With the new year, MARC has a number of updates to share with readers. Below you’ll find information on the following items:
- A new beta hospitalizations page is now live.
- Changes to state reporting practices in Missouri.
A new beta hospitalizations page is now live!
In the spirit of continuous improvement, MARC has launched a new, fully re-designed experience for sharing data about regional hospitals and the impacts of COVID-19 on their capacity. To view it, go to the New Hospitalizations – Beta page in the left-hand navigation.
The new page provides a more comprehensive view of hospital use and capacity variation over time. It accomplishes this with the following features:
- Visual alignment with the recently renovated homepage.
- Time series charts that differentiate between preliminary data (which is subject to changes during the validation period) and more stable, validated trend lines.
- Comparison charts that allow users to select multiple jurisdictions and view trend lines over time for a single indicator side-by-side.
- Single jurisdiction snapshot that enables users to view all indicators for a single jurisdiction on a single page.
- Date range selectors for all time series charts that allow users to zoom in and out on time periods of interest.
- Reporting tallies that show viewers how many hospitals have reported data in the last 24 hours. This lets readers know how “complete” the data is, or if data is missing due to a reporting lag.
This page is currently in a beta phase. This means the old hospitalizations page will remain available for a limited time. The planned date for removing the old page is Jan. 15, 2021. It also means feedback on this new page is welcomed and changes to incorporate feedback may occur within this period. Therefore, readers can expect some ongoing tweaks and changes to this page. Feedback can be directed to covidhub@marc.org.
Changes to state reporting practices in Missouri
The State of Missouri recently made changes in metric measurement at the state level that have led to changes in the dates associated with existing cases. This change will not affect the overall number of cases. However, data showing trends over time may change as past cases are attributed to rectified dates.
Missouri now includes reporting results from LAMP tests as well as PCR tests. LAMP tests make a very small share of testing in the Kansas City region.
These changes primarily impact data associated with jurisdictions in Missouri. Kansas jurisdictions are not affected.