Division
East Florida
Hospital
HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital
Specialty
Family Medicine
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
2023
Keywords
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COVID-19, coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2, patient outcomes, comorbidities
Disciplines
Family Medicine | Medicine and Health Sciences | Respiratory Tract Diseases | Virus Diseases
Abstract
A scoping review of COVID-19's impact on healthcare delivery and health outcomes found disruptions in care delivery and a shift towards telemedicine(1). Another study found no significant change in the length of stay for patients admitted to the hospital for COPD exacerbation during the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period(2).
We conducted a secondary analysis of HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital data to compare the outcomes of patients with COPD before (Jan 2018 – Feb 2020) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020 – Dec 2021). The data included patients aged over 18 years who were diagnosed with COPD and did not have COVID-19 or dementia. We analyzed length of stay (LOS), ICU admission, and mortality on a monthly basis for the two time periods using chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests.
There was no significant difference in ICU admissions or mortality between the two time periods. The LOS did not differ for most months, except for statistically significant differences in January, June, and November (p<0.05). These months coincided with spikes in COVID-19 hospitalizations during 2020 and 2021, which may have impacted resources for caring for COPD patients and contributed to longer LOS.
Our secondary analysis suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may have had an indirect impact on LOS for patients with COPD, but not on ICU admission or mortality. However, further research is needed to fully understand the factors contributing to these trends.
1. Roy CM, Bollman EB, Carson LM, Northrop AJ, Jackson EF, Moresky RT. Assessing the indirect effects of COVID-19 on healthcare delivery, utilization and health outcomes: a scoping review. Eur J Public Health. 2021 Jul 13;31(3):634-640. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckab047. PMID: 33755130; PMCID: PMC8083627.
2. Poucineau J, Delory T, Lapidus N, Hejblum G, Chouaïd C, Le Coeur S, Khlat M. Hospital admissions and mortality for acute exacerbations of COPD during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationwide study in France. Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Sep 16;9:995016. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.995016. PMID: 36186789; PMCID: PMC9522972.
3. Jennifer Y. So, Nathan N. O'Hara, Blaine Kenaa, John G. Williams, Christopher L. deBorja, Julia F. Slejko, Zafar Zafari, Michael Sokolow, Paul Zimand, Meagan Deming, Jason Marx, Andrew N. Pollak, Robert M. Reed, Population Decline in COPD Admissions During the COVID-19 Pandemic Associated with Lower Burden of Community Respiratory Viral Infections, The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 134, Issue 10, 2021, Pages 1252-1259.e3, ISSN 0002-9343, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.05.008.
Recommended Citation
Hentges, Jacob and Fashner, Julia, "Outcomes of Patients with COPD during the COVID Pandemic" (2023). East Florida Research Day 2023. 16.
https://scholarlycommons.hcahealthcare.com/eastflorida2023/16
Abstract