La Crosse County health experts lower Compass to include more metrics in labeling COVID-19 spread risk
LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) – La Crosse health officials have a new method to show how La Crosse is doing with COVID-19 distribution. Leaders announced Thursday that the former tool for spreading risk viruses, the Coulee COVID-19 Compass, would no longer be used.
Health officials continue to learn more about COVID-19. The complex nature affects each piece of society differently. Leaders of La Crosse are changing their approach to finding out how the community is doing. La Crosse County officials say the former county COVID-19 risk report served its purpose.
“For some, the Compass was confusing and was not an accurate representation of the level of risk,” said Steve O’Malley, administrator of La Crosse County. “While expecting for others that the Compass would provide all the answers.”
La Crosse County leaders are moving to a new community-based risk assessment tool. The tool will include community partners, including health organizations, school districts, and businesses.
“The new tool will include nine metrics that will cover both health care and public health, while providing a more nuanced assessment that will reflect a more accurate snapshot of the current risk to the community,” said Drs. Paul Mueller, Regional Vice President for Mayo Clinic Health System.
Three of the nine factors include daily case rate, daily hospitalization, and hospital capacity.
La Crosse County Health Director Jen Rombalski said they are changing their approach with the new information they know.
“We need to be flexible and if something is not the most effective tool to support our community and we can make it better, then we need to do that,” Rombalski said.
Since each person, company and organization is different, they wanted to incorporate more metrics to show the real risk to the community.
“We need to continue living in our community in this viral environment,” Mueller said.
Local school districts relied on the Compass to make decisions over the fall semester. Local health officials say this does not affect the timeline of local districts. Officials expect districts to use their new risk process to move forward.
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