As the provincial COVID reports come with more and more caveats indicating underestimations of COVID cases due to lack of testing, the accuracy surrounding the number of hospitalizations has also been called into question.
Specifically, how many of those people are actually hospitalized because of COVID and not for something unrelated.
While the province works on a review of its data, regionally, hospitalization counts are more clear.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has confirmed it has only been reporting hospitalizations if the person requires hospitalization for COVID-19 related illness.
The epidemiology team at the health unit confirmed the current reporting in the region only includes cases hospitalized for COVID-19 related illnesses such as pneumonia, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. These patients also have tested positive for COVID-19.
“This data will differ from what is provided by our local hospitals as they report data separately to the Ministry of Health,” stated an email from the health unit.
In yesterday’s update, the health unit reported 34 people are hospitalized, including 31 from Simcoe County and two from Muskoka District. Nine of those patients are in intensive care units.
“While we do our best to ensure timely entry of hospitalization data for our cases, there is a delay due to the sheer number of COVID-19 cases being reported at the moment,” the health unit said in the email.
Simcoe County hospitals confirm they are reporting incidental hospitalizations that test positive for COVID in their case counts.
Collingwood General and Marine Hospital’s communications officer, Lisa van Kolfschoten, confirmed the hospital reports the total number of COVID positive patients, whether they are there because of COVID or for something else and have COVID.
She said that's the direction the hospital has received for COVID reporting.
The hospital reported there are six inpatients with COVID-19 as of Jan. 6 at 10 a.m. This number could include patients whose address is outside of Simcoe County and Muskoka District. Those cases would not be reported by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) confirmed they specify in their reporting to the health unit and Ministry of Health whether the patient’s primary reason for admission is COVID.
Jennifer Moore, communications officer for GBGH in Midland, said the hospital’s general communications follow the provincial reporting by including overall COVID admissions to the hospital regardless of what they were admitted for. The hospital does not post inpatient COVID counts on its website.
The Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie also reports all COVID-positive patients regardless of why they are hospitalized.
Jane Cocking, manager of corporate communications, confirmed that number would include someone hospitalized for something else (like a broken leg) who tests positive for COVID.
“That is the direction we have at the moment,” she said in an email. “We report total case count.”
The RVH website indicated as of Jan. 5 there were 49 active COVID-related patients and five who are no longer considered infectious but still require significant care. RVH could also be caring for patients from outside the Simcoe-Muskoka region, whose cases would not be reported by the health unit.
Terry Dyni, a spokesperson for Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, confirmed if a patient is hospitalized there and tests positive for COVID-19, they are included in the number of COVID patients reported by the hospital.
Ontario hospitalization reports
On Dec. 30, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, confirmed there are hospitalization reports that include incidental admissions such as someone coming in with a broken leg who also tests positive for COVID.
“We don’t want those numbers contributing to our understanding of the burden of hospitalizations in Ontario, so we’ve asked all of our hospital partners to be more vigorous in their reporting so that we can provide a reliable source of data to the decision-makers and to Ontarians on the impact of COVID on our hospital sector,” said Moore during the Dec. 30 briefing.
Moore said he’s more confident in the ICU admissions, given hospitals are only supposed to report critical, COVID-related illness.
“I have more confidence in that number, but we are asking them to review it once more,” said Moore.
He said there was a memo sent to all hospitals on Dec. 29 asking for data to be reviewed.
The province's daily reporting does not include emergency room visits where a person comes to the ER with COVID or tests positive while they are there.
