Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Inpatient, Emergency Department, and Outpatient Visits for Respiratory Illnesses

Published by data.cityofchicago.org | City of Chicago | Catalog Last Checked: August 01, 2026 at 10:47 AM | Dataset Last Updated: July 31, 2026
Note, 4/28/2026: We have added an activity_level column. See text below for more details. This dataset includes aggregated weekly data on the percent of emergency department visits and the percent of hospital inpatient admissions due to influenza-like illness (ILI), COVID-19, influenza, RSV, and acute respiratory illness. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) collects data for Emergency Department visits to all 185 acute care hospitals in Illinois. The data are submitted from IDPH to the CDC’s BioSense Platform for access and analysis by health departments via the ESSENCE system. The CDC National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) utilizes diagnostic codes and clinical terms to create definitions for diagnosed COVID-19, influenza, RSV, and acute respiratory illness. For more information on diagnostic codes and clinical terms used, visit: https://www.cdc.gov/nssp/php/onboarding-resources/companion-guide-ed-data-respiratory-illness.html and https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.cste.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/CDC_Broad_Acute_Respiratory_.pdf. The data is characterized by selected demographic groups including age group and race/ethnicity. The dataset also includes percent of weekly outpatient visits due to ILI as reported by several outpatient clinics throughout Chicago that participate in CDC’s Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet). Finally, weekly respiratory illness activity levels for influenza, COVID-19, RSV and broad acute respiratory illness (also referred to as acute respiratory illness or ARI) are included in the dataset for emergency department visits from MMWR Week 202427 (week starting 6/30/2024) forward. Respiratory illness activity levels are an indication of how much people are seeking healthcare in emergency departments for a broad range of respiratory illnesses. This metric is calculated by using the percentage of emergency department visits for influenza, RSV, COVID-19, and ARI and comparing the percentage to times in the past when visits were low. ARI is used as an overall indicator and includes diseases like influenza, COVID-19, and RSV along with the common cold, pneumonia, and other diseases and symptoms of acute respiratory illness. Five activity levels range from minimal to very high. For more information on respiratory illness activity levels, see https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data/activity-levels.html#cdc_data_surveillance_section_7-data-notes. For more information on ESSENCE, see https://www.dph.illinois.gov/data-statistics/syndromic-surveillance For more information on ILINet, see https://www.cdc.gov/fluview/overview/index.html#cdc_generic_section_3-outpatient-illness-surveillance All data are provisional and subject to change. Information is updated as additional details are received. At any given time, this dataset reflects data currently known to CDPH. Numbers in this dataset may differ from other public sources.

Resources

3 resources available

Find Related Datasets

Search by Tags

Click any tag below to search for similar datasets

data.gov

An official website of the GSA's Technology Transformation Services

Looking for U.S. government information and services?
Visit USA.gov