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Emergency Medical Service (EMS)

The impact of heat on mortality is well documented but deaths tend to lag extreme heat and mortality data is generally not available for timely surveillance during heat waves. Recently, systems for near-real time surveillance of heat illness have been reported but have not been validated as predictors of heat related mortality. In this study, we examined the associations among weather, indicators of heat-related ambulance calls and emergency department visits and excess natural cause mortality in New York City.

 

Objective

To describe the extent to which heat-illness indicators increase with extreme heat and to evaluate the association among daily weather, heat-related illness and natural cause mortality.

Submitted by hparton on

In mid-2017, the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (a bonafide agent of Kentucky Department for Public Health-KDPH) was alerted by members of KDPH to anecdotal evidence of a possible increase of SynCan (primarily Serenity) overdoses. The situation presented an opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of syndromic surveillance and emergency medical services (EMS) data systems to provide rapid situational awareness about SynCan overdoses.

Objective:

The aim of this project was to investigate anecdotal reports of an increase in synthetic cannabinoid (SynCan) overdoses in Lexington-Fayette County area of Kentucky, using rapid surveillance systems including emergency department (ED) syndromic surveillance (SyS) and emergency medical services (EMS) data.

Submitted by elamb on

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded 12 states, under the Enhanced State Opioid Overdose Surveillance (ESOOS) program, to utilize state Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and emergency department syndromic surveillance (SyS) data systems to increase timeliness of state data on drug overdose events. An important component of the ESOOS program is the development and validation of case definitions for drug overdoses for EMS and ED SyS data systems with a focus on small area anomaly detection. In fiscal year one of the grant Kentucky collaborated with CDC to develop case definitions for heroin and opioid overdoses for both SyS and EMS data. These drug overdose case definitions are compared between these two rapid surveillance systems, and further compared to emergency department (ED) hospital administrative claims billing data, to assess their face validity.

Objective:

The aim of this project was to assess the face validity of surveillance case definitions for heroin overdose in emergency medical services (EMS) and emergency department syndromic surveillance (SyS) data systems by comparing case counts to those found in a statewide emergency department (ED) hospital administrative billing data system.

Submitted by elamb on

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded 12 states, under the Enhanced State Opioid Overdose Surveillance (ESOOS) program, to utilize state Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and emergency department (ED) syndromic surveillance (SyS) data systems to increase timeliness of state data on drug overdoses. A key aspect of the ESOOS program is the development and validation of case definitions for drug overdoses for EMS and ED SyS data systems. Kentucky's ESOOS team conducted a pilot validation study of a candidate EMS case definition for HOD, using data from the Kentucky State Ambulance Reporting System (KStARS). We examined internal, face validity of the EMS HOD case definition by reviewing pertinent information captured in KStARS data elements; and we examined external agreement with HOD cases identified Kentucky’s statewide hospital billing database.

Objective:

The aims of this project were 1) to assess the validity of a surveillance case definition for identifying heroin overdoses (HOD) in a NEMSIS 3 compliant, state ambulance reporting system; and 2) to develop an approach that can be applied to assess the validity of case definitions for other types of drug overdose events in similar data state data systems.

Submitted by elamb on

The syndromic surveillance SurSaUD® system developed by Sante© publique France, the French National Public Health Agency collects daily data from 4 data sources: emergency departments (OSCOUR® ED network), emergency general practioners (SOS Medecins network), crude mortality (civil status data) and electronic death certification including causes of death. The system aims to timely identify, follow and assess the health impact of unusual or seasonal events on emergency medical activity and mortality. However some information could be missed by the system especially for non-severe (absence of ED consultation) or, in contrast, highly severe purposes (direct access to intensive care units). The French pre-hospital emergency medical service (SAMU) represents a potential valuable data source to complete the SurSaUD® surveillance system, thanks to reactive pre-hospital data collection and a large geographical coverage on the whole territory. Data are still not completely standardized and computerized but a governmental project to develop a national common IT system involving all French SAMU is in progress and will be experimented in the following years.

Objective:

To evaluate whether SAMU data could be relevant for health surveillance and proposed to be integrated into the French national syndromic surveillance SurSaUD® system.

Submitted by elamb on

On January 2, 2014 the cyclone Bejisa struck Reunion Island. This storm of Category 3 (Saffir–Simpson scale) disturbed electricity supply and drinking water systems. Floods, roof destructions and the threat of landslide led to the evacuation of residents to emergency shleters. In this context, the regional office of French Institute for Public Health Surveillance in Indian Ocean set up an epidemiological surveillance in order to assess the impact in the aftermath of the cyclone.

Objective

To assess the health impact of cyclone Bejisa from data of emergency departments (EDs) and emergency medical service (EMS)

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

There is a saying in EMS that if you've "seen one EMS system, then you've seen one EMS system". Many EMS systems have good or even great data for surveillance and research, but while there are some standards developing for EMS data formats and sharing, very few systems have the capability to share data using them.Presenters discussed the current state of 9-1-1/EMS dispatch and field electronic medical records systems, and the changing impact of the official and informal standards and variations of data seen in different communities.

The increasing frequency and severity of Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) in India have caused grave concern for road safety, posing serious challenge to transport policy makers, planners, regulators, police, engineers and civil society alike. With just 1% of world’s vehicles, India leads with 10% of world’s total Road Traffic Fatalities, resulting in untold misery to lakhs of people and costing about 3% of the GDP1. Due to the impact of the RTA, the United Nations declared the current decade “the decade of action for road safety with a goal to save five million lives”2. Post-crash response is very critical to reduce the mortality and morbidity due to accidents. Piramal Swasthya in collaboration with the National Highways Authority of India and General Insurance Company set up the Highway Emergency Response and Accident Mitigation Service between Hyderabad and Vijayawada, as a pilot project to address the post-crash response.

Objective

The objectives of this paper are 1. To describe the functioning of a highway emergency response and accident mitigation service and 2. To characterize the profile of the accidents and the victims served by this project

Submitted by aising on

Arguably the two most significant public health issues over the past two years have been the outbreak of ebola in West Africa and the rising epidemic of heroin use and overdoses. In the case of Ebola, the CDC issued guidance for inpatient facilities to screen for potential cases, however, there was little guidance for screening patients that presented to EMS workers. The West African pateint aht presented to the Emergency Department in Dallas was transported, unknowingly, by EMS, potentially exposing them and others to this deadly disease. Likewise, heroin has become an exploding epidemic in the United States with deaths from overdoses skyrocketing across the country. There are few data sources for overdoses that can alert and track real time instances of heroin overdose which are arguably the highest risk patients in the community. This will make it difficult for interventions in the community as expressed recently by the White House.

Objective

The objective of this oral presentation is to describe the use of near real time 911 Emergency Medical Services data in looking for suspected cases of Ebola and heroin cases in the community.

Submitted by aising on

Drs. Arens, Vo, van Wijk, and Coffin will present a cluster of opioid-related poisoning cases and deaths in San Francisco following ingestion of counterfeit pills designed to look like prescription medication. They will describe the clinical cases and detailed the coordinated public health response, which included the local PCC, a toxicology lab, a public health officer, the local medical examiner, and affected hospitals.

Presenters:

Ann Arens, MD and Kathy Vo, MD, Medical Toxicology Fellows, California Poison Control System, San Francisco Division 

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