The public health dashboard: a surveillance model for bioterrorism preparedness.
J Public Health Manag Pract
; 10(3): 234-40, 2004.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-15253519
ABSTRACT
The City of Milwaukee Health Department piloted a short-term, near real-time syndromic surveillance and communication tool by using an existing secure regional Internet infrastructure. Voluntary, active syndromic case reporting by hospital Emergency Departments was combined with other data streams, including clinical laboratory reports of communicable disease, hospital emergency room diversions, ambulance runs, medical examiner reports of unusual or suspicious deaths, poison control and nursing hotline call volumes, and pharmacy over-the-counter sales. These data were aggregated into a "Surveillance Dashboard" format that was used to communicate community syndromic health trends to hospitals, Emergency Departments, and other providers using a secure Internet technology. Emergency Departments at 8 area hospitals reported a total of 314 cases meeting syndromic criteria from 26,888 patient encounters. Participants were satisfied with data entry and communications. All participating Emergency Departments received e-mail and text pager alerts sent by the Milwaukee Health Department. No unexplained findings or suggestions of an early outbreak were reported through syndrome surveillance for the 4-week duration of the project. Similar surveillance and communications systems could provide multiple benefits to Emergency Department workflow and management, as well as to public health and emergency response.
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Public Health Administration
/
Sentinel Surveillance
/
Bioterrorism
/
Disaster Planning
/
Emergency Medical Services
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Screening_studies
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
J Public Health Manag Pract
Journal subject:
SAUDE PUBLICA
/
SERVICOS DE SAUDE
Year:
2004
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States