Trump administration’s sudden shift on COVID data leaves states in the lurch

Just as the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 approaches new highs in some parts of the country, hospital data in Kansas and Missouri is suddenly incomplete or missing.

The Missouri Hospital Association reports that it no longer has access to the data it uses to guide state coronavirus mitigation efforts, and Kansas officials say their hospital data may be delayed.

The Trump administration this week directed hospitals to change how they report data to the federal government and how that data will be made available.

In an email, Missouri Hospital Association spokesperson Dave Dillon called the move "a major disruption."

"All evidence suggests that Missouri's numbers are headed in the wrong direction," Dillon said. "And, for now, we will have very limited situational awareness. That's all very bad news."

The absence of the data will make it harder for health and public officials, as well as the general public, to understand how the virus is spreading.

"It's hugely problematic," said Dr. Karen Maddox, a public health researcher at Washington University in St. Louis. "The only way that we know where things are going up and where things are going down and where we need to be putting resources and where we need to be planning is because of those data."

The White House instructed hospitals to report data to the Department of Health and Human Services through a new system created by a Pennsylvania-based company, TeleTracking, instead of to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The directive came as a surprise to hospitals, according to Kansas Hospital Association spokesperson Cindy Samuelson.

"From our perspective, these changes are big," Samuelson said. "We only found out Tuesday, and we had to update the data by Wednesday night — so, less than 48 hours."

The Missouri Hospital Association currently does not have access to the new HHS system, according to Dillon. He said the new system is also significantly different from the CDC system.

"The new datasets for reporting are not identical and in several cases are ill-defined," Dillon said. "That has complicated hospitals' efforts."

In the wake of the announcement, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services posted a notice on its website this week that the daily and weekly updates on hospitals, including the numbers of people hospitalized and the availability of standard hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators, would be temporarily halted.

"Missouri Hospital Association (MHA) and the State of Missouri will be unable to access critical hospitalization data during the transition. While we are working to collect interim data, situational awareness will be limited," the notice on the department’s website says.

Dillon said the hospital association hopes to have "within a few days or weeks" hospital and coronavirus data that had been available through the CDC.

"However, in the short term, we'll be very much in the dark," Dillon said.

The hospital association will create an alternative reporting system for hospitals, according to Dillon, and plans to continue producing weekly reports, despite the uncertainty about data.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services did not respond to inquiries regarding the data.

Kansas health officials are still able to access hospital and coronavirus data through the CDC and TeleTracking, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokesperson Kristi Zears.

However, Kansas Hospital Association spokesperson Samuelson said the Kansas hospital data may be delayed if it is incomplete.

"If we're not able to get a bulk of our members converted and uploading, I'm not sure we want to show it because then it will look like things have gotten a lot better," Samuelson said.

The most recent data shows that as of July 12, 875 Missourians were hospitalized with COVID-19, among the highest reported numbers since an early May peak of 984. Kansas' most recent data shows 1,393 people have been hospitalized with the disease.

The Trump administration said the reporting change was needed due to reporting delays and other problems with the CDC.

But the move has been widely criticized for being disruptive, especially as COVID-19 infection numbers reach new highs and hospitals in some areas of the country are reaching capacity.

"By now, we should have a foolproof, streamlined reporting system for COVID," Maddox said. "And this change — midstream — is not going to do anything to help our ability to fight the disease."

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KCUR, NPR and Kaiser Health News.