Effect of COVID-19 on computed tomography usage and critical test results in the emergency department: an observational study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on new or unexpected radiologic findings in the emergency department (ED) is unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of computed tomography (CT) critical test results in the ED.

Methods

We performed a retrospective observational study of ED CT usage at 4 Ontario hospitals (1 urban academic, 1 northern academic, 1 urban community and 1 rural community) over 1 month during the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020) and over the same month 1 year earlier (April 2019; before the pandemic). The CT findings from 1 of the 4 hospitals, Hamilton Health Sciences, were reviewed to determine the number of critical test results by body region. Total CT numbers were

SUBMITTER: Agarwal M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7505522 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul-Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature