US COVID-19 hospital data is a hot mess after feds take control

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https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/07/covid-19-hospital-data-is-a-hot-mess-after-feds-take-control/

Ars Technica said:
As COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US approach the highest levels seen in the pandemic so far, national efforts to track patients and hospital resources remain in shambles after the federal government abruptly seized control of data collection earlier this month.

The Trump administration issued a directive to hospitals and states July 10, instructing them to stop submitting their daily COVID-19 hospital data to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—which has historically handled such public health data—and instead submit it to a new database in the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services. The change was ostensibly made to streamline federal data collection, which is critical for assessing the state of the pandemic and distributing needed resources, such as personal protective equipment and remdesivir, an antiviral drug shown to shorten COVID-19 recovery times.

Watchdogs and public health experts were immediately aghast by the switch to the HHS database, fearing the data would be manipulated for political reasons or hidden from public view all together. However, the real threat so far has been the administrative chaos. The switch took effect July 15, giving hospitals and states just days to adjust to the new data collection and submission process.

As such, hospitals have been struggling with the new data reporting, which involves reporting more types of data than the CDC’s previous system. Generally, the data includes stats on admissions, discharges, beds and ventilators in use and in reserve, as well as information on patients.

For some hospitals, that data has to be harvested from various sources, such as electronic medical records, lab reports, pharmacy data, and administrative sources. Some larger hospital systems have been working to write new scripts to automate new data mining, while others are relying on staff to compile the data manually into excel spreadsheets, which can take multiple hours each day, according to a report by Healthcare IT News. The task has been particularly onerous for small, rural hospitals and hospitals that are already strained by a crush of COVID-19 patients.

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cbenoi1

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> However, the real threat so far has been the administrative chaos.

Everything Jared touches turns into a clusterfuck.

-cb
 

MaeZe

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I don't think the chaos is the point. I think this is more likely a Trump impulsive move believing he can control the whole thing if only [fill in the blank]. This isn't N Korea where the government controls everything people see/hear/read.

Trump keeps claiming there's no rise in cases, only more testing. He still believes that, but most everyone else knows it isn't the case. I'm guessing he had a fantasy that if he looked at the hospital data it would somehow show his imaginary scenario was true.
 

Diana Hignutt

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Fascists value loyalty above competence and expertise, and they always fail when the clips are down, because when they need experts, they have loyal fools instead.
 

cbenoi1

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And you probably seen this one in the news feed.

How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/202...s-secret-testing-plan-went-poof-into-thin-air

Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert. That logic may have swayed Kushner. “It was very clear that Jared was ultimately the decision maker as to what [plan] was going to come out,” the expert said.


Thousands died because they were in a blue state.



I'll let this one sink in.



Because it's a huge pill to swallow.


In her statement, McEnany said, “The article is completely incorrect in its assertion that any plan was stopped for political or other reasons. Our testing strategy has one goal in mind—delivering for the American people—and is being executed and modified daily to incorporate new facts on the ground.”

Right. That was April. We're in August. Where's the plan now, Kayleigh?

-cb
 
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