TY - JOUR
PY - 2019//
TI - Evaluation of emergency department-based surveillance systems at 2 healthcare facilities after Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico, 2017-2018
JO - Disaster medicine and public health preparedness
A1 - Adams, Laura E.
A1 - Vargas, Luzeida
A1 - Frasqueri-Quintana, Verónica M.
A1 - Torres-Figueroa, Xiomara
A1 - Ryff, Kyle
A1 - Sánchez-González, Liliana
A1 - Little, Emma
A1 - Ciampaglio, Kaitlyn
A1 - Reyes Claudio, Julio M.
A1 - Ponton-Cruz, Elyonel
A1 - Santiago, William
A1 - Paz-Bailey, Gabriela
A1 - Alvarado, Luisa I.
SP - ePub
EP - ePub
VL - ePub
IS - ePub
N2 - OBJECTIVES: Hurricane Maria caused catastrophic damage in Puerto Rico, increasing the risk for morbidity and mortality in the post-impact period. We aimed to establish a syndromic surveillance system to describe the number and type of visits at 2 emergency health-care settings in the same hospital system in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
METHODS: We implemented a hurricane surveillance system by interviewing patients with a short questionnaire about the reason for visit at a hospital emergency department and associated urgent care clinic in the 6 mo after Hurricane Maria. We then evaluated the system by comparing findings with data from the electronic medical record (EMR) system for the same time period.
RESULTS: The hurricane surveillance system captured information from 5116 participants across the 2 sites, representing 17% of all visits captured in the EMR for the same period. Most visits were associated with acute illness/symptoms (79%), followed by injury (11%). The hurricane surveillance and EMR data were similar, proportionally, by sex, age, and visit category.
CONCLUSIONS: The hurricane surveillance system provided timely and representative data about the number and type of visits at 2 sites. This system, or an adapted version using available electronic data, should be considered in future disaster settings. Language: en
LA - en
SN - 1935-7893
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2019.79
ID - ref1
ER -