HHS will not name hospitals where patients contracted COVID-19

Editor's Note

According to Politico June 25, the Biden Administration via the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided not to disclose the names of individual hospitals where patients contracted COVID-19, citing “privacy concerns,” Becker’s Hospital Review June 27 reports.

This stance is supported by the American Hospital Association (AHA), Becker’s noted. “Reporting aggregate data [versus at an individual level] is the most appropriate approach given the very low occurrence of hospital onset COVID-19,” Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety at AHA, told Politico. On February 8, AHA reported on an Epic Research study that showed only about 1.8% of patients who were admitted to hospitals free of COVID-19 infection went on to contract COVID-19 during their hospital stays.

According to Politico, US hospitals have recently reported an average of 1,457 patients per week who caught COVID-19 during their hospital stays. The article also cited another report from January 2022 showing that “more than 3,000 patients each week were infected while in the hospital.”

Patient advocates oppose keeping private the names of hospitals that may have high numbers of hospital-developed COVID-19, Becker’s noted. “Not knowing what the likelihood of getting transmission in the hospital really impacts an individual’s ability to…‘make a personal decision’ on their risk levels,” Mia Ives-Rublee, a disability rights advocate, told Politico.