San Joaquin County’s Goal to Leverage Real-time Health Data to Improve Public Health

San Joaquin County Public Health Services (SJCPHS) aims to advance health equity, promote healthy living, and improve the conditions that impact the overall well-being of over 790,000 residents in San Joaquin County. Located in Central California, San Joaquin County (SJC) is among the fastest growing counties in the state.

In a study published by UC Davis in June 2022, SJC was one of the three counties with significantly higher rates of congenital syphilis (CS) compared to larger metro counties, with 297 CS cases per 100,000 live births. This study correlated higher CS cases to high poverty rates, identifying barriers of associated burdens of out-of-pocket costs, employment demands, and housing insecurity, to name a few.

In determining contributors to the higher CS rates in SJC, researchers identified additional missed opportunities for prevention, screening, and treatment in the Emergency Department (ED) and Correction Settings. For example:

• Among 17 with an ED visit, 29% were not tested in the ED
• Among those with a positive test, 45% did not initiate treatment in the ED
• Of the three who were incarcerated, 33% were not tested

Knowing these missed opportunities, SJCPHS is working to improve identification and care coordination for pregnant mothers and infants with CS within the ED. SJC is also striving to improve case finding, education, and care coordination for patients of reproductive age and to improve referrals to other county and community programs that could provide additional patient resources.

Learn how SJC partnered with MX to utilize admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) notifications and access longitudinal patient records to monitor communicable and infectious diseases.