In addition to utilizing syndromic surveillance data to respond to public health threats and prepare for major incidents, local health departments can utilize the data to examine patient volumes in the emergency departments (EDs) of local hospitals. The information obtained may be valuable to hospital and clinic administrators who are charged with allocating resources.
Indianapolis represents 92% of Marion County’s population. The county’s public hospital and clinic network provide care for 1 in 3 county residents who are Medicaid enrollees or uninsured. To assess the need for extended hours at eight public primary care clinics in Marion County, Indiana, this study examined the hospital’s ED volume. We hypothesize that
changes in the ED volume trends that corresponded to the start or end of usual clinic hours (8am-5pm) would be evidence of clinic hours’ impact on ED use.
Objective
This paper highlights the use of syndromic surveillance data to examine daily trends in ED volume at an urban public hospital.