Emergency department admission revolution during the COVID-19 pandemic: burden or opportunity?

Excerpt

Morello et al. performed a multicenter, retrospective, cross-sectional study involving some general emergency departments (EDs) in Turin, Italy, from January to August 2020, assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ED flows and admissions. Worldwide, the admissions to most EDs decreased according to the evolution of the pandemic; however, there was an increased mortality not only related to the direct impact of COVID-19 on the frail population but also to an excess all-cause mortality due to reduced access to healthcare facilities, overloaded emergency medical services, and the lack of screening and early diagnostics for noncommunicable diseases. Morello et al. highlighted that during the first wave peak, there were not only fewer traumatic injuries but also significantly fewer non-COVID-19 diagnoses compared to 2019, which were reduced by 80.8% for neurological diseases [1]. After the first wave, diagnoses of oncological, metabolic/endocrine, and hematological diseases were statistically unchanged; however, in the early, mid, and late periods of the pandemic and all post-wave periods, admissions for psychiatric, neurological, non-COVID-19 respiratory, gastrointestinal, urological, and obstetrical/gynecological disease as well as trauma were significantly reduced. …