Jan 11 -- The Office of the Secretary (OS), Department of Health and Human Services, invites comments to OMB by February 10, 2022 regarding the request for changes in data collected from hospitals and states to understand health care system stress, capacity, capabilities, and the number of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19.
The Unified Hospital Data Surveillance System (UHDSS) was created in 2020 to monitor COVID-19 health care system capacity and surge and inform epidemiological surveillance. The collection requires daily responses from all hospitals in the U.S., with some jurisdictions (state, local, tribal, or territorial governments) compiling submissions for hospitals within their locality.
As the COVID-19 response continues to evolve, Federal needs for data are also evolving. The data elements within the collection are being altered to best meet the needs of the current response to COVID-19. This alteration includes the addition of data elements collecting more detailed information on pediatric hospitalizations, which will help to better understand pediatric hospital surge as well as inform epidemiologic surveillance to inform potential response actions. The alteration also includes making various data elements inactive for federal data collection based on current and anticipated future federal response needs, as well as reduce burden where possible. While inactive, these data elements will still be considered as remaining part of the data collection to allow jurisdictions to continue collecting the information if it is needed for their unique response needs.
The proposed changes will reduce the number of data elements from 116 fields to approximately 85 fields. The following high-level changes by section are detailed in Appendix A of the Supporting Statement:
Require daily reporting of pediatric hospitalization data;
Require daily reporting of seasonal influenza data; and
Make inactive selected data reporting elements as follows:
Hospital Capacity: Reduce hospital capacity fields
Ventilators: Reduce reporting of ventilator inventories
ED & Death Fields: Reduce ED overflow and hospital COVID deaths fields
Staffing: Make inactive some staffing fields
Supplies: Make inactive certain supply fields that are no longer needed to inform the response at this stage of the pandemic
Therapeutics: Make inactive reporting for bamlanivimab, add reporting for sotrovimab
COVID Data Tracker:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
HHS submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202201-0990-001 Click IC List for data collection instruments, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this site.
FR notice inviting public comment:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/01/11/2022-00237/agency-information-collection-request-30-day-public-comment-request
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806