Mortality for Time-Sensitive Conditions at Urban vs Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions to the health care system may have resulted in increased mortality for patients with time-sensitive conditions.

To examine whether in-hospital mortality in hospitalizations not related to COVID-19 (non-COVID-19 stays) for time-sensitive conditions changed during the pandemic and how it varied by hospital urban vs rural location.

This cohort study was an interrupted time-series analysis to assess in-hospital mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 8, 2020, to December 31, 2021) compared with the prepandemic period (January 1, 2017, to March 7, 2020) overall, by month, and by community COVID-19 transmission level for adult discharges from 3813 US hospitals in the State Inpatient Databases for the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.

The COVID-19 pandemic.

The main outcome measure was in-hospital mortality among non-COVID-19 stays for 6 time-sensitive medical conditions: acute myocardial infarction, hip fracture, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, pneumonia, sepsis, and stroke. Entropy weights were used to align patient characteristics in the 2 time periods by age, sex, and comorbidities.

There were 18 601 925 hospitalizations; 50.3% of patients were male, 38.5% were aged 18 to 64 years, 45.0% were aged 65 to 84 years, and 16.4% were 85 years or older for the selected time-sensitive medical conditions from 2017 through 2021. The odds of in-hospital mortality for sepsis increased 27% from the prepandemic to the pandemic periods at urban hospitals (odds ratio [OR], 1.27; 95% CI, 1.25-1.29) and 35% at rural hospitals (OR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.30-1.40). In-hospital mortality for pneumonia had similar increases at urban (OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.42-1.54) and rural (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.36-1.57) hospitals. Increases in mortality for these 2 conditions showed a dose-response association with the community COVID-19 level (low vs high COVID-19 burden) for both rural (sepsis: 22% vs 54%; pneumonia: 30% vs 66%) and urban (sepsis: 16% vs 28%; pneumonia: 34% vs 61%) hospitals. The odds of mortality for acute myocardial infarction increased 9% (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.06-1.12) at urban hospitals and was responsive to the community COVID-19 level. There were significant increases in mortality for hip fracture at rural hospitals (OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.14-1.53) and for gastrointestinal hemorrhage at urban hospitals (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.09-1.21). No significant change was found in mortality for stroke overall.

In this cohort study, in-hospital mortality for time-sensitive conditions increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobilizing strategies tailored to the different needs of urban and rural hospitals may help reduce the likelihood of excess deaths during future public health crises.