According to the CDC, “From January 1, 2019 to May 3, 2019, 764 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 23 states”. This is a high record since the year 2000 where measles was apparently eliminated from the United States. With this outbreak going around, hospitals are looking for a way to help prevent further measles outbreaks. Epic Systems has created an alert tool to help with prevention.
Epic has created alerts in their EHR system. These alerts will help identify and reach out to patients who are unvaccinated. It will also help inform doctors on how to screen, track and treat measles patients. It will help identify patients who may have been exposed to measles and that need to be examined. This is important since the virus can be easily exposed to others even through passing. A patient may come from a measles infected area and pass the screening, but have it exposed to others who haven’t been examined. These alerts are important to remind hospital’s to be on alert for everyone who comes in and not just the infected.
Last week in the Caribbean port of St. Lucia, the Church of Scientology cruise ship Freewinds was quarantined for measles after a staff member was reported sick and it was speculated to be measles. All 318 passengers aboard the ship had to all be tested and were waiting for the blood work confirming they are clear to be returned. There is no telling how long this will all take, but thankfully, once cleared, the ship could return to its home port immediately.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases and if it not treated it can become severe. Measles can lead to disability, brain damage, blindness or hearing loss. All of this can be prevented by getting vaccinated.
The measles vaccine was created in the U.S. in 1963 but before that there were 4 million measles cases reported each year: 48,000 people were hospitalized and there were 500+ deaths per annum in the U.S. As long as people now get the recommended two doses of vaccine, they will never contract the disease even if they are exposed to it.
This article was created by Stephanie Sok, Business Researcher, Global Healthcare IT, Inc. with assistance from the following base line articles: For more on each please click on the link.
Stephanie can be reached on ssok@globalhit.com.
