The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Emergency Department (ED) Admissions in the Only Hospital of City Center EDs

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to examine the effect of the pandemic on emergency service visits, together with the pre- and post-pandemic period data. Material and methods: The charts of patients who applied to the emergency department between 2019 and 2021 were included in the study. We analysed patients' charts from the pre-pandemic period (January 1, 2019-February 29, 2020), the pandemic period (March 1, 2020-June 30, 2021; from the date of detection of the first COVID-19 case to the date of the second dose of the vaccine), and normalisation period (July 1, 2021-December 31, 2021; the date from the completion of vaccination to the end of the year). Demographic characteristics, triage codes, diagnoses, hospitalisation or referral status, population ratio, admission rate, and mortality were examined in these data. Results: In total, 529,706 patient charts were examined. When the pre-pandemic period (15,983.29±1,493.19) was compared with the pandemic period (11,342.94±2,350.15), it was observed that there was a decrease in the number of visit period. In the post-pandemic period, patients coming to the hospital decreased following vaccination. It was determined that there were more visits (20742.17±967.61) compared to the pre-pandemic period. Conclusion: The data demonstrate that, during the pandemic period, visits decreased in general, and the rate of critical patients increased gradually. Accordingly, there are unnecessary visits and inappropriate use of emergency services.