Articles: pandemics.
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Observational Study
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on emergency department utilization patterns in South Korea: A retrospective observational study.
The purpose of analyzing changes in the use of emergency departments (EDs) was to better understand how to use ED resources efficiently during infectious disease outbreaks. Our study was a retrospective observational study. We analyzed the patterns of visits of adult and pediatric patients to separate EDs during 2020 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to know the changes in the ED utilization. ⋯ COVID-19 brought about many changes to ED utilization. A greater reduction in ED utilization occurred in pediatric patients compared to adult patients. Our study showed changes in the number and characteristics of patients visiting the ED during the COVID-19 period compared to 2018 and 2019.
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This study analyzed the changes in the number of outpatients and disease presentation during the entirety of 2020, the period of COVID-19 pandemic. The average annual number of outpatient visits between 2017 and 2019 (before COVID-19) and the total number of outpatient visits in 2020 (COVID-19 period) were compared. Diagnostic codes were identified during 2 periods to analyze changes in the number of outpatient visits according to disease and month. ⋯ In addition, the number of outpatient visits due to viral diseases continued to decline, while the incidence of bacterial diseases increased rapidly in the second half of the year. This study confirmed that the number of outpatient visits due to bacterial or viral infections decreased throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, expanding public health and telemedicine services is necessary to prevent secondary health problems caused by essential medical use restrictions.