State-of-the-Art Technology Will Help Identify Public Health Threats

Sierra Providence Health Network (SPHN) announced it was the first hospital system in the state to provide real-time data to the CDC’s Biosense project, a program intended to improve the nation's capabilities for real-time biosurveillance and disease detection. This groundbreaking initiative marks the first time that near-real time live patient data from a clinical environment has been transmitted directly to the CDC. Through its state-of-the-art Azyxxi database in which all patient information is electronically captured, centrally stored and then disseminated, SPHN is transmitting critical information to the project that will ultimately monitor public health threats and help with the nation’s emergency preparedness effort. On a local level, the effort was led by SPHN’s Chief Information Officer, Ray Davis. He coordinated the necessary sponsorship, resources, and personnel to be able to execute this project.

“El Paso can feel more prepared for public health emergencies because the BioSense program provides real-time health information to state and local public health enabling a faster and more well-informed response to health emergencies. The participation of the Tenet hospital system and hospitals like theirs make the BioSense system more robust and more useful for public health officials by providing a more complete picture of community health,” said Lisa B. Hines Senior Advisor for Communication and Outreach for the CDC.

Hospitals across the country were recruited to participate in BioSense from August-October, 2005. In order to be selected, hospitals had to be located in a major metropolitan city, have a
high volume emergency department and existing IT infrastructure in the ER, and have the support of their local public health department. Participation is ultimately voluntary, and 40 hospitals are currently transmitting data to BioSense in several major metropolitan areas across the country. By the end of the year, the project hopes to have 350 hospitals participating in 40 cities nationwide.

ABOUT SIERRA PROVIDENCE HEALTH NETWORK
Sierra Providence Health Network, part of Tenet Texas, consists of three hospitals located in El Paso: 351-bed Sierra Medical Center, located at 1625 Medical Center Drive; 508-bed Providence Memorial Hospital, which also houses the 106-bed Children’s Hospital at Providence, located at 2001 N. Oregon; and a 78-bed physical rehabilitation hospital, Sierra Providence Physical Rehabilitation Hospital, located at 1740 Curie. The network is in the process of building a fourth hospital, Sierra Providence Eastside Hospital, a 100-bed acute care facility scheduled to open in 2008.

Sierra Medical Center, Providence Memorial Hospital and the Children’s Hospital at Providence are acute care hospitals that offer a broad spectrum of medical and surgical services for adults and children, including cardiac care and rehabilitation, cancer care and support services, women’s services and emergency care. Other network clinical specialties include a dedicated children’s emergency room, kidney transplant, gamma knife radiosurgery, a hospice, a bariatrics center and health care services for chronically ill children. Sierra Providence Physical Rehabilitation Hospital provides a broad spectrum of rehabilitation services and is equipped to handle brain injuries and other serious disorders and is accredited by both the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Sierra Medical Center and Providence Memorial Hospital are accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency.

ABOUT BIOSENSE
BioSense is a national program intended to improve the nation’s capabilities for conducting near real-time biosurveillance, enabling health situational awareness through access to existing data from healthcare organizations across the country. The primary objective is to expedite event recognition and response coordination among federal, state, and local public health and healthcare organizations by providing each level of public health access to the same data, at the same time. In other words, if a bioterrorism event or a disease outbreak occurs, every level of public health will be able to see healthcare data from their community in near real-time. For more information please visit www.cdc.gov/biosense.