Emergency Department Visits among Cancer Patients during SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.
Davide ValsecchiLuca PorcuAbdelrahman KhaterRosa Alessia BattistaLeone GiordanoStefano CascinuAndrea AssanelliChiara LazzariVanesa GregorcAurora MirabilePublished in: Cancers (2023)
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a global impact. Patients with cancer, their caregivers, and physicians need to balance the challenges associated with COVID-19 while ensuring cancer care. Nevertheless, emotional distress and hospital departmental reorganization could have led to a decrease in ED admissions even among oncological patients. Methods: We compared the 72 days of the pandemic in 2020 with the same calendar days in 2019 and 2021, defining a 20% decrease in ED visits as clinically significant. We studied the cause for visit, its severity, outcome (admission vs. discharge vs. death vs. hospice/palliative care), the tumor site, and method of arrival to the ED for the 3 time periods. Results: A significant decrease in ED oncological visits was found in 2020 compared to 2019, before returning to similar numbers in 2021. Fear, anxiety, and worry, in addition to hospital departmental reorganization, surely had an important role in the delay of ED visits, which resulted in irreparable consequences.
Keyphrases
- emergency department
- coronavirus disease
- sars cov
- palliative care
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- end stage renal disease
- adverse drug
- advanced cancer
- healthcare
- rectal cancer
- ejection fraction
- chronic kidney disease
- primary care
- newly diagnosed
- prostate cancer
- radical prostatectomy
- prognostic factors
- robot assisted
- depressive symptoms
- patient reported outcomes
- physical activity
- rotator cuff
- prefrontal cortex
- sleep quality