surveillance System - NSSP ESSENCE

Data Source - Emergency Room Visits

Fields Used - Chief Complaint History, Discharge Diagnosis History OR CCDD (an ESSENCE-concatenated field of Chief Complaint and Discharge Diagnosis)

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

This syndrome was created to query NSSP ESSENCE on Rabies Exposure and Rabies PEP S

Syndromic Surveillance System - NSSP ESSENCE

Data source - Emergency Room Visits

Fields used - Chief Complaint History and Discharge Diagnosis History OR CCDD (an ESSENCE-concatenated field of Chief Complaint and Discharge Diagnosis)

Submitted by ZSteinKS on
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