North Carolina Leads Country in Emergency Department Visit Surveillance

North Carolina is the first state in the nation to have a fully automated statewide hospital emergency department surveillance system. State Health Director Leah Devlin unveiled the North Carolina Hospital Emergency Surveillance System (NCHESS) in November. NCHESS will provide real-time surveillance of hospital emergency department visits across North Carolina.

“Past experience has shown us that health problems often begin as a cluster of events that could be an early sign of a major epidemic or an act of bioterrorism that could go unnoticed until it became completely out of control,” Devlin said. “NCHESS will allow us to catch problems while they are still small and to take appropriate public health measures to ensure that they remain as small as possible.”

With NCHESS, statewide hospital emergency department data is electronically submitted to the Division of Public Health. Public health experts will be able to see quickly any unusual clinical information or trends that could point to a disease outbreak or bioterrorism incident and take the appropriate response.

More than 100 hospitals across the state are participating in the highly automated NCHESS. The new program augments a manual, paper-driven system that can take weeks to analyze trends and investigate hospital records.

"Hospital emergency departments are always on the front line in efforts to protect patients," said William Pully, president of the North Carolina Hospital Association. "We are very proud to be working with the state in an effort that makes a tremendous stride forward in both public and patient safety. Our hospitals will benefit greatly from this effort. A positive working relationship between the state and hospitals has produced something unique and special for North Carolina citizens."

The system was developed in a partnership between the N.C. Division of Public Health; the N.C. Hospital Association; the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine; and all North Carolina hospitals with emergency departments. It was funded with a federal bioterrorism grant that became available after 9/11. It will detect incidents of bioterrorism like anthrax, but it will also track other public health threats such as SARS or influenza. It will also be used in the wake of natural disasters like hurricanes to track health problems and ensure that they are addressed quickly.

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Last Modified: December 6, 2005