Impact of COVID-19 on inputs used in assistance in emergency care unit

Abstract

Objective: To identify the impact of the pandemic on the consumption and costs of materials and medicines in an emergency care unit in a municipality located in the interior of the State of São Paulo. Method: This is a cross-sectional, retrospective study, with quantitative analysis of data from a health unit in the public pre-hospital network. Data were collected through management reports, generated by hospital management software, referring to the 12-month pre-pandemic period (January to December/2019), pandemic (July/2020 to June/2021) and the post-pandemic period (January to April/2023), being compared using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test. Results: Most of the hospital supplies and medicines used to combat COVID-19 showed an increase in consumption and values above the parameters observed in the previous period and remained with values close to those practiced in the post-pandemic period. Conclusion: the increase in demand associated with the scarcity of products led to a sharp increase in the prices of inputs and medicines used to combat COVID-19, later reflecting on the costs of the institution in the studied unit.