Transparency News, 4/7/20

 

An alliance of hospitals and health delivery systems across Virginia has partnered to create a new online dashboard of statistics related to COVID-19 hospitalizations across the commonwealth. While the Virginia Department of Health coronavirus website shows the number of cases confirmed each day, along with the number of people tested, total hospitalizations, and total deaths, the new dashboard from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association provides more details connected to the status of Virginia’s health care providers, including bed availability and ventilator usage. The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) launched the new dashboard on Monday to provide up-to-date statistics on the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations across the Commonwealth, ventilator usage, current hospital bed availability, and metrics on the number of hospitals experiencing challenges obtaining or replenishing critical inventories of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other needed medical supplies.
WHSV

To help protect members and staff from COVID-19, the Virginia Senate will trade its clubby confines at the state Capitol for the state science museum when the legislature returns to Richmond for its spring session April 22. Unlike the House of Delegates, which announced last week it would convene outdoors, possibly on the Capitol grounds, the Senate will meet indoors at the Science Museum of Virginia.  Susan Clarke Schaar, Senate clerk, alerted the state’s 40 senators in an email Monday that the museum – about 4 miles west of the state Capitol in a former train station – would be the venue for their meeting later this month. Because the House and Senate would not be meeting in the same building, they will use “technology,” Schaar said, to communicate with each other. That apparently will include email.
The Free Lance-Star

Stafford County supervisors have decided not to let residents offer on-site comments at a public hearing Tuesday on the proposed fiscal 2021 budget because of concerns about the coronavirus. Instead, residents can submit comments by completing an online form, which will remain open until April 21. All submissions received will be read into the public record. The county had planned for supervisors to attend in person and for residents to communicate with them via camera and microphone outside, near the main entrance of the facility.
The Free Lance-Star

Fredericksburg’s City Council will hold a special virtual meeting at 4 p.m. Tuesday to vote on several issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be broadcast on Cox Channel 84 and Verizon Channel 42, and can also be viewed on regionalwbtv.com/fredcc or Facebook Live at facebook.com/FXBGgov. Public comments can be posted on Facebook Live during the meeting, but won’t be answered until the following day. Council members will vote on holding meetings electronically, how the government will operate during the pandemic, tax relief policies and whether to give $50,000 to the Fredericksburg Economic Development Authority for a business relief grant program.
The Free Lance-Star

For the first time in history, the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors will hold its annual public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2021 budget, set for Wednesday, electronically. The hearing will take place at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast through Zoom.
Daily News Record

Waynesboro City Council members received a glimpse at the city’s more than $53 million budget for 2021 on Monday night during a special called work session held remotely via Zoom. The proposed budget is a $1.38 million, or 2.6%, increase from the previous year.
The News Virginian

 

The city of Bristol, Tennessee was billed nearly $12,000 for an incomplete tax incentive study after a Bristol developer abandoned his plans to redevelop the former Kmart building. At its teleconference meeting tonight, Bristol Tennessee City Council is set to vote on a resolution authorizing an $11,727.02 payment to MuniCap, a Maryland-based consulting firm, for work it did on an uncompleted study. The study would have determined if a $1.7 million tax increment financing (TIF) package was necessary for developer Steve Johnson’s proposed project to redevelop the former Kmart, had Johnson not abandoned those plans during fall of last year. Danielle Smith, the city’s attorney, told the Bristol Herald Courier in November that a draft of the study was prepared, but the report was never finalized. The city denied the Bristol Herald Courier’s Freedom of Information Act request for the draft on the grounds it is confidential under Tennessee law.
Bristol Herald Courier

 

 

One of the most frustrating parts of the coronavirus crisis is the uncertainty surrounding so much of what’s happening. The general public — to say nothing of local officials trying to make informed decisions — would be better served by a more robust commitment to making more information available about the disease’s spread through the commonwealth. Begin with the Virginia Department of Health, which each morning updates its online data dashboard, giving residents are quantifiable view of positive COVID-19 cases, the number of tests conducted, patients who have been hospitalized, and the death toll. All of that is incredibly helpful, and VDH officials have been responsive to requests that the data be updated every day rather than weekdays only (as it was when the dashboard first launched) and for figures to be posted each morning rather than midday. However, the VDH can and should do better to collect, compile and make publicly available the invaluable data about how Virginia is faring in the fight against coronavirus. And that is clear when one peruses the data dashboards updated by other states. The trickle of data coming out of the VDH may be why one organization has stepped up to provide more information to the public. On Monday, the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association launched its own dashboard about the COVID-19 crisis, expanding the information now available from the VDH. It provides the public with a more thorough view of the situation as seen from the hospitals across the commonwealth.
The Virginian-Pilot

THUMBS-DOWN: The Virginia Department of Health’s reporting of COVID-19 cases leaves much to be desired. True, we understand how HIPPA laws can muddy the information waters, but when it comes to a global pandemic reaching our shores and eventually our backyards, it’s time for the state to do a better job of keeping us more informed where the cases are happening. As of right now, the state website is updated each day at 9 a.m. with reported cases in health districts (we’re in the Central Shenandoah) broken down into counties and cities. That’s where it ends. That’s not enough. Granted, we do appreciate the demographic breakdown the Virginia Department of Health provides. But to keep the numbers impactful, and helpful, is to let us know where, if any, local hot spots are. This isn’t to intrude on patient privacy, but to help keep those of us who aren’t patients safe and to know where the help is needed. We think that’s fair and necessary.
Daily News Record