Syndromic surveillance is the systematic collection, grouping, and tracking of reason for visit-type data. Syndromic surveillance is not tied to reportable conditions or laboratory results, but rather is a set of information shared for all patient visits (or all visits of a certain type, such as all emergency department and urgent care visits). Health care visit information is de-identified and grouped into "syndromes". Syndromes are categories of visits that may be similar. Commonly used syndromes include: respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurologic, rash, sepsis, injury, animal bites, and severe illness/death. A typical syndromic surveillance system will alert the user when there are more visits of a particular syndrome than expected, based on past visits. The NDDoH follows up on any identified data anomaly to see if there may be a reason for the unexpected increase.
Getting started?
- Determine how the message will be transported. Facilities can connect through a secure FTP connection or via the North Dakota Health Information Network (NDHIN).
- Messages must conform to the HL7 standard version 2.5.1. The NDDoH accepts four types of messages:
- A01 - Admit/visit notification
- A03 - Discharge/end visit
- A04 - Registration of patient
- A08 - Update patient information
- Condensed Specification
If you have questions please contact us at disease@nd.gov
and in the subject line put Syndromic Surveillance, or call us at (701) 328-2378.