Premier Calls for Automated, Actionable COVID-19 Hospital Data Collection Infrastructure

Premier submitted comments and recommendations on HHS’ mandatory hospital COVID-19 data collection process. Premier expressed concern that the current requirements place a significant burden on hospitals whose resources are already stressed during the COVID-19 public health emergency. In its letter, Premier underscored that the penalty for non-compliance is overly harsh given the vast amount of data hospitals are required to report each day and the challenges hospitals face in also complying with different reporting requirements at the state and local levels.

Based on our longstanding experience collaborating with providers on data collection and governance, reporting and analytics, Premier recommended that HHS:

• Build an on-call, nimble automated data collection infrastructure that the nation can call upon in any future crises similar in magnitude to COVID-19;
• Implement a more automated and seamless reporting approach that is consistent with the internal operations and processes of reporting organizations to help alleviate provider reporting burdens; and
• Communicate how the agency is using the data to guide the federal government’s response to the pandemic and any insights and trends that would be useful to hospitals’ management of patients and quality of care.