Use of Electronic Health Records to Determine the Impact of Ebola Screening

Screening potential Ebola patients can have a significant impact on health systems. The Department of Defense has screened many potential patients which may not come to the attention of the infectious disease community. In order to find additional patients that require resources for evaluation, we have developed methods to use reason for visit text fields and laboratory test records. We have determined that various elements of the EHR, either through an existing syndromic surveillance system or through a specifically-derived method, can provide useful information on the impact of outbreaks on a health system. Use of these methods to find patients of concern could be expanded to other outbreaks.