Rapid establishment of a national surveillance of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Belgium
Background: In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, caused by a novel coronavirus, it was of great importance to rapidly collect as much accurate information as possible in order to characterize the public health threat and support the health authorities in its management. Hospital-based surveillance is paramount to monitor the severity of a disease in the population.
Methods: Two separate surveillance systems, a Surge Capacity survey and a Clinical survey, were set up to collect complementary data on COVID-19 from Belgium’s hospitals. The Surge Capacity survey collects aggregated data to monitor the hospital capacity through occupancy rates of beds and medical devices, and to follow a set of key epidemiological indicators over time. Participation is mandatory and the daily data collection includes prevalence and incidence figures on the number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital. The Clinical survey is strongly recommended by health authorities, focusses on specific patient characteristics and relies on individual patient data provided by the hospitals at admission and discharge.
Conclusions: This national double-level hospital surveillance was implemented very rapidly after the first COVID-19 patients were hospitalized and revealed to be crucial to monitor hospital capacity over time and to better understand the disease in terms of risk groups and outcomes. The two approaches are complementary and serve different needs.
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This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
File name: “Additional file 1” File format: PDF 503 KB Title of data: “Timeline of changes applied to the data collection in the Surge Capacity survey in Belgium, February – June 2020” Description of data: “Scheme of the changes applied to the data collection in the Surge Capacity survey with their respective dates of implementation”
File name: “Additional file 3” File format: PDF 20 KB Title of data: “Comparison baseline characteristics of patients in the Clinical survey based on the availability of admissions and/or discharge form.” Description of data: “Baseline characteristics of patients in the Clinical survey with both discharge and admission forms vs patients without discharge form, and patients without admission form.”
File name: “Additional file 3” File format: PDF 20 KB Title of data: “Comparison baseline characteristics of patients in the Clinical survey based on the availability of admissions and/or discharge form.” Description of data: “Baseline characteristics of patients in the Clinical survey with both discharge and admission forms vs patients without discharge form, and patients without admission form.”
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Received 17 Aug, 2020
On 10 Aug, 2020
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On 30 Jul, 2020
Rapid establishment of a national surveillance of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Belgium
Posted 17 Sep, 2020
On 18 Nov, 2020
On 03 Nov, 2020
On 22 Oct, 2020
Invitations sent on 21 Sep, 2020
On 15 Sep, 2020
On 14 Sep, 2020
On 14 Sep, 2020
On 08 Sep, 2020
Received 05 Sep, 2020
Received 17 Aug, 2020
On 10 Aug, 2020
Invitations sent on 04 Aug, 2020
On 04 Aug, 2020
On 02 Aug, 2020
On 01 Aug, 2020
On 01 Aug, 2020
On 30 Jul, 2020
Background: In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, caused by a novel coronavirus, it was of great importance to rapidly collect as much accurate information as possible in order to characterize the public health threat and support the health authorities in its management. Hospital-based surveillance is paramount to monitor the severity of a disease in the population.
Methods: Two separate surveillance systems, a Surge Capacity survey and a Clinical survey, were set up to collect complementary data on COVID-19 from Belgium’s hospitals. The Surge Capacity survey collects aggregated data to monitor the hospital capacity through occupancy rates of beds and medical devices, and to follow a set of key epidemiological indicators over time. Participation is mandatory and the daily data collection includes prevalence and incidence figures on the number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital. The Clinical survey is strongly recommended by health authorities, focusses on specific patient characteristics and relies on individual patient data provided by the hospitals at admission and discharge.
Conclusions: This national double-level hospital surveillance was implemented very rapidly after the first COVID-19 patients were hospitalized and revealed to be crucial to monitor hospital capacity over time and to better understand the disease in terms of risk groups and outcomes. The two approaches are complementary and serve different needs.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3