The Chicago Department of Public Health teamed up with Rush University Medical Center to launch a new COVID-19 data resource tool Dec. 4 that compiles centralized hospital information to better track cases and identify trends across the city.
The tool, which took about 30 days to develop and launch, pulls Chicago health department mandated data from all 28 Chicago-based hospitals into a common platform. The system includes three key data sets: electronic lab reporting to track every COVID-19 test administered in Chicago; consolidated clinical document architecture data pulled from Epic EHR system-enabled sites; and COVID-19 capacity model, which monitors hospital bed counts across the city in near real time.
"Not only does this help us to better understand the spread, it also empowers us to better match patients with the places that can most effectively treat them,” said Omar Lateef, DO, CEO of RUMC, according to the news release. "Not all hospitals have the same resources and being better able to match patients with clinical capabilities will save lives."
RUMC will store the health information and analyze the data for Chicago's public health department. The organizations are also working to secure a federal grant to improve reporting and support immunization registries once a vaccine becomes available.