New dashboard gives more context to Wisconsin COVID-19 numbers

MADISON -- A new dashboard shows snapshots of COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU patients, and hospital PPE supply levels in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association says it pulls information from the state Department of Health Services and from individual hospitals that enter information into a system called EMResource.

Mark Grapentine

"It's just better to get more facts and data out to the public and policymakers that are just true on their face," said Mark Grapentine, Wisconsin Hospital Association VP of Communications.

On Friday afternoon, the dashboard showed 443 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Wisconsin. 77 percent of those patients were in southeast Wisconsin.

42 percent of the state's hospitalized COVID-19 patients were in the ICU.

"The situation is developing hour by hour, day by day depending on what's going on," Grapentine said.

As of Friday, the data showed 11 of southeast Wisconsin's 29 hospitals had seven days or fewer left before depleting N95 respirator masks. However, health systems caution the data is a snapshot; hospitals can receive new shipments of equipment hour after the dashboard numbers are posted.

"Everybody out there wants some kind of level of certainty," Grapentine said. "They want to have some kind of reassurance that something is good, or 'Boy, do I need to be worried about this other data point?' I think what’s most important right now is just the fact that this data is getting out and is more easily understandable."

The data also showed 218 ventilated patients in southeast Wisconsin, with 136 ICU beds immediately available in the region.

"Hospitals, even though they're often competitors during regular times, when it comes to crises like this, they collaborate and coordinate in what's the best interest of the patients," Grapentine said.