TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kapsner, Lorenz Alois
A1  - Kampf, Marvin O.
A1  - Seuchter, Susanne A.
A1  - Gruendner, Julian
A1  - Gulden, Christian
A1  - Mate, Sebastian
A1  - Mang, Jonathan M.
A1  - Schüttler, Christina
A1  - Deppenwiese, Noemi
A1  - Krause, Linda
A1  - Zöller, Daniela
A1  - Balig, Julien
A1  - Fuchs, Timo
A1  - Fischer, Patrick
A1  - Haverkamp, Christian
A1  - Holderried, Martin
A1  - Mayer, Gerhard
A1  - Stenzhorn, Holger
A1  - Stolnicu, Ana
A1  - Storck, Michael
A1  - Storf, Holger
A1  - Zohner, Jochen
A1  - Kohlbacher, Oliver
A1  - Strzelczyk, Adam
A1  - Schüttler, Jürgen
A1  - Acker, Till
A1  - Boeker, Martin
A1  - Kaisers, Udo X.
A1  - Kestler, Hans A.
A1  - Prokosch, Hans-Ulrich
T1  - Reduced rate of inpatient hospital admissions in 18 german university hospitals during the COVID-19 lockdown
T2  - Frontiers in Public Health
N2  - The COVID-19 pandemic has caused strains on health systems worldwide disrupting routine hospital services for all non-COVID patients. Within this retrospective study, we analyzed inpatient hospital admissions across 18 German university hospitals during the 2020 lockdown period compared to 2018. Patients admitted to hospital between January 1 and May 31, 2020 and the corresponding periods in 2018 and 2019 were included in this study. Data derived from electronic health records were collected and analyzed using the data integration center infrastructure implemented in the university hospitals that are part of the four consortia funded by the German Medical Informatics Initiative. Admissions were grouped and counted by ICD 10 chapters and specific reasons for treatment at each site. Pooled aggregated data were centrally analyzed with descriptive statistics to compare absolute and relative differences between time periods of different years. The results illustrate how care process adoptions depended on the COVID-19 epidemiological situation and the criticality of the disease. Overall inpatient hospital admissions decreased by 35% in weeks 1 to 4 and by 30.3% in weeks 5 to 8 after the lockdown announcement compared to 2018. Even hospital admissions for critical care conditions such as malignant cancer treatments were reduced. We also noted a high reduction of emergency admissions such as myocardial infarction (38.7%), whereas the reduction in stroke admissions was smaller (19.6%). In contrast, we observed a considerable reduction in admissions for non-critical clinical situations, such as hysterectomies for benign tumors (78.8%) and hip replacements due to arthrosis (82.4%). In summary, our study shows that the university hospital admission rates in Germany were substantially reduced following the national COVID-19 lockdown. These included critical care or emergency conditions in which deferral is expected to impair clinical outcomes. Future studies are needed to delineate how appropriate medical care of critically ill patients can be maintained during a pandemic.
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - pandemic
KW  - healthcare systems
KW  - inpatient hospital admissions
KW  - Germany
KW  - medical informatics initiative
KW  - lockdown
KW  - university hospitals
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/57121
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-571210
SN  - 2296-2565
VL  - 11
IS  - Article 594117
PB  - Frontiers Media
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -