Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T17:18:19.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Monitoring Emergency Department Visits From Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria Using Syndromic Surveillance – New York City, 2017

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2019

Priscilla W. Wong  and
Hilary B. Parton
Priscilla W. Wong*
Affiliation:
Bureau of Communicable Disease, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, New York
Hilary B. Parton
Affiliation:
Bureau of Communicable Disease, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, New York
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Priscilla Wong, 90 Church Street, New York, NY 10007 (e-mail: pww2110@columbia.edu).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective:

Syndromic surveillance has been useful for routine surveillance on a variety of health outcomes and for informing situational awareness during public health emergencies. Following the landfall of Hurricane Maria in 2017, the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) implemented an enhanced syndromic surveillance system to characterize related emergency department (ED) visits.

Methods:

ED visits with any mention of specific key words (“Puerto,” “Rico,” “hurricane,” “Maria”) in the ED chief complaint or Puerto Rico patient home Zip Code were identified from the DOHMH syndromic surveillance system in the 8-week window leading up to and following landfall. Visit volume comparisons pre- and post-Hurricane Maria were performed using Fisher’s exact test.

Results:

Analyses identified an overall increase in NYC ED utilization relating to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria landfall. In particular, there was a small but significant increase in visits involving a medication refill or essential medical equipment. Visits for other outcomes, such as mental illness, also increased, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusions:

Gaining this situational awareness of medical service use was informative following Hurricane Maria, and, following any natural disaster, the same surveillance methods could be easily established to aid an effective emergency response.

Keywords

disasterhurricanePuerto Ricosituational awarenesssyndromic surveillance
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 44 - 48
Copyright
© 2019 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

National Hurricane Center. Costliest U.S. tropical cyclones tables updated. Miami, FL: US Department of Commerce, National Hurricane Center. 2018. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/news/UpdatedCostliest.pdf. Accessed June 7, 2018.Google Scholar
United States Census Bureau. 2016 American Community Survey 1-year estimates; using American FactFinder. 2016. http://factfinder.census.gov. Accessed June 7, 2018.Google Scholar
Lall, R, Abdelnabi, J, Ngai, S, et al. Advancing the use of emergency department syndromic surveillance data, New York City, 2012–2016. Public Health Rep. 2017;132(Suppl 1):23S–30S.10.1177/0033354917711183CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McQuade, L, Merriman, B, Lyford, M, et al. Emergency department and inpatient health care services utilization by the elderly population: Hurricane Sandy in The State of New Jersey. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2018;12(6):730–738.10.1017/dmp.2018.1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiedeman, C, Shaffner, J, Squires, K, et al. Notes from the field: monitoring out-of-state patients during a hurricane response using syndromic surveillance – Tennessee, 2017. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2017;66:1364–1365.10.15585/mmwr.mm6649a6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falise, AM, Griffin, I, Fernandez, D, et al. Carbon monoxide poisoning in Miami-Dade County following Hurricane Irma in 2017. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2018;epub,1–3.Google ScholarPubMed
Concepción-Acevedo, J, Patel, A, Luna-Pinto, C, et al. Initial public health laboratory response after Hurricane Maria – Puerto Rico, 2017. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018;67:333–336.10.15585/mmwr.mm6711a5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldmann, E, Galea, S.Mental health consequences of disasters. Annu Rev Public Health. 2014;35:169–183.10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032013-182435CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman-Cribbin, W, Liu, B, Schneider, S, et al. Self-reported and FEMA flood exposure assessment after Hurricane Sandy: association with mental health outcomes. PLoS One. 2017;12(1):e0170965.10.1371/journal.pone.0170965CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galea, S, Brewin, C, Gruber, M, et al. Exposure to hurricane-related stressors and mental illness after Hurricane Katrina. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007;64:1427–1434.10.1001/archpsyc.64.12.1427CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed