COVID-19: HHS’s collection of hospital capacity data : report to Congressional addressees
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office. issuing body. United States. Congress. issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, August 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- COVID-19 -- economics Data Analysis Government Regulation Surge Capacity -- legislation & jurisprudence United States Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (U.S.)
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO did this study. The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of having quality data to help the federal government understand the health care system’s capacity to provide care and to inform the allocation of resources. HHS launched HHS Protect in April 2020 to capture hospital capacity data. Throughout the public health emergency HHS has made changes to how information is collected and used. The CARES Act includes a provision for GAO to report on its ongoing COVID-19 monitoring and oversight efforts. GAO was asked to examine HHS’s implementation of HHS Protect. In this report, GAO describes (1) HHS’s implementation of HHS Protect hospital capacity reporting requirements and the challenges experienced by reporting entities; (2) HHS’s and stakeholders’ use of the data, if at all; and (3) lessons learned about ensuring the collection of quality hospital capacity data during a public health emergency. GAO reviewed agency guidance and HHS Protect hospital capacity dashboards and reports, and interviewed HHS officials as well as officials from three states that report or reported directly to HHS Protect on behalf of their hospitals. These states were selected for variation in geography and the mix of rural and non-rural hospital facilities. GAO also interviewed officials from public health stakeholder groups including hospital associations, epidemiological associations, and local health organizations. GAO provided a draft of this report to HHS for review and comment. HHS had no comments on the report.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (ii, 22 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918317488206676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918317488206676