A report from the office of Delaware State Auditor Kathy McGuiness sees room for improvement for the state’s Covid-19 Data Dashboard.
One shortcoming cited in the report was a lack of hard data on the use of face coverings.
“Ensuring Delaware is making decisions and developing its virus response on sound, quality data is vital to our success in keeping the public safe and spending resources appropriately, said McGuiness. This report is meant to commend the state in areas where it’s doing well and shine a light on opportunities for improvement.”
The Division of Public Health issued the following:
“As the pandemic has evolved, DPH is proud of the quality and amount of data we are able to provide through the My Healthy Community Data Portal. Collecting and providing meaningful data is a complex task and we appreciate the Auditor’s efforts to provide recommendations for improvement. DPH is constantly engaged in quality control and improvement efforts when it comes to our data and will continue to identify opportunities to provide meaningful metrics. It will take time to review and thoroughly assess the Auditor’s report and consider her recommendations.”
The report addresses indicators that a group led by a former CDC Director regarded as necessary for success that served as the benchmark.
Although the report concentrates on the state’s initial response to control the virus, it also acknowledges the improvements made to collect and report information over time.
“Our hope is that the state will consider our recommendations to enhance internal controls, communications, and monitoring to improve even further because this fight is not over and no state should have to be an island,” said McGuiness. “Collaboration is key.”
“Delaware is in a unique situation, but its uniqueness should not be an excuse for not wanting to pull back the curtain to evaluate our state’s performance. The report is what it is – limited in precision and depth – because my office was directed to go to websites for information.”
(See audit report below)
https://storage.googleapis.com/delawarebusinessnow-cdn/2020/12/COVID-SPECIAL-REPORT-12-2.pdf
The report pointed to missing dashboard indicators that included:
- Percentage of new cases epidemiologically linked to at least one other case, stratified by whether part of a known outbreak or not, with threshold
- Percentage of licensed beds occupied by suspected and confirmed Covid-19 patients. List of long-term care and other congregate facilities, and essential workplace outbreaks with COVID-19 cases and deaths in residents and staff
- Diagnostic test turnaround time (i.e. specimen collection to test report), by week
- Time from specimen collection to the isolation of cases, by week
- Percentage of cases interviewed for contact elicitation within 48 hours of case specimen collection, including all people with positive tests who reside in the jurisdiction, by week
- Percentage of new cases from among quarantined contacts, by week
- New infections among healthcare workers not confirmed to have been contracted outside of the workplace.
- Percentage of people wearing masks correctly in public indoor settings, based on direct observation or security camera analysis, by a standard, consistent method, by week.
Delaware officials have cited privacy issues and small numbers in some categories that can come in a state with a population the size of some cities.
The lack of a common dashboard led to every county and city health department in the U.S. creating their own dashboard, in addition to the varied dashboards among states. Delaware. is unique, since it has only one state division of public health.
