Lessons from Influenza Outbreaks for Potential Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Hospitalizations, Ventilator Use, and Mortality Among Homeless Persons in New York State

Excerpt

Increasing numbers of patients infected by COVID-19 is raising serious concerns about the potential shortage of hospital beds and ventilators in cities such as New York City. The homeless population is particularly large in urban areas and will become larger given the economic crisis.^{1, 2} They are high-risk of contagious diseases³ (as shelters and drop-in centers are crowded with an active turnover of people), and the outbreak among this population would negatively impact the health care system’s ability to respond to this crisis. However, little is understood how the outbreak of infectious diseases among the homeless population affects health systems’ resources (e.g., hospital beds, ventilators) and availability of resources for non-homeless population. To address this knowledge gap, using influenza outbreaks as an example, we investigated health care use among the homeless population hospitalized in New York State. …