Competency 5 Artifact

Jon Guerrero

ORGL-3321-KV1-Data Drvn Decision-Makin

Dr. Maricela Silva

June 27th, 2022

Epidemiologist named Kiara Garcia. She is currently working alongside the Texas Department

of State Health Services (DSHS) and was previously employed as a data analyst for the Hidalgo

County Health Department. The type of data she collects is related to COVID-19. She collects

data such as positive cases, deaths related to COVID-19, hospitalizations, and the number of

vaccinated individuals. The data collected comes from various sources such as schools, hospitals,

nursing homes, jails, daycare centers and clinics. COVID-19 needs to be reported to the Texas

Notifiable Conditions and needs to be reported by law. The Texas Notifiable Conditions is a list

of diseases that need to be reported.

The CDC does use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and they are preparedness,

prevention, control, surveillance, contact tracing, and mitigation. Each of these categories

measures a different indicator and has different subcategories as well. For example, preparedness

deals with how prepared we are for another spike in COVID-19 or one of its variants. This can

help us be ready by wearing masks, gloves, keep using sanitizers regularly, hand washing,

keeping our distance from others, and so on. Now that people know what to expect when a

contagious disease arises, it should be easier to be prepared. This KPI goes hand in hand with

prevention. If we are prepared for COVID-19, we can prevent spikes of cases by following the

COVID-19 guidelines. Prevention is extremely important because we can reduce the numbers of

COVID-19 cases, less time is required to be quarantined, individuals do not lose time off work,

businesses do not lose employees, you do not have to spend more on medicine, or doctors’ visits.

CDC also focuses on control, and how COVID-19 is managed. By controlling, CDC means a

different number of things. She mentions that CDC controls how information is spread out to the

public about COVID-19 and different diseases. They control COVID-19 by keeping information

available to the public and community members such as doctors, clinics, schools, hospitals, jails,
health care officials, businesses, and stakeholders. Surveillance is done by analyzing different

factors. One example Kiara gave me was when people get a positive COVID-19 test even when

they are vaccinated, surveillance is done by collecting additional PCR swab test to see what

variants are in the community. Contact tracing is done when one person comes out positive for

COVID-19, we must track every person they came in contact with since they got symptoms to

see if they are at risk of also testing positive. This, however, is not currently done. This was more

towards the beginning of the pandemic, but in Texas it got discontinued by Governor Abbot. The

last of the Key Performance Indicators is mitigation. Mitigation is reducing the amount and

severity of COVID-19 cases. This means urging individuals to get vaccinated, staying home

when feeling under the weather, and isolate if the individual is positive. Mitigation strategies are

tools that hospital, stakeholders, and the community can used to follow to prevent getting sick.

The way to prevent and control is by “physical distancing, respiratory etiquette, hand hygiene,

and cleaning” is the way that “people can protect themselves and those around them” (Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). Key Performance Indicators clearly play a huge role

in the healthcare field, and not just at the CDC bur other health care organizations as well.

Within the CDC, data collection is essential to their day-to-day operations as they continue to

provide ways to minimize the number of COVID-19 cases and keep us informed as well.

The methods used for data collection are as follows, lab results, electronic lab results, and

the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System. Doctors, Physician Assistants, Nurses, and

other medical personnel send the lab results, deaths, number of hospitalized individuals, and

number of vaccinations to the NEDSS. According to CDC.gov, “NEDSS helps public health

agencies accept electronic data exchanges from healthcare systems and enables health

departments to create and send standards-based case notifications to CDC for NNDSS” (Center

for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021).

collectively as it is uploaded to the system. NEDSS helps everyone stay informed with the most

current information as it is uploaded and this in turn helps data collection be easy to use, not just

for CDC but for other healthcare organizations. This is extremely important because test results

need to be analyzed as soon as possible or they become obsolete.

The ones who analyze the data collected would be epidemiologist, medical directors, data

analysts, and data clerks of various health agencies. They analyze the data to create reports, find

trends and predict outcomes. So, Kiara is employed by the CDC, but she is contracted by the

State of Texas to view and access this information to keep the public informed. This information

is viewed by state and local governments to work together and find solutions that everyone can

benefit from.

Once the data is analyzed, it is presented to the public. This includes healthcare officials,

such as, Texas Association of City & County Health Officials (TACCHO) and National

Association of City & County Health Officials (NACCHO), infectious control departments,

politicians, hospitals, clinics, schools, daycare centers, nursing homes, etc. Politicians can then

make decisions on what mandates to put in place. Businesses can require masks for civilians to

enter the location. As we were discussing this information, she provided a website through CDC

that has a COVID-19 data tracker. This allows anyone to access the information from the safety

of their home. There is a map, and you can see the number of cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and

percentage of vaccinated individuals. You can view, the United States as a whole, you can view

each state individually and each county within a state.

This data is used to make changes in trends of the COVID-19 virus. Once the data is

analyzed, CDC can find a number of things that they can change in order to decrease the number

of cases. Some of the ways the data helps are to create regulations and guidelines that prevent the
spread of the virus. As we have mentioned before, this are the protocols like hand washing,

wearing a facemask, using hand sanitizers, and keeping your distance from others. CDC also

uses it to mitigate strategies that help reduce disease and provide recommendations to the public

to effectively reduce the spread of COVID-19. As Kiara states, “CDC can see the hotspots where

there are more cases surging and we can provide help to these communities by increasing aid and

providing testing sites, testing kits, (and) vaccines. There were even instances in the beginning of

the pandemic where there were makeshift hospitals across the United States” (K. Garcia, Phone

Interview, June 27, 2022). The data that is collected can aid state and government officials and

local judges implement mandates and curfews. Initially how it started at the beginning of the

pandemic, only essential workers could work, and a lot of businesses had to close for a period

was due to a mandate that was ordered. Throughout the pandemic, the CDC data maintained the

general public, government officials, and healthcare officials informed on the best ways to

manage the COVID-19 virus.

The changes have been successful from the beginning of the pandemic to now. Obviously

when the pandemic started, we were not prepared, and a lot of people contracted the virus. This

led to a large number of deaths, lockdowns and quarantines were in effect around the world, and

we had no idea how long this would last. As the time progressed, we learned to mask up, wash

our hands, keep our distance, and even started working from home. Once we managed to move

forward together, and researchers were able to create a vaccine, the number of cases dropped.

Even then, we have had spikes here and there but for the most part we have managed to keep

moving forward and minimizing the number of cases little by little. Thanks to the resources of

the United States, we have been able to provide vaccines to those that want to get the vaccine.

Other countries around the globe do not have that luxury. Through the work researchers, doctors,

epidemiologist, data analysist, and everyone involved, we have managed to give people access to
information, prevent the disease from spreading, control outbreaks by establishing quarantine

protocols, mitigating risk, and overall have had a successful outcome against COVID-19. Even

though it might not feel like it because we did lose so many people and continue to do so, we

have been able continue our day-to-day routines as normal as possible, even if the “new” normal

is not exactly the same as it was before.

References:
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, September 24). Retrieved from National
Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System: https://www.cdc.gov/nndss/about/nedss.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, July 7). Retrieved from Mitigation in
densely populated areas:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/global-covid-19/global-urban-areas.html