The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is looking for public input on the implementation of its portal for recording COVID-19 data from various health institutions.
HHS said in an information collection request published on the Federal Register that the HHS Teletracking COVID-19 Portal collates data from 5,500 hospitals on a daily basis to monitor COVID-19 patient testing, resource allocation, bed capacity and other supply needs.
The portal also includes data that hospitals initially submitted to HHS through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Module under the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) which has been a key factor to the White House’s pandemic response efforts, according to the notice.
HHS noted that the daily collection of COVID-19 information is crucial for identifying needs for federal support in addition to being “the most effective way to detect outbreaks”. The department will accept responses to the ICR through Feb. 22nd.