The document summarizes emergency department visit data from My Hospital in July 2014. It finds that the top chief complaints were nonspecific symptoms, pain, and abdominal complaints for adults and nonspecific symptoms, fever, and respiratory infections for children. It also shows the average number of daily ED visits by shift and day of week, with the highest volumes occurring during the 8 AM to 4 PM shift on weekdays. The document concludes by describing New York City's ED syndromic surveillance system, which analyzes chief complaint data from over 10,000 daily ED visits across the city to detect potential disease outbreaks or other public health issues.

1. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene My Hospital, July 2014
My Hospital
Total monthly visits: 6,566
Top Ten Chief Complaints
(a) Adults: ≥ 18 years old (b) Children: ≤ 17 years old
Rank Chief Complaint Counts
1 Nonspecific symptoms∗
2,092
2 Pain in back, limb, extremity or joint 873
3 Abdominal complaint∗
693
4 Injury or accident∗
577
5 Complaints involving head or face∗
461
6 Respiratory complaint∗
295
7 Respiratory infections∗
294
8 Pregnancy test, termination, complication or labor 289
9 Cardiac complaint∗
259
10 Drug or alcohol related complaint 161
Missing or uninformative∗
214
Total ED visits by adults 4,899
Rank Chief Complaint Counts
1 Nonspecific symptoms∗
459
2 Fever 449
3 Respiratory infections∗
352
4 Abdominal complaint∗
291
5 Injury or accident∗
259
6 Respiratory complaint∗
240
7 Complaints involving head or face∗
221
8 Pain in back, limb, extremity or joint 141
9 Rash 111
10 Cardiac complaint∗
60
Missing or uninformative∗
51
Total ED visits by children 2,032
Chief Complaint Definitions (∗
)
Chief Complaint Includes the Following
Injury or accident∗
Motor vehicle accidents, drowning, carbon monoxide exposure, foreign body and poisoning
Cardiac complaint∗
Chest pain, coronary syndromes, palpitations and congestive heart failure
Respiratory complaint∗
Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, shortness of breath and wheezing
Abdominal complaint∗
Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation and gastrointestinal hemorrhage
Complaints involving head or face∗
Headache, migraine, eye symptoms including conjunctivitis and blurry or double vision, ear symptoms including otitis or epistaxis,
and dental issues
Urinary complaint∗
Dysuria, hematuria, flank pain, urinary retention, renal colic and renal stones
Genital complaint∗
Genital, groin or rectal symptoms including urethritis and sexually transmitted diseases
Medication refill or laboratory
test∗
Medication refill, laboratory testing or result, PPD placement or reading, suture removal, dressing change, feeding tube adjustment,
follow-up visits and recalls
Respiratory infections∗
Upper respiratory infection, influenza, pneumonia and bronchitis
Nonspecific symptoms∗
Body aches or pain at unspecified site, fatigue, dizziness, pruritis and edema
Missing or uninformative∗
Missing, invalid or uninformative, e.g., ”tba”, ”minireg”, ”sent by PMD”
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2. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene My Hospital, July 2014
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Average Number of ED Visits (by day of week and shift)050100150200
12:00AM − 8:00AM
8:00AM − 4:00PM
4:00PM − 12:00AM
43
71
73
40
138
132
38
131
97
20
99
110
30
102
98
24
80
95
35
95
84
Geographical Distribution of ED Visits
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
My Hospital
Summary of New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Emergency Department syndromic surveillance system
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) emergency department (ED) syndromic surveillance system, established in 2001, serves as
an early warning system for natural or man-made events that could impact the public’s health such as disease outbreaks, natural disasters and biologic or chemical terrorism
events. DOHMH receives information on over 10,000 ED visits each day, comprising 98% of ED visits in New York City. Patient chief complaints are grouped into syndrome
categories and analyzed daily for aberrations in time and space. Statistically significant aberrations or ”signals” are investigated to determine their public health importance.
Please direct all e-mails concerning this report to Communicable Reports: nycdohed@health.nyc.gov
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