Τίτλος:
Significant reduction in the visits to the emergency room department during the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary hospital in Greece: Indirect victims of the pandemic?
Γλώσσες Τεκμηρίου:
Αγγλικά
Περίληψη:
COVID-19 pandemic caused a major crisis, affecting and straining health care systems, including some very advanced ones. The pandemic may have also indirectly affected access to health care for patients with other conditions, not related to COVID-19, even in countries not overwhelmed by an outbreak. We analyzed and compared visits to the emergency room (ER) department during the same calendar period of 2019 and 2020 (from March 1 to March 31 of each year) in our hospital, a medium size, tertiary center, located in the center of Athens, which is not a referral center for COVID-19. Total ER visits were reduced by 42.3% and the number of those requiring hospitalization by 34.8%. This reduction was driven by lower numbers of visits for low risk, non-specific symptoms and causes. However, there was a significant decrease in admissions for cardiovascular symptoms and complications (chest pain of cardiac origin, acute coronary syndromes, and stroke) by 39.7% and for suspected or confirmed GI hemorrhage by 54.7%. Importantly, number of ER visits for infections remained unchanged, as well as the number of patients that required hospitalization for infection management; only few patients were diagnosed with COVID-19. During the initial period of the pandemic and lock-down in Greece, there was a major decrease in the patients visiting ER department, including decrease in the numbers of admissions for cardiovascular symptoms and complications. These observations may have implications for the management of non-COVID-19 diseases during the pandemic. Abbreviations: COVID-19 = corona virus disease 2019, GI = Gastrointenstinal. © 2020 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
Συγγραφείς:
Kastritis, E.
Tsitsimpis, K.
Anninos, E.
Stamatelopoulos, K.
Kanakakis, I.
Lampropoulos, C.
Chatzidou, S.
Michopoulos, S.
Papamichail, C.
Kostis, E.
Manios, E.
Kontogiannis, S.
Paraskevaidis, I.
Terpos, E.
Mitrakou, A.
Dimopoulos, M.A.
Περιοδικό:
Medicine (United States)
Εκδότης:
Lippincott Williams and Wilkins
Λέξεις-κλειδιά:
abdominal pain; acute coronary syndrome; adult; aged; angina pectoris; Article; backache; cardiovascular disease; cardiovascular symptom; cerebrovascular accident; colitis; controlled study; coronavirus disease 2019; emergency ward; faintness; fatigue; female; gastrointestinal hemorrhage; Greece; heart arrhythmia; heart failure; heart palpitation; hospitalization; human; hypertension; infection; low risk patient; lower respiratory tract infection; major clinical study; male; malignant neoplasm; middle aged; national lockdown; nausea; observational study; pain; pandemic; presyncope; tertiary care center; thorax pain; upper respiratory tract infection; vomiting; epidemiology; health care delivery; health service; hospital emergency service; tertiary care center, Adult; Aged; COVID-19; Emergency Service, Hospital; Female; Greece; Health Services Accessibility; Health Services Needs and Demand; Hospitalization; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Pandemics; SARS-CoV-2; Tertiary Care Centers
DOI:
10.1097/MD.0000000000023845
