Rebuilding Colorado’s COVID Hospitalization – CBS Denver

Denver (CBS4)– The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported on Friday 890 inpatients currently admitted with COVID-19. But if you look deeper into that number, some of them are among those who are not hospitalized with COVID-19 but are positive on the test.

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“In general, public health data is collected in a very standardized and systematic way across the country, and what we do is apply these black and white standards to data that is often fairly gray.” I think it’s important to understand. State epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Harley.

Colorado counts hospitalizations like any other state.

“This is a national standard process and a standard process that has been used for many years for influenza-related hospitalizations.”

Hospitals trying to contain the pandemic screen out incoming patients.

Dr. Heather Young, an infectious disease physician and medical director of infection prevention at the Denver Health Medical Center, said:

The same is true for other hospitals.

“Some people come with appendicitis for that reason. Some people get tested for COIVD or have asymptomatic infections. Such people are counted in the number of states as follows: I am hospitalized with a COVID, “she added.

Patients are tested to try to contain the potential outbreak. In some hospitals like Denver Health, patients share a room.

“Even if that’s not the reason for hospitalization, hospitals need to maintain all of these infection control practices to ensure that patients aren’t infected throughout the hospital,” said Dr. Herlihy. I have.

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The question is how many people are in the hospital for the treatment of COVID-19. Colorado and 13 other states are digging deeper.

“We have a team of trained medical extractor medical record reviewers who systematically examine and review medical records so that we can imagine the process taking a long time,” Herlihy said. Mr. says. “It can take an hour or more to review one record and determine the cause of the individual’s hospitalization. But we do that with a sample of hospitalization here in Colorado … 75% of them by COVID19. It was a thing. “

They break it further by examining the hospitalizations of vaccinated people.

“If you look at the specially vaccinated patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the number is small, but not practically small, probably in the range of 60 or 65%.”

She said she did not track the proportion of unvaccinated people, but thought it would certainly be higher.

Dr. Young found a larger disparity at the Denver Health Medical Center.

“For weeks in a row, I’ve reviewed all the cases we have and quantified the number of vaccinated patients in the hospital,” she said, patients with ICUs and ventilators. I explained that I checked. Other data. “And it’s really amazing how well vaccination protects against ICU stay and ventilation.”

When asked how many vaccinated people were hospitalized for the treatment of COVID-19, she said, “This week, about 30% of vaccinated patients were hospitalized with COVID who had COVID symptoms.” rice field.

When asked about how many unvaccinated people were hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment, she estimated about 90%. Dr. Herlihy emphasizes that the published data is consistent with national data.

“They are collected in the same way across the country. It’s important to compare apples to apples, as Colorado can’t count hospitalizations in one direction and Georgia and Washington say it differently. I think it’s a message. ”You can see exactly what is happening all over the country. “

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The data page on the state website is titled “Hospitalized for COVID-19”. The accuracy of the phrase seems questionable.