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Use of syndromic surveillance during epidemics and pandemics can be very useful instruments that provide valuable and early insight used in the prevention and control of infection or disease during a public health emergency. According to Hughes et al. (2020), syndromic surveillance can be useful not only to show the impact of a disease but it can monitor for early warning signs and can even provide assurances that the event has not occurred. Hughes et al. (2020) reviewed how emergency departments obtained symptoms of influenza like illness (ILI) and preliminary diagnoses during influenza season and then the public health system used this data to determine potential influenza in the community. They also found that this process was quicker than waiting for actual test results and therefore allowing for rapid implementation of surveillance activities on the part of public health. Syndromic surveillance can also help to determine if an epidemic is moving from one region to another or expanding into a pandemic. These data collected from what Samaras et al. (2020) describe as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be used to provide early predictions, efficient treatment, can even be used to encourage vaccination among the community, including alerting providers so they can perform appropriate testing and treatment for their patients. The future of syndromic surveillance according to Samaras et al. (2020) can be expanded using the Web to collect data and analyze it in a variety of ways. A couple of those ways they mention is to compare disease to the weather, location of disease such as urban or rural areas by considering populations. References Hughes, H. E., Edeghere, O., O’Brien, S. J., Vivancos, R., & Elliot, A. J. (2020). Emergency department syndromic surveillance systems: a systematic review. BMC public health. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-020-09949-y Samaras, L., García-Barriocanal, E., & Sicilia, M. A. (2020). Syndromic surveillance using web data: a systematic review. Innovation in Health Informatics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128190432000022

Three aggregate healthcare reports for healthcare administrators/executives in ambulatory care organizations that can be analyzed as Balgrosky (2019) states across an entire population to better understand trends. According to Balgrosky (2019) trends can be seen in areas such as patient health status, treatment outcomes, cost ratios and financial performance, and a myriad of other useful analyses. For this post, we will look at three aggregate reports on pediatric patient access to health, proper documentation on vaccine administration for pediatric populations, and since I’m an Infection Preventionist, a report on communicable diseases by region. Report one, pediatric patient access to health will look at a compilation of data from all clinics across an ambulatory care organization with respect to the number of visits per year. To start, it is important to define what pediatrics is. It is defined as all children, ages birth to seventeen years old. You will want to make sure you involve your coding team to make sure your report will draw the appropriate visit codes, and location of visit. This report can be used to evaluate statistically how well your organization is meeting the needs of your pediatric population. If you notice that you have a high percentage of kept appointment slots yet you are only reaching half your population, you might want to consider that you need to expand your pediatric access to care. Report two, proper documentation on vaccine administration for pediatric population. This report will look at how staff document vaccine administration to make sure continuity of care for patients and the need for repeated doses are not needed, monitoring for missed opportunities, and if staff retraining is needed. According to Bell et al. (2020), they reported patient complaints of errors in documentation for vaccines such as the documentation was missing completely or the date the vaccine received was charted incorrectly. Additionally, a report like this can be used to monitor vaccine inventory to look for need to order and even to monitor for loss of inventory and loss of revenue. Report three, report on communicable diseases by region can be used to track trends of disease that can be a risk to staff, patients, and the community. This report can alert the Infection Preventionist who can then alert the clinical team so they can be better prepared to protect themselves and their patients. Eventually, this type of report can be used to help prevent outbreaks or catch them before they expand. Although this post is for ambulatory care, this sort of report can be used to alert the local health department to potential outbreaks in the community as well. References Balgrosky, J. A. (2019). Understanding health information systems for the health professions. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Bell, S. K., Delbanco, T., Elmore, J. G., Fitzgerald, P. S., Fossa, A., Harcourt, K., ... & DesRoches, C. M. (2020). Frequency and types of patient-reported errors in electronic health record

A non-profit community health technology service that provides providers, patient and health insurance organizations access to health information with a goal to provide quality and costs of healthcare. San Diego: Health Information Exchange (HIE) According to San Diego Health Connect (2021) they began with a grant from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to improve healthcare in the San Diego community, led by the University of California with a goal to build and strengthen local health information technology infrastructures and implement new approaches for making measurable improvements in the cost and quality of health care. HIE Stakeholders HIE has a variety of stakeholders but overall, stakeholders involve the whole community. Patients are allotted the resources to maintain their complete health record in one location. They do not need to keep paper records or remember what one doctor said when having an appointment with another doctor. This is especially helpful for tracking medications, discharge instructions and history of procedures. For providers, they have immediate access to details of care their patients received from other providers, including tests and their results so they can provide an informed assessment and health plan for their patients. The app is also used to track outbreaks to assist the local health department to maintain public health and safety. According to San Diego Health Connect (2021) they deliver an infrastructure for health information exchange that spans the entire community—across organizational boundaries and technology vendors. Using Health Information Technology to build a better, healthier community in San Diego, California. Accomplishments of HIE The HIE has helped providers make informed care decisions, improved coordination of care for the patient, and has reduced excessive care and treatment that patients did not really need and in the long cost the healthcare industry elevated cost. The San Diego Health Connect (2021) states they have been able to secure participation from major health systems in San Diego and are continuing to grow today. Challenges of HIE As with any information technology, there will be challenges that go along with the accomplishments. For HIE, they talk about working on being able to match patient records and are working on making this happen. Another challenge is that this program is within in San Diego community and connecting to other HIE programs are still being worked out. References San Diego Health Connect. (2021). Better Information. Better Care. https://www.sdhealthconnect.org/

Tech-connect tools are popping up across the continuum of health care facilities and communities. 3 Tech-Connect Tools to Connect Patient’s to their Health Over the last decade of so, there has been a strong push in healthcare to empower patients to partner with their providers in their health care. The first tech-connect tool is the San Diego Immunization Registry (SDIR). This registry allows parents a place to store their child’s vaccination card online. Historically, kids would receive a vaccine and a yellow card with documentation of the vaccine but if the parents lose it, then it was difficult to prove the vaccine was already taken and kids would get double doses. SDIR has connected patients to their vaccines, no matter where they receive the vaccine. This allots for continuity of care, centralized storage of vaccinations and has proven to be a benefit to patients and the care they receive. The next tech-connect tool is the Fitbit activity tracker watch. The Fitbit website states that this watch will help the consumer take charge of their health by putting a world of health and fitness in their hands. This tool helps patients monitor their personal health and then use the data gathered to make healthier choices for better health outcomes. The third tech-connect tool has been emerged within the outpatient primary care arena for quite some time. It is an app that outpatient clinics use to connect their patients to care they receive from a healthcare organization. At Sharp Healthcare in San Diego, the app is called Follow My Health. The name says it all, it allows patients to follow their health. Patients can view their medical records on their personal cell phones or any other device with access to the internet. The app also provides information for patients to help them improve their wellness, such as, the ability to create meal or workout planes and create a personal wellness assessment. Historically, after a patient has seen a provider and gets home, they tend to forget what happened in the visit or must wait for the next visit to receive their lab results. But with this app, they can view the results as soon as they have resulted. This has been beneficial to keeping a patient informed and ultimately engaged to their overall health. In conclusion, healthcare leadership should continue to monitor information technology trends available and evaluate how they can implement them to provide for increased patient engagement. References County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) (2021). SDIR/CAIR San Diego Regional Immunization Registry. http://www.sdiz.org/cair-sdir/Keep-IZs-Online.html Fitbit. (2021). https://www.fitbit.com/global/us/home Sharp Health Plan. (2021). Follow My Health Login. https://www.sharphealthplan.com/login