Evaluation of 2-1-1 enrollment for emergency preparedness and response in the Gulf Coast Region of Texas

In this paper we present informatics-facilitated evaluation results of a federally-supported self-registration system for vulnerable people in emergency preparedness and response (known as 2-1-1 registration system) in the Gulf Coast Region state of Texas. The purpose of this project is to assess potential methods for improving system utilization and service provision, specifically, how to improve enrollment for those zip codes with low registration, and enhance the level of participating health providers to address the zip codes with high registrants. This project is part of a larger project “HealthQuilt”, www.healthquilt.org, which involves preparedness outreach evaluation in Harris county catchment area using emerging online consumer geo-informatics service from Google – a Web-based distribution system of free geospatial service and maps linked to the patient's medical home. We created 3 interactive maps to visualize 2-1-1 registrants and the locations of clinics that are participating in the project. These can be accessed at http://healthquilt.healthinformaticsthai.com/maps or

http://www.healthquilt.org/maps . The results show geographically diverse distribution of 2-1-1 registrants by zip-code and the forty collaborating clinics in the Greater Houston Area. The alignments of both layers help determine approaches to improving recruitment efforts. This project presents a potential prototype system for monitoring the progress of 2-1-1 enrollment in a target area, and for increasing the number of registrants in other jurisdictions with similar needs.