Readmission and inhospital death 1 year after COVID-19 hospitalization in South Africa.

Abstract

Acute SARS-COVID-19 infection may increase readmission risk compared to other respiratory infections. We assessed the 1-year readmission and inhospital death rates of hospitalized SARS-COVID-19 patients compared to patients hospitalized with other types of pneumonia. We determined the 1-year readmission and inhospital death rate of adult patients initially hospitalized with a positive SARS-COVID-19 result, and subsequently discharged, between March 2020 and August 2021, at a Netcare private hospital in South Africa, and compared this to all hospitalized adult pneumonia patients in the 3 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (2017-2019). The 1-year readmission rate in COVID-19 patients was 6.6% (328/50,067) versus 8.5% in pneumonia patients (4699/55,439; p<0.001), with an inhospital mortality rate of 7.7% (n=251) and 9.7% (n=454; p=0.002) for COVID-19 and pneumonia patients, respectively.