Heat-Related Illness Surveillance

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