UC Research Shows Patients Avoiding the ED During the COVID Pandemic
Aug 3, 2020
Research by Dr. Ho/ppe’s lab shows dramatic decreases in ED use for most conditions as the COVID pandemic was accelerating, and concluded that public health officials should emphasize the importance of seeking care when it was needed.
Key Points
Question: How did emergency department visits and hospitalizations change as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic intensified in the US?
Findings: In this cross-sectional study of 24 emergency departments in 5 health care systems in Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina, decreases in emergency department visits ranged from 41.5% in Colorado to 63.5% in New York, with the most rapid rates of decrease in visits occurring in early March 2020. Rates of hospital admissions from the ED were stable until new COVID-19 case rates began to increase locally, at which point relative increases in hospital admission rates ranged from 22.0% to 149.0%.
Meaning: The findings suggest that clinicians and public health officials should emphasize to patients the importance of continuing to visit the emergency department for serious symptoms, illnesses, and injuries that cannot be managed in other clinical settings.
See the full paper at jamanetwork.com >>>
Key Points
Question: How did emergency department visits and hospitalizations change as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic intensified in the US?
Findings: In this cross-sectional study of 24 emergency departments in 5 health care systems in Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina, decreases in emergency department visits ranged from 41.5% in Colorado to 63.5% in New York, with the most rapid rates of decrease in visits occurring in early March 2020. Rates of hospital admissions from the ED were stable until new COVID-19 case rates began to increase locally, at which point relative increases in hospital admission rates ranged from 22.0% to 149.0%.
Meaning: The findings suggest that clinicians and public health officials should emphasize to patients the importance of continuing to visit the emergency department for serious symptoms, illnesses, and injuries that cannot be managed in other clinical settings.
See the full paper at jamanetwork.com >>>