Recent changes to federal hospital reporting requirements have changed how we receive data.
As you know, the federal government recently changed reporting requirements for COVID-related hospitalization data. While that change did not directly affect our data flow, subsequent changes have impacted our work process.
The State of Texas has modified it’s EMResource data collection process to include elements that were formerly reported to the CDC through Telehealth. The North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council (NCTTRAC) uses data from EMResource to provide our daily hospitalization data update. The data changes, which went into effect on Wednesday, July 22nd, have impacted the processing and formatting of the data we use. We anticipate that our hospitalization data flow will return to normal sometime between Friday, July 24th, and Monday, July 27th. Here are a few things to note:
- We expect that the restored data flow will include data since the flow was interrupted.
- Because data formerly reported to the CDC will now flow through EMResource, we anticipate an increase in hospital participation in daily data submission.
- We will be getting new fields, including ICU and Med/Surg admits by age. This will permit a deeper understanding of the nature of COVID hospitalization.
We are deeply appreciative of organizations like the City of Dallas and NCTTRAC, who have made their data available for this important project. We are also thankful for our users, whose regular use has proved the utility of this data for public decision making.