Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on emergency department attendances and acute medical admissions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital healthcare, we studied activity in the emergency department (ED) and acute medicine department of a major UK hospital.

Methods

Electronic patient records for all adult patients attending ED (n = 243,667) or acute medicine (n = 82,899) during the pandemic (2020-2021) and prior year (2019) were analysed and compared. We studied parameters including severity, primary diagnoses, co-morbidity, admission rate, length of stay, bed occupancy, and mortality, with a focus on non-COVID-19 diseases.

Results

During the first wave of the pandemic, daily ED attendance fell by 37%, medical admissions by 30% and medical bed occupancy by 27%, but all returned to normal within a year. ED attendances and medi

SUBMITTER: Reschen ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8605447 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature