Pandemic Influenza Plan - Questar III

Appendix 13-C
Overview of the Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) – Hospital Instance
1. Definition
The Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) is an integrated, secure, web-based
system for reporting emergency preparedness, surveillance and detection, and emergency
response data. It is the product of a unique collaboration between the healthcare and public
health sectors to improve and facilitate planning and response to emergencies that might
endanger the lives of the public. The system involves hospitals (and other health facilities), state
and local health departments in an electronic incident command-based process to all officials
involved in emergency response with online, real time data describing available beds, medical
supplies, personnel, number, status and immediate care needs of ill or injured persons, along with
other urgent information to facilitate a rapid and effective emergency response. It is a web-based
reporting system that is integrated with the NYSDOH health commerce system. It is able to
support reporting for multiple, simultaneous disease, mass trauma or other public health
emergency events across the state, and allows for survey or resource reporting instruments/forms
to be customized based on the nature of the emergency, and then rapidly deployed to select
hospitals dynamically, without programming or database modification. There are components in
HERDS that allow for the tracking of patients by EMS personnel as they are moved to and
between hospitals, and a patient locator function designed to interface with a publicly available
query for an individual to search for a loved one that may have been brought to an emergency
room or hospitalized during an emergency event. Geographic and statistical analysis tools,
which are part of the system make it possible for individual hospitals or regional hospital
groupings to evaluate what are appropriate inventory levels of critical resources to have on hand
for large scale incidents and maintain inventories at those level. The system currently is in use
with hospitals, Local Health Departments(LHDs) and nursing homes statewide. Clinics Home
Health Agencies are targeted as the next health provider group to be brought into HERDS
incident reporting (expected 1st quarter 2006), which will enhance the ability to analyze and use
surge capacity during an emergency. Discussion are ongoing regarding future use of HERDS
instances by other states in the northeast for hospital emergency response, surveillance and
planning instruments, as well as for NYS laboratories and psychiatric hospitals. HERDS is the
winner of the Council of State Governments 2004 Innovation Award for the Northeast Region
and was cited in the RAND Report on Exemplary Practices in Public Health Preparedness 1 .
2. Background
In response to the events of September 11, 2001, GNYHA and its member hospitals found that
significant time was spent responding to data requests from government agencies about patients,
supplies, staffing, and other matters critical to emergency management and response. In order to
ensure that data-gathering activities are effective and efficient in the event of a future disaster,
GNYHA, through its Emergency Preparedness Coordinating Council (EPCC), identified key
data elements that might be collected during an emergency, which fall into the following three
categories:
1 Tanielian et al 2005. Exemplary Practices in Public Health Preparedness. Report to US DHHS Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency
Preparedness. By RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security. Santa Monica, CA 54 pages.
February 7, 2006 1