HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION AMONG PATIENTS DISCHARGED ALIVE POST-COVID-19 HOSPITALIZATION

ABSTRACT

SESSION TITLE COVID-19 Infections Issues During and After Hospitalization SESSION TYPE Original Investigations PRESENTED ON 10/17/2022 0130 pm - 0230 pm PURPOSE: To characterize the health care utilization (HCU) of patients after discharge from a hospitalization due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: Retrospective analysis from a national cohort using the Optum Clinformatics Data Mart. Included all adults hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 between April 2020 and March 2021, with prior 12 months of continuous enrollment. HCU of patients discharged to a home setting was evaluated in three periods (0-90 days;91-180 days;181-275 days post-discharge). HCU was defined as emergency department (ED) visits, inpatient (IP) admissions, rehabilitation/skilled nursing facility (SNF) admissions, outpatient (OP) and telemedicine visits and was expressed as the number of visits per 10,000 person-days to adjust for time from discharge. We also examined the distribution of office visits by provider specialty RESULTS: We identified 91,374 unique patients who were discharged alive after a hospitalization due to COVID-19. A greater percentage of patients was discharged to a home setting (n=63,674 or 65.6% home 41.54%;home with home health services 14.65% home with outpatient services 4.42%) than to a non-home setting (26.23% i.e., SNF, hospice, rehabilitation facility, etc.). The patients discharged to a home setting were mostly white (58.8%), females (53.4%), whose mean age was 72.4 (SD± 12). The percentage of office visits to Primary care provider (57.8%;48.3%, 47.7%), Cardiology (7.7%;8.0%;7.4%) Pulmonary medicine (4.7%;3.9%;3.1%) varied in the 3 time periods evaluated. Additionally, the outpatient visits to endocrinology (1.3%, 1.6%, 1.7%), Neurology (1.1%, 1.5%, 1.5%), Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (0.7%, 1.0%, 1.2%), Psychiatry (0.7%, 0.9%, 1.1%) and other mental health professionals (0.4%, 0.5%, 0.5%) increased over time. CONCLUSIONS: In our nationally representative study, health care utilization remains high among patients discharged to a home setting after a hospitalization due to COVID-19. Additionally, the use of mental health services increased overtime among survivors. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Understanding post-discharge health care utilization of patients after an index hospitalization due to COVID-19 will help health systems prepare and allocate resources for the most likely to be used services. DISCLOSURES No relevant relationships by Alexander Duarte No relevant relationships by Yong-Fang Kuo No relevant relationships by Shawn Nishi, value=Consulting fee Removed 04/03/2022 by Shawn Nishi No relevant relationships by Efstathia Polychronopoulou No relevant relationships by Daniel Puebla Neira No relevant relationships by Gulshan Sharma No relevant relationships by Mohammed Zaidan