Houston Health Department

Syndromic Surveillance

Regional consortium for syndromic surveillance
In 2016, the Houston Health Department will form a regional consortium consisting of managers of healthcare and public health information systems; technical personnel that work with the information systems; and information technology policy makers.

Syndromic surveillance and healthcare facilities
Syndromic surveillance provides early detection of aberrations related to public health threats. A main component of syndromic surveillance is information obtained from patient clinical encounter records which are sent by treating facilities to health departments via HL7 compliant messages.

The information on this site is for healthcare facilities, within the Texas Health Service Region 6/5S, interested in sending real-time health and health related data to the Houston Health Department. In addition to the 15 counties depicted on the map, Region 6/5S includes: Houston Health Department, Beaumont Public Health Department, and Port Arthur Public Health Department.

Who can send data?
Beginning in January 2016, healthcare facilities that can connect with Houston Health Department to achieve the meaningful use syndromic surveillance objective for Stage 2.0 include:

• Eligible hospitals providing inpatient care
• Eligible hospital providing emergency care ONLY

The syndromic provider application may be requested and submitted via syndromic@houstontx.gov.

Forms - More information on medical forms is available at https://www.houstontx.gov/health/MedicalProviders/index.html

What type of data?
Health and health related data from healthcare facilities should be received by a health department and contain a minimum amount of information or data elements. The minimum data elements are different for Stage 1 and Stage 2. The categories for data elements include:

1. Basic message information
2. Patient demographics
3. Patient visit information
4. Diagnostic and pre-diagnostic information
5. Vitals
6. Risk factors

Texas statutes
The Texas DSHS link

Contact information

• The Houston Health Department can respond to questions regarding syndromic surveillance questions in Region 6/5S. Facilities may contact syndromic@houstontx.gov or call 832-393-5080.
• Healthcare facilities outside of Region 6/5S may contact syndromic.surveillance@dshs.state.tx.us

If you are an eligible provider requiring a waiver, please complete this form to obtain an exemption letter. If you are an eligible provider in Region 6/5S, please complete the form to obtain an exemption letter. If you are an eligible provider in Region 6/5S, please contact syndromic@houstontx.gov or call 832.393.5080. If you are an eligible provider requiring a waiver, please complete this form to obtain an exemption letter.

Name of Provider:

Street Address:

City:

State:

ZIP Code:

National Provider ID:

Main Phone Number:

Does Facility Have ED?: . YES NO

If YES above, how many patients per week (average)?:

If NO above, describe facility as Eligible Professional, UC, etc.:

Is facility part of a hospital system?: . YES NO

If YES above, what system?: