Summary​

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has launched a statewide hospital bed capacity system, the Hospital Bed and Emergency Medical Services Data System (HBEDS). HBEDS displays real-time staffed bed availability by bed type for participating hospitals on a private dashboard that is accessible to participating hospitals, as well as local and state government officials. HBEDS is automated using hospital EMR/EHR systems as opposed to the current bed-polling systems throughout the state that require manual data entry. This program is funded via governmental funds and hospitals do not need to pay to participate.

What does this syste​m do?

• The system collects automated real-time staffed bed capacity data from hospitals and emergency departments.
• The system uses one-way file transfers (API or SFT) from hospital Electronic Medical Records to populate the system with staffed bed availability.
• The system does not collect any protected health information. 
• The system displays the data on a private dashboard that is accessible to participating hospitals, local public health and emergency medical services partners, and state agencies.
• The data is also fed into CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NSHN).

HBEDS Ben​​efits

• Coordination between hospitals, EMS providers, and local health officials will improve during mass casualty and medical surge events.
• Hospitals can immediately see which nearby participating facilities have bed availability and contact those facilities first to initiate a patient transfer, which can improve timeliness of patient transfers on a day-to-day basis.
• HBEDS automatically reports participating hospitals' bed capacity to CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), satisfying certain CMS requirements

Legislatio​​n

The California Legislature passed AB-177 in the 2023-2024 Session. This bill gives CDPH, in conjunction with the Department of Healthcare Services (DHCS), the authority to develop and administer a healthcare bed capacity system. This includes the ability to request that specified healthcare entities to report the following data at a minimum: bed census and bed availability by level of care, unit, and healthcare facility into this system. CDPH will request this data from General Acute Care Hospitals and Emergency Departments. DHCS will request that specified mental and behavioral health facilities submit data to this system.

CDPH will notify General Acute Care Hospitals on any required enrollment deadlines.

Registration ​Process

Any General Acute Care Hospital in California is now eligible to participate in the HBEDS program, free-of-charge. If your facility would like to join this system or if you would like to learn more about it, please contact HBEDS@cdph.ca.gov.

​FAQ​​​​​s

Onboard​​ing

• Do hospitals have to pay to join?  
  HBEDS is being paid for by governmental funds. There is no onboarding fee for hospitals.

• ​Does the system work with any Electronic Medical Record (EMR)? 
  Yes, the system is able to work with any EMR/EHR.
• ​​How much work is onboarding? 
  The report extract is about 22 fields and has been developed in as little as 90- minutes, and at most, one month.  The HBEDS technical team works 1:1 with hospital IT report writers to guide them through the process.  The longest part of this process is identifying internal resources to complete the work.  Once the hospital has identified the resource, data can be live within a few weeks. 
• ​Is our electronic health record at risk for cyber-attacks due to being connected to HBEDS?  
  The hospital transmits information into the system, the system does not have access to the hospital EHR.  The system does not capture or use PHI. HBEDS only uses bed-level data.   
• Who should hospitals cont​​act to participa​​te? 
  Send an email to HBEDS@cdph.ca.gov
  

Benefits an​​​d Use

• ​​How do the Tertiary and Quaternary Care hospitals benefit from HBEDS?
  HBEDS raises situational awareness of inpatient and ED capacity. This encourages discussions about transferring patients back to community hospitals once they've stabilized from tertiary/quaternary care.  During crisis events, including adverse weather, natural disasters, or internal triage, leaders work with their emergency preparedness partners to utilize HBEDS to make time sensitive decisions on patient transfers. 
•  Will EMS overwhelm our​ Emergency Department (ED) with patients if they see the beds that are available?   
  The ED census reflects licensed beds, the admitted census is the proxy for patients boarding/waiting for their inpatient bed. ED pressure is captured as the percent of physicians assigned to patients along with the percent census and number of boarders. These items provide real time information that allows EMS to make informed decisions about the safest location to arrive patients.  
•  Who has access to the data?   
  The hospitals/health systems who participate and contribute data to HBEDS have access to the data. Additionally, local EMS, Medical Health Operational Area Coordinators, Regional Disaster Medical Health Specialists, local public health partners, and state partners will have access to view the dashboard. 

• ​What will the State of California be doing with our data? 
  The state will have access to the dashboard for situational awareness only. The program is housed in CDPH's Center for Preparedness and Response and is not being used for healthcare facility licensing purposes.

• Will HBEDS replace existi​ng county-level systems in use such as Reddinet or EMResource?
  Unless your facility is directed by your county, HBEDS does not replace any currently existing bed reporting/polling programs that you may participate in, such as EMResource or ReddiNet. Please continue to report to those programs as instructed by your county officials.
• Will this change anything about the policies and procedures outlined in California's Public Health and Medical Emergency Operations Manual? 
  No, this is a tool that will supplement existing policies and procedures and will enhance coordination among hospitals on both a daily basis and during times of emergency.  ​