Public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emergency healthcare system.
J Public Health (Oxf)
; 44(1): e149-e152, 2022 03 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1280123
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The Lombardy region has been the Italian region most affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. The emergency healthcare system was under deep stress throughout the past year due to the admission of COVID-19 patients to the emergency department (ED) and had to be thoroughly reorganized.METHODS:
We performed a retrospective descriptive analysis of patients admitted into the ED recorded in the Lombardy online regional portal called EUOL (Emergenza e Urgenza OnLine). We compared the data registered in the EUOL with the patients admitted to the EDs from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 and from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.RESULTS:
The number of admissions to the ED decreased by 32.5% in 2020 compared with 2019, reaching the lowest number in March and April. However, the percentage of patients hospitalized after ED significantly increased in 2020 compared with 2019 (P < 0.0001), reflecting the management of patients with a more severe clinical condition. More patients arrived at the ED by ambulance in 2020 (21.7% in 2020 versus 15.1% in 2019; P < 0.0001), particularly during March and April.CONCLUSIONS:
This analysis showed the importance of monitoring the pandemic's evolution in order to treat more critically ill patients, despite a lower number of patients.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Public Health (Oxf)
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Pubmed
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS