FAQ - Hospital and Laboratory Data Submission

COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

For Hospitals, Hospital Laboratory, and Acute Care Facility Data Reporting

On March 29, 2020, Vice President Pence sent a letter to hospital administrators across the country requesting daily data reports on testing, capacity and utilization, and patient flows to facilitate the public health response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Many separate governmental entities are requesting similar information, resulting in stakeholder requests to reduce duplication and minimize reporting burden. This document details the Federal Government’s data needs, explains the division of reporting responsibility between hospitals and states, and provides clear, flexible options for the timely delivery of this critical information. The objective is to allow states and hospitals either to leverage existing data reporting capabilities or, where those capabilities are insufficient, to provide guidance in how to build upon existing capabilities. These FAQs will be posted to the various HHS and HHS division websites, and will be updated if additional data delivery methods become available.

It is critical to the COVID-19 response that all of the information listed below is provided on a daily basis to the Federal Government to facilitate planning, monitoring, and resource allocation during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE).

Who is responsible for reporting?

By default, hospitals should report on at least a daily basis the detailed information listed below through one of the prescribed methods. However, we recognize that many states currently collect this information from the hospitals. Therefore, hospitals may be relieved from reporting directly to the Federal Government if they receive a written release from the State stating that the State will collect the data from the hospitals and take over Federal reporting responsibilities.

For the purposes of this request, hospitals to report include critical access hospital, children’s hospital, general hospital (including acute, trauma, and teaching hospital), long term acute care hospital, military hospital, oncology hospital, orthopedic hospital, pediatric long term acute care hospital, psychiatric hospital, rehabilitation hospital, surgical hospital, Veterans Administration hospital, women’s hospital, and women’s and children’s hospital.

When are states permitted to provide such a written release to hospitals?

States must first receive written certification from their ASPR Regional Administrator affirming that the State has an established, functioning data reporting stream to the Federal Government that is delivering all of the information below at the appropriate daily (or higher) frequency. States that take over reporting must provide this data, regardless of whether they are seeking immediate Federal assistance.

Capacity and Utilization Data

Capacity and utilization data: what to submit?

The following data will greatly assist the White House Coronavirus Task Force in tracking the movement of the virus and identifying potential strains in the healthcare delivery system. It is critical that this data be reported at the facility and county level of detail rather than just a total statewide summary. Data must be submitted in accordance with the definitions and formats specified. Data that is submitted directly as a file instead of through an online portal should be sent in Excel or CSV format using the same column headings as in the template provided by HHS Protect. A scanned image or any other format that is not directly importable is not acceptable.

Note: For all references of “adult” and “pediatric” below, “adult” references adult-designated equipment and locations and “pediatric” references pediatric-designated equipment and locations.

ID	Information Needed	Definition
	State	State where the hospital is located
	Hospital name	Name of hospital and CMS Certification Number (CCN), provided in separate fields
	Hospital county and Zip Code	County and Zip Code, provided in separate fields, where the hospital is located
	All Adult hospital beds	Total number of all staffed inpatient and outpatient adult beds in your hospital, including all overflow and surge/expansion beds used for inpatients and for outpatients (includes all ICU beds).
	Adult hospital inpatient beds	Total number of staffed inpatient adult beds in your hospital including all overflow and surge/expansion beds used for inpatients (includes all ICU beds)
	Adult hospital inpatient bed occupancy	Total number of staffed inpatient adult beds that are occupied
	Adult hospital inpatient bed occupancy, elective/scheduled	Total number of occupied inpatient beds that are being utilized by patients with elective / scheduled procedures.This is a subset of #6.
	Adult ICU beds	Total number of staffed inpatient adult ICU beds
	Adult ICU bed occupancy	Total number of staffed inpatient adult ICU beds that are occupied
	Adult Mechanical ventilators	Total number of ventilators available
	Adult Mechanical ventilators in use	Total number of ventilators in use
	Total hospitalized adult suspected or confirmed positive COVID patients	Patients currently hospitalized in an adult inpatient bed who have confirmed or suspected COVID-19
	Hospitalized adult confirmed-positive COVID patients	Patients currently hospitalized in an inpatient bed who have confirmed COVID-19. This is a subset of #12.
	Total hospitalized pediatric suspected or confirmed positive COVID patients	Patients currently hospitalized in a pediatric inpatient bed who are suspected or confirmed-positive for COVID-19
	Hospitalized pediatric confirmed-positive COVID patients	Patients currently hospitalized in a pediatric inpatient bed who have confirmed COVID-19
	Hospitalized and ventilated COVID patients	Patients currently hospitalized in an inpatient bed who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and are on a mechanical ventilator
	Total ICU adult suspected or confirmed positive COVID patients	Patients currently hospitalized in an adult ICU bed who have confirmed COVID-19
	Hospitalized adult confirmed-positive COVID patients	Patients currently hospitalized in an adult ICU bed who have confirmed COVID-19. This is a subset of #17.
	Hospital onset	Total current inpatients with onset of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 fourteen or more days after admission for a condition other than COVID-19
	ED/overflow	Patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who currently are in the Emergency Department (ED) or any overflow location awaiting an inpatient bed
	ED/overflow and ventilated	Patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who currently are in the ED or any overflow location awaiting an inpatient bed and on a mechanical ventilator
	Previous Day’s Deaths:	Number of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who died on the previous calendar day in the hospital, ED, or any overflow location
	Previous day’s adult admissions with confirmed COVID-19:	Enter the number of patients who were admitted to an adult inpatient bed on the previous calendar day who had confirmed COVID-19 at the time of admission
	Previous day’s adult admissions with suspected COVID-19:	Enter the number of patients who were admitted to an adult inpatient bed on the previous calendar day who had suspected COVID-19 at the time of admission
	Previous day’s pediatric admissions with confirmed COVID-19:	Enter the number of pediatric patients who were admitted to an inpatient bed on the previous calendar day who had confirmed COVID-19 at the time of admission
	Previous day’s pediatrics admissions with suspected COVID-19:	Enter the number of pediatrics patients who were admitted to an inpatient bed on the previous calendar day who had suspected COVID-19 at the time of admission
	Previous day’s total ED Visits	Enter the total number of ED who were seen on the previous calendar day regardless of reason for visit
	Previous day’s total COVID-19-related ED Visits	Enter the total number of ED visits who were seen on the previous calendar day who had a visit related to COVID-19 (chief complaint for COVID, suspected covid, admitted for COVID, died of COVID, COVID symptoms)
	Critical Staffing shortage today (Y/N)	Enter Y if you have a staffing shortage today. Enter N if you do not have a staffing shortage today. (Environmental services, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists and pharmacy techs, physicians, other licensed independent practitioners, temporary physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and pharmacists, other critical healthcare personnel)
	Critical Staffing shortage anticipated within a week (Y/N)	Enter Y if you anticipate a staffing shortage within a week. Enter N if you do not anticipate a staffing shortage within a week.
	Are your PPE supply items managed (purchased, allocated, and/or stored) at the facility level or, if you are part of a health system, at the health system level (or other multiple facility group)?	Check the response below which reflects the management of PPE for your facility (including purchasing, allocation, and/or storage). Health system level or multiple-hospital group (e.g., PPE purchased at the health system level, par levels managed centrally, in stock supply available at another system location such as a central warehouse) Facility level (e.g., PPE purchased by your individual facility, par levels managed at the facility-level, in stock supply is all on-site)
	On hand supply (INDIVIDUAL UNITS/”EACHES”): N95 respirators Other respirators such as PAPRs or elastomerics Surgical and procedure masks Eye protection including face shields and goggles Single-use gowns Launderable gowns Gloves	Enter the number of each supply type that you currently have on hand, in individual units (e.g., a box of 100 gloves would count as 100 units)
	On hand supply (DURATION IN DAYS) N95 respirators Other respirators such as PAPRs or elastomerics Surgical and procedure masks Eye protection including face shields and goggles Single-use gowns Gloves	Provide calculated days of supply in stock for each PPE category. Calculation may be provided by your hospital's ERP system or by utilizing the CDC's PPE burn rate calculator assumptions.
	Are you able to obtain these items and maintain at least a 3 day supply of these items? (Y/N/NA) Ventilator supplies (any supplies excluding medications) Ventilator medications N95 respirators Other respirators such as PAPRs or elastomerics Surgical and procedure masks Eye protection including face shields and goggles Single-use gowns Gloves Laboratory – nasalpharyngeal swabs? Laboratory –Nasal swabs Laboratory –Viral transport media Are you able to maintain a sufficient supply of launderable gowns?	Enter a Y for each supply type if you are able to maintain at least a 3 day supply for that type. Enter an N if you are not able to maintain at least a 3 day supply for that type. Enter NA if the item is not applicable for your facility
	Indicate any other critical medical supplies for which you currently or anticipate in the next three days to experience critical shortages.	Free text entry

Capacity and utilization data: where/how to submit?

Hospitals and acute/post-acute medical facilities should report daily capacity and utilization data through only one of the methods below, or to their State if they have received a written release from the State and the State has received written certification from their ASPR Regional Administrator to take over Federal reporting responsibilities. If the State assumes reporting responsibilities, the State can also choose to utilize one of the below channels or to follow a format similar to that in Appendix A through the State portal at Protect.HHS.gov.

Reporting options for hospitals and acute/post-acute medical facilities:

• Submit data to TeleTracking™ [https://teletracking.protect.hhs.gov]. All instructions on the data submission are on that site. To become a user in the portal: (This portal is available for the reporting of the new fields (18,19) as of May 7, 2020)

  • Respond to the validation email sent to your administrator.

  • Visit https://teletracking.protect.hhs.gov and follow the specific instructions on how to become users.

    • Each facility is allowed to have up to 4 users for both data entry and visual access to aggregated data in the platform.

    • Users will be validated by the platform.

• Complete the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) COVID-19 module daily per the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) instructions. (This portal is available for the reporting of the new fields (18,19) as of May 14, 2020)

• Authorize your health IT vendor or other third-party to share information directly with HHS. Use one of the above alternate methods until your ASPR Regional Administrator or HHS Protect notifies you that this implementation is being received and is compliant.

• Publish to the hospital or facility’s website in a standardized format, such as schema.org. Use one of the above alternate methods until your ASPR Regional Administrator or HHS Protect notifies you that this implementation is being received.

Capacity and utilization data: how often to submit?

At least daily. These reporting options have been chosen to make submission as easy as possible, and the HHS portal has been set up to allow users to submit data updates in a matter of minutes for the whole process. The completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of the data will inform the COVID-19 Task Force decisions on capacity and resource needs to ensure a fully coordinated effort across America. Doing so will also ensure that hospitals are not facing data requests from a multitude of Federal, State, Local, and private parties, as having a full data set will allow HHS to put a stop to others asking for the same data, so that they can spend less time on paperwork and more time on patients. Consistent reporting daily will reduce future urgent requests for data.

Testing Data: Hospitals That Perform COVID-19 Tests Using an In House Laboratory

How should hospitals that perform “in house” laboratory testing report this data?

In an effort to promote data reporting choices to hospitals and other acute and post-acute care facilities, below are the options to report testing data:

• A unique link will be sent to the American Hospital Association’s hospital points of contact. This will direct the POC to a hospital-specific secure form that can then be used to enter the necessary information. After completing the fields, click submit and confirm that the form has been successfully captured. A confirmation email will be sent to you from the HHS Protect System. This method replaces the emailing of individual spreadsheets previously requested.

If your hospital did not receive a link, please contact [email protected] support.

• Provide directly to their State if the state is reporting complete information daily to the ASPR Regional Administrator and their state has shared a written notification from ASPR confirming the reporting requirements are being met. This file must follow the template provided by HHS Protect.

• Authorize their health IT vendor or other third party to submit the “in house” testing data to HHS/CDC. Until this is confirmed in writing to be working successfully, use one of the other methods mentioned above.

What data should hospitals with in-house laboratory testing expect to submit to the portal?

Diagnostic Test Data:

New Diagnostic Tests Ordered	Midnight to midnight cutoff, tests ordered on previous date queried
Cumulative Diagnostic Tests Ordered	All tests ordered to date
New Tests Resulted	Midnight to midnight cutoff, test results released on previous date queried
Cumulative Tests Performed	All tests with results released to date
New Positive COVID-19 Tests	Midnight to midnight cutoff, positive test results released on previous date queried
Cumulative Positive COVID-19 Tests	All positive test results released to date
New Negative COVID-19 Tests	Midnight to midnight cutoff, negative test results released on previous date queried
Cumulative Negative COVID-19 Tests	All negative test results released to date

Serology Test Data:

New Serological Tests Ordered	Total antibody, IgG, IgM, IgA if applicable. Midnight to midnight cutoff, tests ordered on previous date queried
Cumulative Serological Test Ordered	Total antibody, IgG, IgM, IgA if applicable. All tests ordered to date
New Tests Performed	Total antibody, IgG, IgM, IgA if applicable. Midnight to midnight cutoff, test results released on previous date queried
Cumulative Tests Performed	Total antibody, IgG, IgM, IgA if applicable. All tests with results released to date
New Positive Serological Tests	Total antibody, IgG, IgM, IgA if applicable. Midnight to midnight cutoff, positive test results released on previous date queried
Cumulative Positive Serological Tests	Total antibody, IgG, IgM, IgA if applicable. All positive test results released to date
New Negative Serological Tests	Total antibody, IgG, IgM, IgA if applicable. Midnight to midnight cutoff, negative test results released on previous date queried
Cumulative Negative Serological Tests	Total antibody, IgG, IgM, IgA if applicable. All negative test results released to date

How often should hospitals submit the data?

This data should be submitted by 5PM ET daily. All testing data should include test results that were completed during the previous day with a midnight cutoff.

Testing Data: Hospitals that Perform a Portion of COVID-19 Tests Using an In House Laboratory

How should hospitals that perform a portion of tests “in house” and send a portion of tests to commercial labs and/or State Public Health Labs report this data?

The portion of tests that are performed “in house” should be reported through the HHS Protect System. See above for reporting details concerning “in house” tests. The portion of tests that are sent to one of the six commercial labs listed below or that are sent to your State Public Health lab do not need to be reported through the HHS Protect System. However, if your hospital send tests to a commercial lab not listed on the below list, you should report those tests using the HHS Protect System.

Testing Data: Hospitals that Send COVID-19 Tests to Commercial Laboratories

Do hospitals that send tests to commercial laboratories need to report data using this system?

All hospitals should report data on COVID-19 testing performed in Academic/University/Hospital “in house” laboratories. If all of your COVID-19 testing is sent out to private labs and performed by one of the commercial laboratories on the list below, you do not need to report using the HHS Protect System.

If you have COVID-19 testing that is sent out to private labs and performed by a commercial laboratory not listed, you should report this testing using the HHS Protect System.

Commercial laboratories:

• LabCorp

• BioReference Laboratories

• Quest Diagnostics

• Mayo Clinic Laboratories

• ARUP Laboratories

• Sonic Healthcare

Testing Data: Hospitals that Send COVID-19 Tests Data to State Public Health Laboratories

Do hospitals that send tests to State Public Health Laboratories need to report data using this system?

All hospitals must report data on COVID-19 testing performed in Academic/University/Hospital “in house” laboratories. If all of your COVID-19 testing is sent out to and performed by State Public Health Laboratories, you do not need to report using the HHS Protect System.

How should hospitals that perform a portion of tests “in house” and send a portion of tests to commercial labs and/or State Public Health Labs report this data?

The portion of tests that are performed “in house” should be reported through the HHS Protect System. The portion of tests that are sent to one of the six commercial labs listed above or that are sent to your State Public Health lab do not need to be reported through the HHS Protect System. However, if your hospital send tests to a commercial lab not listed on the above list, you should report such tests using the HHS Protect System.

Technical Assistance for Hospitals

Who do hospitals contact if they experience any technical issues?

Please email your question to the HHS Protect Service Desk. Your question will be answered as soon as possible.

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