While the United States is the country most affected by the current health crisis, logistics represent a real obstacle. Indeed, many data are not available in electronic format. However, these are, among other things, sent by… fax!
With over 3.8 million cases and around 140,000 deaths , the United States has the worst Covid-19 toll in the world. However, an article published by the New York Times July 13, 2020 discusses how logistics can hamper the response to the outbreak in various locations across the country. The American daily gives the example of Harris County (Texas), where no less than 40,000 cases have been recorded. The thing is, the public health department in this county receives test results by fax , in the form of hundreds of pages! Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of the department, talks about a machine constantly spitting out paper.
You should also know that some doctors send faxes directly to the director's number. In addition, other test results are placed in envelopes and taken directly to the department. In other Texas counties, like Austin and Travis, authorities receive a thousand faxes a day!
Recall that for several weeks, the United States has been carrying out half a million tests per day. This is rather good news. On the other hand, the problem really comes from the transmission of the results . The New York Times evokes a “fragmented health system characterized by a "mixture of old and new technologies as well as “data standards not meeting the needs of epidemiologists .
The fact is that this problem is present nationwide. Approximately 80% of results are either duplicated or sent to the wrong health department. Let's also discuss some results with missing essential information , such as the patient's address or phone number.
Although there are standards, the diversity of players in the sector – hospitals, clinics, laboratories – is confusing. In short, the authorities are having great difficulty tracking the number of cases and carrying out contact tracing. Remember that contact tracing is the process of identifying people likely to have been in contact with an infected person.
In order to manage flows, you have to do with the means at hand. The most surprising example is that of the Washington State Department of Public Health (Seattle). Indeed, 25 members of the National Guard were mobilized there to help manually enter data that was not available in electronic format!
