Hurricane Helene: Public Health Department Closures

Latest updates: Hurricane Helene

Our public health departments' hours of operation may be affected by power and staffing outages. This means that some closures may not appear on the state government office delays and closings map. The health and safety of our employees and our clients remains our highest priority. We are working to get services restored as safely and quickly as possible.

Learn more about DPH's role with hurricanes, floods, and weather emergencies.

Syndromic Surveillance Overview

In South Carolina, Syndromic Surveillance Reporting is used to monitor chief complaint data to help identify events of public health concern, including COVID-19.


The Meaningful Use program offers a Syndromic Surveillance Reporting measure under the Public Health Reporting objective.  The information must be sent in standardized formats that have been developed for sending health-related information between health care information systems.  Data submission and analysis is coordinated at the state health department (DPH).

Syndromic Surveillance Reporting Criteria and Standards

DPH currently accepts Syndromic Surveillance messages from the following provider types:

  • Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (emergency department data, inpatient admissions data)
  • Eligible Providers in urgent care settings*

*In general, urgent care settings refer to facilities outside of primary care offices and emergency rooms that provide immediate medical service in an outpatient setting, require no patient appointment, and have extended operating hours that cover evenings and weekends.

DHEC currently accepts Syndromic Surveillance messages for the following Meaningful Use stages:

  • Modified Stage 2 (2015 - 2017)
  • Stage 3 from Eligible Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals and Eligible Providers in urgent care settings. 

DPH currently accepts electronic Syndromic Surveillance messages in the following standard format:

  • HL7 v2.5.1 messages formatted in accordance with the PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance v2.0

Key Documents

The following documents provide guidance for health care organizations seeking to send Syndromic Surveillance messages to DPH.

For additional information or questions regarding the Syndromic Surveillance reporting measure at DHEC, please send an email to muhelpdesk@dph.sc.gov.

This page last updated May 14, 2020

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