Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 7;44(1):e149-e152.
doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdab212.

Public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emergency healthcare system

G Stirparo  1   2 , A Oradini-Alacreu  1 , M Migliori  2 , G F Villa  2 , M Botteri  2   3 , N Fagoni  3   4 , C Signorelli  1 , G M Sechi  2 , A Zoli  2
Affiliations

Public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emergency healthcare system

G Stirparo et al. J Public Health (Oxf). .

Abstract

Background: The Lombardy region has been the Italian region most affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. The emergency healthcare system was under deep stress throughout the past year due to the admission of COVID-19 patients to the emergency department (ED) and had to be thoroughly reorganized.

Methods: We performed a retrospective descriptive analysis of patients admitted into the ED recorded in the Lombardy online regional portal called EUOL (Emergenza e Urgenza OnLine). We compared the data registered in the EUOL with the patients admitted to the EDs from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 and from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Results: The number of admissions to the ED decreased by 32.5% in 2020 compared with 2019, reaching the lowest number in March and April. However, the percentage of patients hospitalized after ED significantly increased in 2020 compared with 2019 (P < 0.0001), reflecting the management of patients with a more severe clinical condition. More patients arrived at the ED by ambulance in 2020 (21.7% in 2020 versus 15.1% in 2019; P < 0.0001), particularly during March and April.

Conclusions: This analysis showed the importance of monitoring the pandemic's evolution in order to treat more critically ill patients, despite a lower number of patients.

Keywords: emergency care; health services; public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of patients admitted to ED in the Lombardy region in 2020 and 2019.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ministero della Salute . Covid-19 – Situazione in Italia. Available at: https://opendatadpc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/b0c68b.... (1 May 2021, date last accessed).
    1. Fagoni N, Perone G, Villa GF, et al. . The Lombardy emergency medical system faced with COVID-19: the impact of out-of-hospital outbreak. Prehospital Emerg Care (2020);25(1):1–7. - PubMed
    1. Zedde M, Pezzella FR, Paciaroni Met al. . Stroke care in Italy: an overview of strategies to manage acute stroke in COVID-19 time. Eur Stroke J 2020;5(3):222–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Choudhary R, Gautam D, Mathur R, Choudhary D. Management of cardiovascular emergencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerg Med J. 2020 Dec;37(12):778–780. - PubMed
    1. Sechi GM, Migliori M, Dassi Get al. . Business intelligence applied to emergency medical services in the Lombardy region during SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Acta Biomed 2020;91(2):39–44. - PMC - PubMed