After the Trump administration moved hospital COVID-19 data reporting to HHS, bypassing the CDC, the new data system has been rife with erratic updates and anomalies.
The delays and problems with data on the availability of beds, ventilators and safety equipment could have profound consequences as infections and deaths soar throughout most of the country, public health experts say., formerly the chief science officer for public health surveillance at CDC, now at Virginia Tech. For instance, knowing which hospitals have the capacity to take on new patients is critical, she explains.
HHS is standing by its decision. While some hospital associations and states have had"difficulty," HHS has worked to quickly resolve errors, and they"are pleased with the progress we have made during this transition and the actionable data it is providing," a spokesperson wrote to NPR in a statement.When infection numbers start to rise in a state, public health officials and residents worry about whether there are enough hospital beds for seriously ill patients.
Hospitals are supposed to report daily to the federal government the total many beds they have, the number occupied and the availability of intensive care beds. Under the new system, the Department of Health and Human Services aggregates the information at a state level, and shares a daily spreadsheet of the information that has been reported — gaps and all.
But the old CDC approach interpreted the data a step further. CDC posted estimates derived from the data to show an approximation of the actual availability of ICU beds, accounting for the lags and gaps in reporting. These estimates — promised on the HHS website — have not been updated in over a week.
By contrast, the CDC estimates was updated three times a week. And while the data sent to CDC was vetted for accuracy before being posted publicly, the data sent to the new platform appears to be postedSince the beginning of the pandemic, hospitals have beenthrough its National Healthcare Safety Network COVID-19 module. No hospital staff interviewed by NPR described problems with this system.
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