OUTBREAK DETECTION: EPICENTER™ SCORES IN

NEW JERSEY DISASTER DRILL

On an early April morning, a Northern New Jersey medical center’s emergency department had a surge of patients – 20 high school students, to be precise – present themselves over a two-hour period, all complaining of various gastrointestinal symptoms.

Were the illnesses linked? And if so, how soon would the hospital – and the public health agency that monitors that region – be able to know?

Providing communities with early warnings of possible disease outbreaks is at the core of Health Monitoring Systems’ (HMS’) service offering to its public health clients across the country.  And on this particular April day, EpiCenter™, our recently released community health surveillance system, supported a disaster drill at the Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey.

The drill was a collaborative effort between the medical center, the Hudson Regional Health Commission (HRHC) and the surrounding community.  The patients were actually volunteers from a nearby high school’s student government who had been assigned symptoms to feign upon arrival at the emergency department, part of a scenario of an E. coli outbreak stemming from tainted food at a local restaurant.

“Drills are an important part of our ability to be prepared for a range of emergencies that might come up, including disease spread, disasters and possible bioterrorism,” said Carrie Nawrocki, HRHC epidemiologist. “It’s crucial that we are alerted quickly when unusual events occur so we can take the right steps to manage the outbreak, including working with local health departments  and notifying other hospitals in the region.”

Added Nawrocki, “Some hospitals might have difficulty recognizing patterns of incoming patient complaints. That’s quite understandable given the activity level in emergency departments, especially on a very busy day like our drill. We need a reliable tool to see emerging problems, and that’s why EpiCenter is so critical to us. We were delighted with how EpiCenter performed -- exactly as desired.” 

Within two hours of the first mock patient arriving at the medical center, in fact, EpiCenter’s built-in algorithms and other advanced statistical analytical features detected that the unusual pattern of ED admissions might indicate an E. coli outbreak. EpiCenter issued a notification to the public health agency, which in turn contacted the medical center. Had the disease outbreak been real, the early warning from EpiCenter would have a valuable head start for effective response.

The actual processing of the test data was handled on our end through a parallel version of EpiCenter set up for specifically for the drill by HMS’ James Kelly, a member of our technical staff.  Planning for the exercise was coordinated by Lauren Bradford, HMS project manager, who worked with Nawrocki at the public health agency, as well as Doreen McSharry, the medical center’s safety and infection control director and Howard Wassinger from its IT department.

McSharry noted that the “exercise not only tested our ability to recognize a potential outbreak, but also our capability to manage an unusually large influx of potentially infectious patients.  Exercises of this nature are performed every year at hospitals and medical facilities throughout the country in accordance with Joint Commission standards.  We were pleased to work with HMS on the project."

Is your public health agency or hospital in your region planning for a disaster drill?

If so, we can help.

“We are eager to work with public health agencies and hospitals across the country on their drills,” said Steve DeFrancesco, HMS chief information officer. “Seeing the results of EpiCenter’s sophisticated, accurate and, of course, fast data analysis can be reassuring to our partners in public health and the healthcare professionals in their regions.”

To discuss using EpiCenter as part of your disaster drill or other preparedness exercises, please call Lauren Bradford at 412.231.2020 ext. 104 or e-mail her at lauren.bradford@hmsinc.com.