Grand Canyon Times

The Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS) has removed a reported 2,815 hospitalizations from its official Covid data, saying that inaccurate information was improperly entered into the system.

The mistake is a big one. 

The number of patients removed from the hospitalization list comprises somewhere around 13% of all those reported since the first hospitalization on Feb. 21.  

According to AZDHS Director Dr. Cara Christ, the improper data was entered into the system prior to the end of August. 

“The data being reported in the Admission Date field of the report form was actually the date the individual was seen by a health care provider,” Christ wrote in a blog post. “Because these cases were being reported with an admission date, they were being counted as hospitalized in the Hospitalization section of our data dashboard.”

Others have a decidedly different take on the misreported numbers. 

“Arizona is now admitting almost 3,000 hospitalizations never actually happened,” Kyle Lamb, a journalist and Covid researcher, said on Twitter. 

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services Covid dashboard, the state has only had 19,987 hospitalizations in which Covid was detected in patients. 

Some have said health care providers may reap a financial benefit from misreporting their Covid numbers.

Lamb reported that Banner Health has received a large amount of bailout cash. 

“Banner Health, which had claimed at one point to have 50% of the hospitalizations in Arizona, has taken home $72.65 million in High Impact payments from the HHS Cares Act Provider Relief Fund,” Lamb tweeted. 

AZDHS said the improper data was entered by a “large health care provider” with most misreported cases located in Maricopa County, but did not identify the party. 

The announcement comes only a week after Gov. Doug Ducey declared the state was open for good.