HHS’ ‘Frequent and Significant Changes’ to COVID Data Reporting Left Hospitals Behind

Multiple updates to the rules and avenues for reporting critical pandemic-related capacity information left hospitals confused, overwhelmed and unable to comply.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major learning curve for the Health and Human Services Department, which made iterative changes to the methods and types of data hospitals reported to the agency throughout the pandemic. But the pace of those changes and lack of input from health care practitioners caused major problems, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Hospital capacity—or lack thereof—has been one of the main difficulties of the pandemic, as staff and resources are overwhelmed with COVID patients. Understanding hospital capacities at individual and regional levels is...