Lessons from COVID-19 syndromic surveillance through emergency department activity: a prospective time series study from western Switzerland.
BMJ Open
; 12(5): e054504, 2022 05 06.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1832443
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
We aimed to assess if emergency department (ED) syndromic surveillance during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 outbreak could have improved our surveillance system. DESIGN AND SETTINGS We did an observational study using aggregated data from the ED of a university hospital and public health authorities in western Switzerland.PARTICIPANTS:
All patients admitted to the ED were included. PRIMARY OUTCOMEMEASURE:
The main outcome was intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy. We used time series methods for ED syndromic surveillance (influenza-like syndrome, droplet isolation) and usual indicators from public health authorities (new cases, proportion of positive tests in the population).RESULTS:
Based on 37 319 ED visits during the COVID-19 outbreak, 1421 ED visits (3.8%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2. Patients with influenza-like syndrome or droplet isolation in the ED showed a similar correlation to ICU occupancy as confirmed cases in the general population, with a time lag of approximately 13 days (0.73, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.80; 0.79, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.86; and 0.76, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.83, respectively). The proportion of positive tests in the population showed the best correlation with ICU occupancy (0.95, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.96).CONCLUSION:
ED syndromic surveillance is an effective tool to detect and monitor a COVID-19 outbreak and to predict hospital resource needs. It would have allowed to anticipate ICU occupancy by 13 days, including significant aberration detection at the beginning of the second wave.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Influenza, Human
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
BMJ Open
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Bmjopen-2021-054504
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