Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Jul 8, 2020
Date Accepted: Jul 15, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jul 17, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Notes from the Field: Emergency Medical Service Data to Augment COVID-19 Public Health Surveillance – Montgomery County, Maryland, March – June 2020
ABSTRACT
Abstract: Epidemiologic and syndromic surveillance metrics traditionally used by public health departments may be insufficient for predicting healthcare utilization for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019). In Montgomery County, Maryland, pulse oximetry (SaO2) measurements obtained by the emergency medical service (EMS) were added to these traditional metrics to enhance the public health picture for decision makers. During a 78-day period, the rolling 7-day average of percent of EMS patients with SaO2 <94% had a stronger correlation to next day hospital bed occupancy (Spearman’s ρ = 0.58 [95% CI: 0.40–0.71]) than either the rolling 7-day average of percent of tests positive (ρ=0.55 [95% CI: 0.37–0.69]) or the rolling 7-day average of percent of emergency department visits for COVID-19-like-illness (ρ=0.49 [95% CI: 0.30–0.64]). Health departments should consider adding EMS data to augment COVID-19 surveillance and thus improve resource allocation.
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