State health department unveils new public health surveillance system.

The North Carolina Hospital Emergency Surveillance System (NCHESS), recently unveiled by State Health Director Dr. Leah Devlin, makes North Carolina the first state in the nation to have a fully automated statewide hospital emergency department surveillance system. 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. Such a cluster 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."

More than 100 hospitals across the state are participating in the program, which is highly automated. Hospital emergency department data are electronically submitted to the Division of Public Health. Public health experts can quickly see any unusual clinical information or trends that could point to a disease outbreak and make the appropriate response. The program augments a manual, paper-driven system that can take weeks to analyze trends and investigate hospital records.

NCHESS was developed through a partnership of the North Carolina Division of Public Health, the N.C. Hospital Association, the University of North Carolina School of Medicine's Department of Emergency Medicine, and all North Carolina hospitals with emergency departments. Funded with a federal bioterrorism grant that became available after September 11, it will detect incidents of bioterrorism like anthrax attacks, 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.