Changes in emergency department utilisation in Germany before and during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from a national surveillance system up to June 2021.

ABSTRACT:

Background

During the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health and social measures, decreasing patient numbers have been described in various healthcare settings in Germany, including emergency care. This could be explained by changes in disease burden, e.g. due to contact restrictions, but could also be a result of changes in utilisation behaviour of the population. To better understand those dynamics, we analysed routine data from emergency departments to quantify changes in consultation numbers, age distribution, disease acuity and day and hour of the day during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We used interrupted time series analyses to estimate relative changes for consultation numbers of 20 emergency departments spread throughout Germany. For th

SUBMITTER: Schranz M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10152015 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature