TOLEDO, Ohio — Editor's note: The video above originally aired on Dec. 29, 2021.
In an Ohio Department of Health news briefing Thursday morning, the state's medical director, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, said the state is unlikely to break down COVID-19 hospitalization numbers to differentiate between "hospitalized because of COVID" versus "hospitalized with COVID."
Over the past year, WTOL has repeatedly asked the state to clarify what goes into its hospitalization number.
The state now acknowledges that patients can be in the hospital for an unrelated condition and test positive for COVID-19 after admission. This person is included in the state's nearly 3,000 COVID-19 patients.
During attempts to get clarification last year, ODH officials said if a case was counted, that was because the person was in the hospital because COVID-19 brought them there.
On Jan. 5, state officials spoke to the issue in a written statement to WTOL: "Hospitalization data on both the Ohio Hospital Association dashboard and Ohio Department of Health dashboard reflect patients who are a hospital inpatient or ICU patient receiving care for COVID-19. Patients could be receiving other care/treatment, but the primary purpose for treatment is COVID-19."
When pressed for clarification about whether, for instance, someone who went to the hospital for a broken leg and subsequently tested positive for the virus would be counted as a COVID-19 hospitalization case, the response from ODH on Jan. 28 was, "The Ohio Hospital Association compiles this data. They would be the best source for an answer to this."
For its part the hospital association responded to the same question with this statement: "The hospitalizations reported on OHA’s COVID-19 hospitalization dashboard are patients who are hospitalized in inpatient or ICU beds and receiving treatment/care for COVID-19. Some of these patients may also be receiving other treatment as well but are ultimately included and still counted as they are hospitalized with COVID-19."
In Thursday's news conference, Dr. Vanderhoff said the difference means little for hospitals because that patient still needs to be isolated and also requires staff to wearing protective clothing.
He also pointed out that sometimes it takes an extended amount of time to determine what brought a person to the hospital. In other words, the patient may have a condition that could have been exacerbated by COVID-19. It isn't always simple to discern in those cases whether that should count as an incidental hospitalization or a hospitalization for COVID-19.
Several states are now differentiating between the groups. The New York Times reported that hospitals now say 50 to 65 percent of hospitalizations are incidental, meaning a patient tested positive after arriving. The University of California hospital estimated that 50 percent of its patients are incidental, including some teens who tested positive after arriving to be treated for appendicitis but are asymptomatic.
Earlier this week, Biden administration officials told Politico that the administration is working with hospitals to determine how to more accurately report hospitalization numbers. With the Delta variant, most COVID-19 hospitalizations were truly because of COVID-19. However, with the more infectious Omicron variant, more incidental patients are being counted. These differing approaches mean it is difficult to get an accurate representation of disease severity.
The administration believes a more accurate representation ialso is needed to determine public health guidelines. If few people are becoming seriously ill because of COVID, officials are more likely, for example, to loosen mask recommendations.
WTOL will continue to report hospitalization numbers. However, we now know that the state's numbers include patients who tested positive after hospital admission and could be asymptomatic and simply receiving a steroid regimen to prevent progression of the disease.
Regardless of how COVID-19 patients end up in the hospitals, those who have the virus stress the system. COVID-19 patients must be isolated and when hospitals begin to fill up with coronavirus cases, it can affect availability for patients who need hospital beds for other reasons.
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