Abstract
BackgroundDuring the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, advanced health systems have come under pressure by the unprecedented high volume of patients needing urgent care. The impact on mortality of this “patients’ burden” has not been determined.Methods and findingsThrough retrieval of administrative data from a large referral hospital of Northern Italy, we determined Aalen-Johansen cumulative incidence curves to describe the in-hospital mortality, stratified by fixed covariates. Age- and sex-adjusted Cox models were used to quantify the effect on mortality of variables deemed to reflect the stress on the hospital system, namely the time-dependent number of daily admissions and of total hospitalized patients, and the calendar period. Of the 1225 subjects hospitalized for COVID-19 between February 20 and May 13, 283 died (30-day mortality rate 24%) after a median follow-up of 14 days (interquartile range 5–19). Hospitalizations increased progressively until a peak of 465 subjects on March 26, then declined. The risk of death, adjusted for age and sex, increased for a higher number of daily admissions (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] per an incremental daily admission of 10 patients: 1.13, 95% Confidence Intervals [CI] 1.05–1.22, p = 0.0014), and for a higher total number of hospitalized patients (AHR per an increase of 50 patients in the total number of hospitalized subjects: 1.11, 95%CI 1.04–1.17, p = 0.0004), while was lower for the calendar period after the peak (AHR 0.56, 95%CI 0.43–0.72, p<0.0001). A validation was conducted on a dataset from another hospital where 500 subjects were hospitalized for COVID-19 in the same period. Figures were consistent in terms of impact of daily admissions, daily census, and calendar period on in-hospital mortality.ConclusionsThe pressure of a high volume of severely ill patients suffering from COVID-19 has a measurable independent impact on in-hospital mortality.
Highlights
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has caused a disproportionate number of deaths worldwide, especially in some developed industrialized areas, despite well-equipped health systems
During the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, advanced health systems have come under pressure by the unprecedented high volume of patients needing urgent care
The pressure of a high volume of severely ill patients suffering from COVID-19 has a measurable independent impact on in-hospital mortality
Summary
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has caused a disproportionate number of deaths worldwide, especially in some developed industrialized areas, despite well-equipped health systems. The clinical hallmark of COVID-19 is interstitial pneumonia causing respiratory failure [4] Initial symptoms, including both major (fever, cough, and dyspnea) and minor symptoms (alteration of the smell and taste, gastrointestinal symptoms, headache, and cutaneous manifestations), are poorly predictive of subsequent severe evolution, challenging the triage for hospitalization [5,6,7,8]. The high observed in-hospital mortality was attributed, among other factors, to the large number of cases admitted within a short time period, stressing hospital system capacity [9, 10]. The impact on mortality of this “patients’ burden” has not been determined
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