Abstract
During the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a general decrease in the presentations to emergency departments (ED) was reported. However, we suspect that there was a lower number but an unchanged pattern of ED visits for urgent conditions in 2020 compared to 2019. This retrospective study assessed the change in the number of presentations in the ED of a tertiary level university hospital in Milano (Lombardia, Italy). Compared to 2019, a significant drop in ED presentations occurred (−46.4%), and we recorded a −15.7% difference in the proportion of patients admitted with white codes. The pattern of hourly presentations to the ED was unchanged, with overcrowding during the working daytime. COVID-19 changed ED flows, likely causing an overall reduction in the number of deferrable conditions. However, the pattern associated with urgent conditions did not change abruptly in 2020.
Highlights
Was the first European country involved in the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic
There were 35,249 emergency departments (ED) presentations in our hospital in 2020, compared to 65,804 in (Figure 1), which resulted in a reduction of 46.4%, and involved fewer females compared
2019 (Figure 1), which resulted in a reduction of 46.4%, and involved fewer females to the male population, 50.2% versus 42.5%, respectively
Summary
Was the first European country involved in the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic. The general attitude suggested by health authorities was postponing deferrable interventions, which lead to a drop in the number of people seeking hospital care. People suffering from neurologic [1] and cardiac [2] diseases have vanished from emergency departments (EDs), feeding the suspicion of increased overall mortality as the most devastating consequences of the pandemic on the care of diseases other than COVID-19. It was estimated that the total number of deaths in December 2020 was over 25,000 in Italy [3]. Despite the fear of contagion and the general recommendation to avoid unnecessary visits to EDs, we hypothesized that a lower volume but unchanged pattern of ED visits for urgent conditions occurred in 2020 compared to 2019.
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