New tool helps decide disease outbreaks
Patients begin arriving at Community Medical Centers emergency departments or urgent-care centers complaining of similar symptoms – perhaps double-vision, difficulty swallowing or respiratory illness. Are these symptoms occurring more frequently than in a typical month? Is this the start of some mass illness? How will we know?
Swiftly and correctly making those determinations is part of a cooperative infection-control program involving Community Medical Centers and the Fresno County Department of Public Health. The Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) project continuously collects reasons for emergency department visits and determines what kind of pattern may be developing.
According to Beverly Kuykendall, Community’s infection control manager, a more rigorous analysis of the data occurs when a significant increase in a specific symptom is detected. Results of physician formal exams and patient assessments are used to confirm or discount an outbreak.
Kuykendall said since the program was implemented, a surge in patient complaints suggesting a cluster of botulism cases was detected. However, in less than an hour, further investigation determined that botulism was not involved.
RODS is a federal project that began in 1999. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says RODS assesses data for a variety of medical symptoms including respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological and others. It also has been used in efforts to fight bioterrorism. The CDC said the project has been tested and deployed by hospitals in Pennsylvania, Utah, Ohio, Michigan and New Jersey. Kuykendall said Fresno County first contacted Community about the project in 2005, and it was rolled out late last year.
“When David Lucchini and Lyndon Badcoe, from Fresno County Department of Community Health, approached Community to partner with them on the RODS project, I knew it was definitely something we needed to do,” Kuykendall said. “What better way to improve the health of the community than real-time identification of disease outbreaks so prevention measures can be implemented in a timely manner?”
This story was reported by John Taylor. He can be reached at jtaylor@communitymedical.org.