Data collection began in mid-2016, with a small number of hospitals. Since then, the number of facilities submitting data has grown, and continues to grow, dramatically.
Facilities submitting data
The first graph shown below depicts the number of emergency care facilities and the second graph shows number of all healthcare facilities (emergency care, primary care, urgent care, specialty care) submitting data.
Preliminary data is typically received within 24 hours of a healthcare visit taking place. Records are updated throughout the course of the healthcare visit and after discharge, as records are finalized. This can take anywhere from 24 hours to several months, with most records anticipated to be complete within a month of the healthcare visit.
Data elements for healthcare visits
Records are available for each healthcare visit that took place at a healthcare facility submitting data to RHINO. Data elements available for each healthcare visit may include:
Patient
Demographics
- Date of birth*
- Age*
- Gender*
- Height
- Weight
- BMI
- Race*
- Ethnicity*
- Zipcode*
- County*
- State*
- Country*
Facility
Information
- Facility Name*
- Facility Address*
- Facility Type*
- Primary Care
- Specialty
- Urgent Care
- Emergency
- Inpatient
Visit
Information
- Visit date/time*
- Patient Class*
- Emergency
- Inpatient
- Outpatient
- Obstetric
- Observation
- Recurring
- Pre-Admit
- Direct Admit
- Admission reason code
- Medical record number*
- Unique visit ID*
- Procedure code
- Insurance Information
- Discharge date/time*
Clinical
Information
- Chief Complaint*
- Admit reason (inpatient)*
- Onset date*
- Clinical impression
- Triage Notes*
- Initial temperature*
- Systolic/diastolic BP
- Travel history
- Pregnancy status*
- Smoking status
- Medication list
- Diagnosis(es)*
- Diagnosis type*
- Admitting
- Working
- Final
- Discharge disposition
- Death (Y/N)*
- Death date/time (if applicable)*
*Required to be reported if collected in patient's Medical Electronic Record
It is important to note that, while the above listed data elements are all captured by RHINO, the specific data elements available for each individual visit record may vary.
For detailed information about the data collected, refer to the Washington State Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance (PDF) and the Washington Syndromic Surveillance Program Data Dictionary (Excel).
Technical Resources and Training
RHINO Guidebook
RHINO maintains a comprehensive guidebook Working with RHINO (PDF) for using syndromic surveillance data in Washington State. It includes overviews of publication standards and dataset linking, an ESSENCE walkthrough, and a list of hospitals with production-quality data. RHINO staff update the guidebook in June and December.
ESSENCE Trainings
Pre-recorded basic, intermediate, and advanced ESSENCE trainings are available. Sessions include a review of ESSENCE basics, guidance on building custom queries, demonstrations of pre-made dashboards, and advanced user tips for monitoring conditions of interest.