COVID-19 pandemisinde ilk kısıtlama dönemi ile birinci normalleşmeye geçiş dönemi arasında üçüncü basamak acil servise başvuran hastaların demografik analizi

Abstract

Objective: The COVID-19 virus has become a global threat by spreading all over the world. Countries are often unprepared for pandemics or other disasters, especially in the beginning, they experience organizational problems and the health system is adversely affected by this situation. The aim of this study is to analyze the patients who applied to the emergency department from the date of the first case in our country to the first day of the normalization process and to investigate the effects of different restraint decisions on the emergency patient characteristics. Material and Methods: This study was carried out retrospectively on patients who applied to the emergency department of Kırıkkale University Medical Faculty Hospital between 11.03.2020 and 01.06.2020. During this period, the dates of the critical restriction decisions regarding the pandemic were determined, and the patients were divided into four different periods according to the time of admission. Period-I: Between 11 March and 21 March, Period-II: Between 21 March and 3 April, Period-III: Between 3 April and 4 May, and Period-IV: Between 4 May and 1 June. Demographic data, application forms, units for which consultation was requested, diagnoses and hospitalization status of all patients were recorded. Obtained data were evaluated with SPSS 22.0 program and p<0.05 value was considered significant. Results: It was determined that 6507 patients applied to the emergency department during the study period. Period-I, n=1111; Period-II, n=723; Period-III consisted of n=2231 and Period-IV consisted of n=2442 patients. While the number of patient admissions was 78.39±28.46/day, 8.4% of them applied by ambulance. While 14.9% of all patients were infectious diseases emergencies, 17.3% were trauma. While simple traumas constituted 36.7% of the trauma patients, this was followed by falls and stab wounds. In Periods III and IV, the rate of stab wounds, blow and gunshot wounds increased. The highest number of consultations was requested from the Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic, followed by Internal Medicine and Cardiology. 14.8% of all patients were hospitalized and treated. The highest number of hospitalizations was in Internal Medicine, followed by Gynecology and Obstetrics and Cardiology. Conclusion: As the pandemic process progressed, the rate of admissions by ambulance increased, and the characteristics of trauma cases changed. The application of pregnant patients to the hospital continued even during the pandemic.