Heat-related illness (HRI) ranging from mild (heat cramps) to severe (heat stroke, death) occurs when the body is unable to properly cool itself. This dashboard includes emergency department and urgent care visits for heat-related illness from May - September for years 2016-2026. It is updated on weekdays (Monday-Friday) in July and August, and weekly on Mondays in May, June, and September, or during heat events.
Use the filters below to view data for a specific year or health region and to switch between counts or rates. By default, the second graph displays daily HRI visit counts. Select "Rates per 10,000 visits" to view monthly HRI rates compared to the combined rate for all available years.
Use the VDH Geography Reference Guide for a list of cities and counties in each health region.
VDH collects and analyzes health data from participating EDs and urgent care centers in Virginia. All non-federal acute care hospitals and free-standing emergency care centers report ED visit data to VDH. Urgent care reporting varies throughout the state.
Data are for clinical care of patients in healthcare settings. Public health surveillance is a secondary use. When interpreting HRI data, please consider syndromic surveillance data limitations.
- Case definition: Heat related illness visits were identified using the Heat Related Illness v2 syndrome definition.
- Measures: ED visit counts and rates per 10,000 ED visits. Rates allow comparison over time and between different groups, such as age, race, sex, and geographic areas.
- Geography: VDH assigns city/county and health district using the patient’s residential zip code. The HRI data dashboard includes ED and urgent care visit data for Virginia and non-Virginia residents. Out of state residents are not represented in the map. Visit counts and rates are combined for certain cities and counties due to some zip codes spanning more than one locality.
- Suppression: In the current year, VDH suppresses counts of 1 to 4 and rates with numerators of 1 to 4 to maintain confidentiality and accurate rate calculations. Suppressed statistics are indicated with an asterisk (*). Data for past years are not suppressed.
- Demographics: VDH reports firearm injury data using the following combined race/ethnicity categories:
• Asian or Pacific Islander – Non-Hispanic persons who identify as “Asian” or “Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander”
• Black or African American – Non-Hispanic persons who identify as “Black or African American”
• Latino – Individuals of any race who identify as “Hispanic or Latino”
• Native American – Non-Hispanic persons who identify as “American Indian or Alaska Native”
• White – Non-Hispanic persons who identify as “White” alone
• Other Race – Non-Hispanic persons who report “Other Race” alone
Complete a quick survey to share your experience using heat-related illness data.
Archived Heat-Related Illness Surveillance Reports
In 2021, the Enhanced Surveillance team identified and monitored one heat-related illness event that occurred June 28-30, 2021. The summary report can be found below.
In 2020, the Enhanced Surveillance team identified and monitored one heat-related illness event that occurred July 17-30. The report is below.
In 2019, the Enhanced Surveillance team identified and monitored one heat-related illness event that occurred July 16-22. The report is below.
The Enhanced Surveillance team identified and monitored one heat-related illness event between April 1 to September 30, 2018. The report can be found below.
Between April 1 to September 1, 2017, the Enhanced Surveillance team identified and monitored four heat-related illness events. The four heat-related illness events occurred on June 12-13, July 12-13, July 20-22,and August 16-18. Individual summary reports for these events can be found below.
Archived June 12-13 2017 Summary
Archived July 12-13 2017 Summary
For more information on preventing heat-related illness visit the Extreme Heat and Heat-Related Illnesses page.