The Ontario government quietly dropped a bombshell on Tuesday, producing a new dataset that reveals how many people were actually admitted to hospitals in the province because they were suffering from COVID-19.
The number is half of what the previous reporting had led the public to believe.
“This dataset details the percentage of COVID-19 positive patients in hospitals and ICUs for COVID-19 related reasons, and for reasons other than COVID-19,” the new online reporting portal explains.
The new numbers reveal that, as of Jan. 11, only 54% of the people reportedly in hospitals for COVID-19 were actually admitted because of their battle with the virus. The rest were hospitalized for some other reason, but just happened to test positive for the virus upon admission as part of routine screening.
When it comes to ICU occupancy, the publicly reported number is a far more accurate representation, but the new data still reveals that one in five supposed COVID ICU occupants was not actually in an ICU bed due to COVID-19.
This means that of the 2,467 people reported as “in hospital” on the Ontario government’s hospitalizations data page on Tuesday morning, only about half of them are actually in hospital due to COVID-19. Likewise, of the 438 persons reportedly in ICU for COVID-19, around 20% of them are not in fact COVID admissions.
This information is now coming out because the government only recently turned its attention to the matter. It was only on Friday that a revision allowed data entry at hospitals to include a drop-down box option that indicated when COVID-19 was not a person’s primary reason for being in hospital.
A memo sent to hospitals at the time said the purpose of the software revision was “to document COVID-19 positive test results as either the primary cause of admission to critical care or as an incidental finding on routine testing.”
The revelation out of Ontario is not out of step with other jurisdictions that have also released more detailed information on hospital admissions. It appears that, throughout North America, most regions are reporting a similar incidental rate of around half.
The Saskatchewan government reported on Jan. 6 that only 42% of their COVID-19 positive hospitalizations were confirmed to be in a hospital specifically for COVID-19.
While the phenomenon of incidental hospitalizations has always been occurring, it was believed to be a much smaller figure prior to the emergence of the highly-transmissible Omicron. Now that Omicron has become much more prevalent in the community, the number of incidental COVID-19 hospital numbers has soared.
“While this doesn’t change the serious situation in Ontario’s hospitals, it is important to share this data to provide additional context on the state of the pandemic,” Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott posted to social media after the changes to reporting were made.
It’s a change that physicians mostly welcome, although they note it comes with some caveats.
“I do think it’s a good thing that we’re reporting incidentals,” said Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremantang, an ICU doctor at the Ottawa Hospital, who explained that incidental admissions who test positive for COVID-19 typically have a different prognosis and shorter length of hospital stay than those admitted strictly for COVID-19.
“Reporting this will get a better sense of what the future will look like and how well our patients will do,” Kyeremanteng added.
https://torontosun.com/opinion/colum...-other-reasons