Volume 8, Number 8—August 2002
Research
Use of Automated Ambulatory-Care Encounter Records for Detection of Acute Illness Clusters, Including Potential Bioterrorism Events
Figure 4

Figure 4. Weekly total ambulatory-care episodes of lower respiratory syndrome (broken line) and hospital admissions for lower respiratory syndrome (solid line) in Massachusetts for the 3 years from September 9, 1996, through September 9, 1999. The eligible population for the hospital data was the entire population of each zip code; the ambulatory care data came from a variable subset of each zip code. As a result, the number of hospital admissions was higher than the number of ambulatory-care episodes for parts of the period shown.