A retrospective analysis of emergency department data in NC for drug and opioid overdoses has been explained previously [1]. We built on this initial work to develop new poisoning and surveillance reports to facilitate near real time surveillance by health department and hospital users. In North Carolina, the availability for mortality and hospital discharge data are approximately one and two years after the event date, respectively. NC DETECT data are near real time and over 75% of ED visits receive at least one ICD-9-CM final diagnosis code within two weeks of the initial record receipt.
Objective
Twelve new case definitions were added to the NC DETECT Web Application to facilitate timely surveillance for poisoning and overdose. The process for developing these case definitions and the most recent outputs are described.