Weekly Hospital Respiratory Metrics by Jurisdiction from August 2020

Preliminary weekly hospital respiratory data aggregated to national and state/territory levels reported to the CDC's NHSN since August 2020. The dataset updates weekly on Wednesdays and includes metrics on hospital capacity, occupancy, hospitalizations, and new admissions. It is produced by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in hospital occupancy and ICU bed capacity metrics across jurisdictions to monitor healthcare system stress.
• Model new hospital admissions for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) using voluntarily reported data from before November 2024.
• Track weekly changes in hospitalization metrics to support CDC-coordinated forecasts for influenza and COVID-19.
• Compare reporting coverage metrics for hospital capacity data across different mandated and voluntary reporting periods.

Strengths

• Weekly updates provide near real-time tracking of respiratory illness impact on hospitals.
• National and state/territory level aggregation allows for both broad and granular geographic analysis.
• Data collection spans multiple reporting regimes, including mandated and voluntary periods from August 2020 onward.

Limitations

• Data is preliminary; final, validated data for a given week is published separately on a different CDC platform.
• The dataset contains aggregated counts, limiting analysis at the individual hospital or patient level.
• Reporting completeness and metrics may vary between mandated and voluntary reporting periods.

Provenance

Source

United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

Collection Method

Aggregated counts reported by acute care and critical access hospitals to the NHSN, with reporting requirements set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Time Range

August 2020 to present, with weekly granularity.

Freshness

Updates weekly on Wednesdays with preliminary data for the prior week.

Geography

United States, aggregated to national and state/territory levels.