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The following guidance is provided to help state and local fire service organizations record incidents in NFIRS that involve the new coronavirus (COVID-19), including calls that are suspected to be coronavirus-related.
Generally, coding COVID-19 incidents, suspected or confirmed, will not be any different than other types of incident coding. Fire departments and states should consider how modules and fields provide data that could be useful in their decision-making and future analysis. This includes Apparatus/Resource, Personnel, EMS and Fire Service Casualty modules.
Use this module to document patient-specific information.
This module can be used to capture incident scene exposures as a “first report” of contact with known or suspected COVID-19 cases. There are a few things to keep in mind:
Clearly document the incident and identify COVID-19 in the text.
In addition to the above incident coding recommendations, states can implement a Special Study. State-level users can use the USFA Client Software's System Administration Tool to create a special study. Follow the specific steps in the NFIRS System Administration Tool Users Guide PDF 401 KB.
Users of a vendor product should contact their vendor for more information on using the Basic Module's optional Special Studies.
See also: NFIRS National COVID-19 Special Study
Have questions about coding COVID-19 response? Please contact the NFIRS Support Center: Monday – Friday between 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET, at 888-382-3827 or by email at fema-nfirshelp@fema.dhs.gov.