Idaho COVID-19 surge drove patient transfers, strained out-of-state hospitals, new data shows

This investigative story was a collaboration between the Idaho Capital Sun and the Documenting COVID-19 project at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and MuckRock. The story described how the Delta wave in Idaho overwhelmed hospitals in the state and led to record patient transfers, both within the state and to neighboring states like Washington and Utah; it portrays the Idaho surge as a case study of the U.S.’s decentralized hospital system.

The two lead reporters were Betsy Ladyzhets (Documenting COVID-19) and Audrey Dutton (Idaho Capital Sun). In addition to reporting and writing, Betsy produced several data visualizations to accompany the story based on analysis of hospital transfer data from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Read the full story at the Idaho Capital Sun and/or at MuckRock, published March 16, 2022. And find the underlying data analysis here.

Last year, delta overwhelmed hospitals in Idaho, causing 6,300 patient transfers in 4 months. @audreydutton and I looked at this period as a case study of the US’s decentralized healthcare system, for @19Documenting & @IdahoCapitalSun: (1/11)https://t.co/wsTP7Dgykc pic.twitter.com/cru1B2ELzF

— betsy ladyzhets 📊 (@betsyladyzhets) March 16, 2022