Starting Wednesday, hospitals will no longer be required to report COVID-19 admissions, occupancy and capacity awareness to the federal government as some of the latest reports for pandemic providers expire.
The update comes about a year after the government declared the end of the COVID public health emergency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifically reduced mandatory reporting requirements for COVID-related measures.
Nationally, COVID hospitalizations and deaths hit a near-record high this spring.
The government first asked fitness systems to report COVID system capacity, utilization, and data in March 2020 to better track the effect of the virus on the country’s fitness infrastructure.
At the height of the pandemic, fitness systems were required to report 62 data points to the CDC (52 and 10 weekly), aggregating data on emergency branch capacity, the number of patients on ventilators, and the number of protective devices. private available.
In May 2023, the government reduced the requirements to 44 data points. At the same time, the CDC stopped reporting new COVID cases and checking positivity rates on a regular basis.
In a November bulletin, HHS said the upgrade is the result of converting knowledge desires and a preference to “reduce burden and maximize efficiency. “
Hospitals are required to report their COVID-related hospitalization data for about a year after the end of the public health emergency.
They also had the opportunity to report on similar admissions for flu and respiratory syncytial virus, which have tested the fitness formula’s ability for years.
As COVID cases have declined, a new variant, KP. 2, has begun circulating among the World Health Organization.
The CDC said it encourages “continued and voluntary disclosure of hospitalization data. “
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