When fear backfires: Emergency department accesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 pandemic
ED accesses
Fear
Hospital reaction
Patients behaviour
Journal
Health policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
ISSN: 1872-6054
Titre abrégé: Health Policy
Pays: Ireland
ID NLM: 8409431
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
12 2020
12 2020
Historique:
received:
05
06
2020
revised:
28
09
2020
accepted:
14
10
2020
pubmed:
6
11
2020
medline:
18
12
2020
entrez:
5
11
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The increase in access to Emergency Departments (ED) worldwide causes inefficiencies, but also signals its importance. The Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak allows to study the reactions of patients to the news about the spreading of the infection, which may have generated the fear that ED was no longer safe. We study access to ED of a large teaching hospital in Brescia - one of the most hit provinces in Italy by Covid-19 - during the pandemic (from the announcement of the first cases to the explosion of the pandemic, to months after end of the acute phase) to study how patients reacted to the news that ED could no longer be a safe place. We analyse triage code, mode of arrival to ED, and accesses related to chest and abdominal pain, to evaluate who was discouraged most. Accesses have drastically reduced immediately after the news of the first contagion. During the lockdown accesses and admissions to hospital ward have decreased; this may mean that some patients may have suffered reduced health or increased mortality risks because of this decision. At the end of June accesses to ED and admissions to hospital ward are still lower than usual. Fear of contagion and appeals not to use ED directly by Covid-19 patients may have discouraged access also for pressing health need.
Identifiants
pubmed: 33148454
pii: S0168-8510(20)30261-X
doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.10.006
pmc: PMC7584647
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
1333-1339Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Declaration of Competing Interest The authors report no declarations of interest.
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