The impact of COVID-19 on Emergency Department length of stay for urgent and life-threatening patients.
BMC Health Serv Res
; 22(1): 696, 2022 May 24.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1862130
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To determine the impact of the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the length of stay (LOS) and prognosis of patients in the resuscitation area.METHODS:
A retrospective analysis of case data of patients in the resuscitation area during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (January 15, 2020- January 14, 2021) was performed and compared with the pre-COVID-19 period (January 15, 2019 - January 14, 2020) in the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University. The patients' information, including age, sex, length of stay, and death, was collected. The Wilcoxon Rank sum test was performed to compare the LOS difference between the two periods. Fisher's Exact test and Chi-Squared test were used to analyze the prognosis of patients. The LOS and prognosis in different departments of the resuscitation area (emergency internal medicine, emergency surgery, emergency neurology, and other departments) were further analyzed.RESULTS:
Of the total 8278 patients, 4159 (50.24%) were enrolled in the COVID-19 pandemic period group, and 4119 (49.76%) were enrolled pre-COVID-19 period group. The length of stay was prolonged significantly in the COVID-19 period compared with the pre-COVID-19 period (13h VS 9.8h, p < 0.001). The LOS in the COVID-19 period was prolonged in both emergency internal medicine (15.3h VS 11.3h, p < 0.001) and emergency surgery (8.7h VS 4.9h, p < 0.001) but not in emergency neurology or other emergency departments. There was no significant difference in mortality between the two cohorts (4.8% VS 5.3%, p = 0.341).CONCLUSION:
The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant increase in the length of resuscitation area stay, which may lead to resuscitation area crowding. The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients of different departments was variable. There was no significant impact on the LOS of emergency neurology. According to different departments of the resuscitation area, the COVID-19 pandemic didn't significantly impact the prognosis of patients.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Emergency Service, Hospital
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
/
Length of Stay
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Health Serv Res
Journal subject:
Health Services Research
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12913-022-08084-1
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