COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Emergency Department Visits and Quality of Service: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study in a Tertiary Centre
Maram Mohammed Jaboua *
Department of Emergency Medicine, King Abdullah Medical City, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Warif Jameel Abdulhaq
College of Medicine, Medicine and Surgery, UQU, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Nada Saeed Almuntashiri
College of Medicine, Medicine and Surgery, UQU, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Sarah Saud Almohammdi
College of Medicine, Medicine and Surgery, UQU, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Asayel Qeblan Aldajani
College of Medicine, Medicine and Surgery, UQU, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Mohammed Alghamdi
College of Medicine, Medicine and Surgery, KAU, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Amjad Suda Alsubhi
School of Medicine, Medicine and surgery, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, UK.
Rahaf Ali Almehmadi
College of Medicine, Medicine and Surgery, TU, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a devastating impact on emergency departments worldwide, resulting in a global crisis with various health consequences. We aimed to evaluate this impact on an emergency department (ED) visit of critical conditions such as Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), Cerebrovascular accident (CVA), Sepsis and Febrile neutropenia (FN), and to assess the quality of the ED after new adaptive measures were applied.
Methods: This is a comparative cross-sectional study to assess the number of patients who presented to the ED of King Abdullah Medical city with the specified diagnosis. We collected data via the E-medical records. We compared the data over three periods pre-lockdown, lockdown and post lockdown in years 2019-2021. For quality measurement, Adaa (Ministry of Health's program) was used to calculate the percentage of patients who stayed 4 hours or less in the ED.
Results: The total number of ED visits in the specified periods of study was 8387. The total numbers of patients for 2019, 2020, and 2020 respectively were 2011 (, ACS 70.4%, CVA 16.3%, sepsis and FN 13.3%.), 2733 (ACS 73.1%, CVA 9.9%, sepsis and FN 17.0%), and 3643 (ACS 64.0%, CVA 19.4%, sepsis and FN 16.7). The average percentage of patients who stayed 4 hours or less in the ED was 60% and 57.5% for 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Conclusion: Although we expected reductions in ED visits during COVID-19 periods, we found that visits were rising through the years 2019-2021.
Keywords: Acute medical conditions, COVID-19 pandemic, Emergency department visits, Medical emergencies, quality of service