Department of Health & Human Services Hospitalizations

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) publishes several datasets on patient impact and hospital capacity. The data is made available to HHS through the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). One of these datasets is mirrored in Epidata at the following endpoint:

That dataset contains dozens of columns that break down hospital resource usage in different ways.

These indicators make available several commonly-used columns and combinations of columns, aggregated geographically. In particular, we include the sum of all adult and pediatric COVID-19 hospital admissions. This sum is used as the “ground truth” for hospitalizations by the COVID-19 Forecast Hub. We also include influenza hospital admissions.

Signal and 7-day average signal Description
confirmed_admissions_covid_1d and confirmed_admissions_covid_1d_7dav Sum of adult and pediatric confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions occurring each day.
Earliest date available: 2019-12-31
confirmed_admissions_covid_1d_prop and confirmed_admissions_covid_1d_prop_7dav Sum of adult and pediatric confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions occurring each day, per 100,000 population.
Earliest date available: 2019-12-31
sum_confirmed_suspected_admissions_covid_1d and sum_confirmed_suspected_admissions_covid_1d_7dav Sum of adult and pediatric confirmed and suspected COVID-19 hospital admissions occurring each day.
Earliest date available: 2019-12-31
sum_confirmed_suspected_admissions_covid_1d_prop and
sum_confirmed_suspected_admissions_covid_1d_prop_7dav		 Sum of adult and pediatric confirmed and suspected COVID-19 hospital admissions occurring each day, per 100,000 population.
Earliest date available: 2019-12-31
confirmed_admissions_influenza_1d and confirmed_admissions_influenza_1d_7dav All confirmed influenza hospital admissions occurring each day. We made this signal available November 1, 2021.
Earliest issue available: 2021-09-20
Earliest date available: 2020-01-02
confirmed_admissions_influenza_1d_prop and confirmed_admissions_influenza_1d_prop_7dav All confirmed influenza hospital admissions occurring each day, per 100,000 population. We made this signal available November 1, 2021.
Earliest issue available: 2021-09-20
Earliest date available: 2020-01-02

*for all the above signals & 7-day average signals, their geography is state, and resolution is 1 day.

The 7-day average signals are computed by Delphi by calculating moving averages of the preceding 7 days, so e.g. the signal for June 7 is the average of the underlying data for June 1 through 7, inclusive.

Table of contents

  1. Estimation
    1. Statewise, daily resolution, COVID-19
    2. Statewise, daily resolution, influenza
  2. Limitations
  3. Lag and Backfill
  4. Source and Licensing

Estimation

Statewise, daily resolution, COVID-19

Statewise daily resolution signals for COVID-19 use the following four columns from the HHS state timeseries dataset:

  • previous_day_admission_[adult|pediatric]_covid_[confirmed|suspected]

The confirmed signal is the sum of the two confirmed columns:

  • adult
  • pediatric

The sum_confirmed_suspected signal is the sum of all four columns:

  • adult confirmed
  • adult suspected
  • pediatric confirmed
  • pediatric suspected

The source data specifies that admissions occurred on the previous day. We automatically adjust the date of each result so that admissions are incident on that date.

Statewise, daily resolution, influenza

Statewise daily resolution signals for influenza use the following column from the HHS state timeseries dataset:

  • previous_day_admission_influenza_confirmed

The source data specifies that admissions occurred on the previous day. We automatically adjust the date of each result so that admissions are incident on that date.

Limitations

HHS collects data from state and territorial health departments about many, but not all, hospitals in the U.S. Notably excluded from this dataset are psychiatric and rehabilitation facilities, Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities, Defense Health Agency (DHA) facilities, and religious non-medical facilities.

Standard errors and sample sizes are not applicable to these metrics.

Lag and Backfill

HHS issues updates to this timeseries once a week, and occasionally more often. We check for updates daily. Lag varies from 0 to 6 days.

Occasionally a value published in an early issue will be changed in a subsequent issue when additional data becomes known. This effect is known as backfill. Backfill is relatively uncommon in this dataset (80% of dates from November 1, 2020 onward are never touched after their first issue) and most such updates occur one to two weeks after information about a date is first published. In rare instances, a value may be updated 10 weeks or more after it is first published.

Source and Licensing

These indicators mirror and lightly aggregate data originally published by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. As a work of the US government, the original data is in the public domain.