Thirty-two Texas hospitals have joined a regional syndromic surveillance reporting network designed to detect disease threats 24 to 72 hours faster than current surveillance methods. The hospitals are sharing chief complaint data and selected patient demographics for all emergency room visits, which alerts epidemiologists if the volume of cases for specific syndromes exceeds thresholds. “Syndromic surveillance will help us spot an epidemic or potential epidemic rapidly so we can better control how many people get sick,” said a health official. The initiative is sponsored by the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council and the Southwest Center for Advanced Public Health Practice, a unit of the public health department.
