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[COVID-19 pandemic impact on primary care emergency services activity: Comparative study between 2019 and 2020
Ángela Jiménez-García1, Genoveva Pérez-Romero1, César Hueso-Montoro2
1Servicio de Urgencias de Atención Primaria del Distrito Sanitario Granada Metropolitano, Granada, España; Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria de Granada (ibs.Granada), Granada, España.
Objective:
To compare the care provided by primary care emergency services during the COVID19 lockdown (March-June 2020) and the same period in 2019.
Design:
Retrospective descriptive study.
Setting:
Basic Health Area of Granada.
Population:
10.790 emergency reports, 3.319 in 2020 and 7.471 in 2019.
Outcomes:
Age, sex, service, shifts, referrals, priority levels, care times, previous processes, and reasons for consultation. T-Student and Chi Square were used for continuous and categorical variables. Effect size (Cohen's d) and OR along with 95% CI were calculated.
Results:
The patients attended by primary care emergency services decreased in 2020 compared to 2019, but the percentage of Priority V cases (p<0.01), home discharges (p=0.01) and hospital transfers (p<0.01) increased, and referrals to family doctors (p<0.01) decreased. In 2020, the percentage of emergencies at night (p<0.01) and in low-income neighborhoods (p<0.01) increased. Waiting time for classification decreased (p<0.01), but total care time increased in 2020 (p<0.01). The patients seen in 2020 were older (p<.001), and with a greater number of previous processes (p<0.01), highlighting patients with anxiety, depression, or somatization (p<0.01) and diabetes (p=0.041). Consultations related to various symptoms of COVID19, mental health problems and chronic pathologies increased.
Conclusions:
Primary care emergency services offer additional advantages in situations such as the COVID19 pandemic, as they allow channeling part of the health demand.
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