As hospital coronavirus data collection will no longer be a task for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), data in Kansas and Missouri suddenly went incomplete or missing.

The Trump administration gave orders to hospitals this week to change data collection. They also directed a change in the way data will be made available.

When CDC was removed from the data collection process, there were concerns raised on the matter.

Data is can no longer be accessed by the Missouri Hospital Association. They can't use the data to guide statewide coronavirus efforts right now.

Kansas Hospital Association said its hospital data reports could be delayed.

Dave Dillion, Missouri Hospital Association spokesperson, said in an email that the move was a "major disruption," the NPR reported.

He added that the current numbers in Missouri are "headed in the wrong direction".

With very limited knowledge on their situation, Dillion is concerned and thinks they face "very bad news."

With this struggle in getting data, health and public officials could not know how the virus is spreading. This also leaves the public clueless.

Who will take over?

As data collection is not done by the CDC, the private firm TeleTracking Technologies of Pittsburgh took over, reported the CBS Pittsburgh.

The Trump administration believed that data collection process will be sped up with the firm, as reported by The Christian Science Monitor. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said the agency has agreed to step out of the data collection process to help streamline the reporting.

The data collected includes bed occupancy, staffing, how severe the patients are, ventilators on hand, and supplies of masks, gowns, and other personal protective equipment. The data is meant to assess the impact of the coronavirus in the hospitals.

Last April, the federal government tasked TeleTracking to gather data already reported by the CDC. Their contract with the firm amounted to $10 million.

This raised concern from health experts, who don't think it's the best idea to hand over the data to a commercial entity. TeleTracking's CEO runs a real estate investment firm in Pittsburgh.

CDC to collect other data

CDC would still be collecting data about the numbers of cases and deaths. They will get data from state health departments.

HHS Spokesperson Michael Caputo said the data from CDC has been seeing a lag of a week or more and not all hospitals are taking part in the effort.

Caputo believed that only 85 percent of the hospitals took part in CDC data collection. He added that the change is meant to have faster and more complete reporting.

No guarantees

Even though Caputo said the tech firm can help give more complete reports, it is not clear how that will happen. It is not clear if there will be any incentives or mandates to get more reports from busy hospitals.

Meanwhile, a CDC official disputed Caputo's figures. The official said that while only about 60 percent of the hospitals have been reporting to the CDC system, most of the data is processed in a span of two days.

The official asked the Christian Science Monitor to keep him anonymous as he was not in authority to talk about the CDC's system on data collection.

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