Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on routine oncology versus emergency care at a high volume cancer centre.
Eur J Clin Invest
; 51(8): e13623, 2021 Aug.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1258930
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
We investigated the influence of population-wide COVID-19 lockdown measures implemented on 16, March 2020 on routine and emergency care of cancer outpatients at a tertiary care cancer centre in Vienna, Austria.METHODS:
We compared the number/visits of cancer outpatients receiving oncological therapies at the oncologic day clinic (DC) and admissions at the emergency department (ED) of our institution in time periods before (pre-lockdown period 1 January - 15 March 2020) and after (post-lockdown period 16 March- 31 May 2020) lockdown implementation with the respective reference periods of 2018 and 2019. Additionally, we analysed Emergency Severity Index (ESI) score of unplanned cancer patient presentations to the ED in the same post-lockdown time periods. Patient outcome was described as 3-month mortality rate (3-MM).RESULTS:
In total, 16 703 visits at the DC and 2664 patient visits for the respective time periods were recorded at the ED. No decrease in patient visits was observed at the DC after lockdown implementation (P = .351), whereas a substantial decrease in patient visits at the ED was seen (P < .001). This translates into a 26%-31% reduction of cancer-related patient visits per half month after the lockdown at the ED (P < .001 vs. 2018 + 2019). There was no difference in the distribution of ESI scores at ED presentation (P = .805), admission rates or 3-MM in association with lockdown implementation (P = .086).CONCLUSION:
We demonstrate the feasibility of maintaining antineoplastic therapy administration during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, our data underline the need for adapted management strategies for emergency presentations of cancer patients.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Cancer Care Facilities
/
Mortality
/
Emergency Service, Hospital
/
Ambulatory Care
/
COVID-19
/
Neoplasms
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Eur J Clin Invest
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Eci.13623
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