For Immediate Release: September 17, 2021
Media Contact:
Ben Truman │ Vermont Department of Health
802-316-2117 / 802-863-7281
bennett.truman@vermont.gov
Vendor IT “Glitch” that Delayed Case Reporting is Resolved
State identifies number of cases impacted
BURLINGTON, VT – The Agency of Human Services and the Agency of Digital Services determined on Friday that an outside vendor’s IT issue delayed the delivery of test results, artificially inflating Thursday’s report of 314 new cases of Covid-19 by 109. The IT glitch has been resolved and the state has identified the number of cases affected. State officials, however, emphasized that although the glitch impacted the one-day total, the cumulative number of cases over these days is accurate.
The agencies met with the Broad Institute and Ellkay (Broad’s IT vendor) this morning. After further analysis, it was determined that a total of 237 positive case reports were delayed by the data glitch. The Agency also found that 11,297 Vermonters experienced delays in receiving their test results.
|
Date positive result reported |
Number of cases that would have been reported earlier without glitch |
|
September 10 |
0 |
|
September 11 |
8 |
|
September 12 |
3 |
|
September 13 |
80 |
|
September 14 |
37 |
|
September 15 |
109 |
|
September 16 |
0 |
Ellkay provides services for Broad to approximately 12 states. Ellkay indicated this morning that the slowdown impacted Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island. It is unclear which other states were affected.
Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said that following correction of the problem, Ellkay performed an analysis. That review identified that Ellkay added a column to their software program that caused the slowdown in reporting, which went unnoticed because the higher volumes of tests masked the slowdown. Tests were still being transmitted through the IT system but at much slower speeds and thus results were delayed starting with the samples that were submitted on 9/9. Ellkay is implementing new monitoring tools to help avoid these issues going forward.
Related Press Releases:
- Update: 314 New Cases May Include Results Held Up by Vendor IT “Glitch”
- Health Department Reports 314 New Cases May Include Results Held Up by Vendor IT "Glitch"
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