Syndromic Surveillance: Connecting Physicians’ Offices and Ambulatory Care Facilities

February, 2012 –Health Monitoring Systems (HMS) believes that Meaningful Use and Syndromic Surveillance provide a unique opportunity for public health professionals to better serve their constituencies. When physicians’ offices and other ambulatory care facilities implement Syndromic Surveillance data collection, valuable information is collected that helps public health professionals to be better aware of health threats.

As deadlines approach to institute Syndromic Surveillance, physicians and acute care facilities may be contacting you for information and next steps. This provides an exciting opportunity for you, as a public health professional, to advocate the positive benefits of implementing Syndromic Surveillance. Not only will those in compliance receive Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records incentives, but they’ll be contributing to the larger effort to identify public health issues before they become larger problems.

When eligible professionals and ambulatory care facility begin transmitting Syndromic Surveillance data, they provide additional insight into the characterization of events and long-term trends in community health. The information collected also provides meaningful data on chronic disease treatment and results.

HMS is working on a demonstration project and a data analysis initiative to show the value in collecting data from these professionals. Dr. Andy Walsh will be leading the analysis effort, working with states and local public health professionals to demonstrate the benefits of implementing Syndromic Surveillance in physicians’ office and ambulatory care facilities.

HMS (http://www.hmsinc.com) is a privately held company specializing in healthcare data analysis. The company processes and analyzes health‐related data in real time via a Software‐as‐a‐Service (SaaS) approach. Using this approach, HMS enables clients to increase their understanding of regional health conditions, improve quality and efficiency, and ensure regulatory compliance.

The company’s EpiCenter™ system is a first of its kind community health surveillance system for public health. HMS collects and analyzes data from more than 500 healthcare facilities across the country.