HHS Requests Hospital Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations for Health Care Personnel and Patients

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today updated its guidance to hospitals on the reporting of COVID-19-related data. Specifically, HHS requests that hospitals report data on COVID-19 vaccine administration to health care personnel and patients once per week, starting tomorrow, Jan. 13. The new data fields will be available in the HHS TeleTracking system and the associated data upload template. HHS indicates that those states certified to submit COVID-19 data to HHS on behalf of their hospitals will communicate details about how to report these data. While reporting the data fields is optional at this time, HHS has indicated that it may publicly report facility-level data from these fields on the HHS Protect public portal in the future.

Health Care Personnel COVID-19 Vaccination Data

HHS defines health care personnel as including “all paid and unpaid persons serving in health care settings who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials.” HHS asks hospitals to report on the following data fields once per week:

• Previous week’s COVID-19 vaccination doses administered to health care personnel (regardless of whether it is the first or second dose in the series). For the first week of reporting, HHS requests that hospitals include all doses given up to the reporting date.
• Current health care personnel who have not yet received any dose of COVID-19 vaccination.
• Current health care personnel who have received one in a series of COVID-19 vaccination doses. HHS indicates this field is intended to reflect those who have begun – but not completed – the vaccination process.
• Current health care personnel who have received a completed series of COVID-19 vaccination doses.
• Total number of current health care personnel.

Patient COVID-19 Vaccination Data

HHS requests that hospitals report the following data fields once per week:

• Previous week’s number of patients administered the first dose in a COVID-19 vaccination series. For the first week of reporting, HHS requests that hospitals include all doses given up to the reporting date.
• Previous week’s number of patients administered the dose that completes the series of a COVID-19 vaccination.

Further Questions

For information on how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is enforcing the condition of participation for hospitals to report the COVID-19 data requested by HHS, see the AHA’s Oct. 6 Special Bulletin. If you have further questions, please contact AHA at 800-424-4301.