Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Musculoskeletal Care in the Emergency Room. (6th December 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Frontera, Walter R.; Latimer, Marcos R.; de Jesús, Kevin; Pabón, Angel; González, Juan; Conde, José G.
• Is Part Of: Disaster medicine and public health preparedness. Volume 17(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-12-06
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- emergency room encounters -- musculoskeletal conditions -- SARS-CoV-2; Disaster medicine -- Periodicals; Emergency management -- Planning -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; 363.34
• DOI: 10.1017/dmp.2022.276
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1935-7893

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: Study the effect of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on emergency room (ER) utilization for musculoskeletal (MSK) complaints. Methods: Data from ER encounters in a teaching hospital for years 2019 and 2020 were extracted from an electronic database. The ICD-10-CM codes were used to assign the primary diagnosis. Joinpoint regression was applied to a time-series to detect changes in daily encounters (all-cause and MSK). Total number and median daily encounters were calculated by year, sex, age groups, and diagnostic codes for each year. Results: Overlapping intervals within March 2020 showed drops of 8.1 all-cause encounters per day (95% CI: 4.8-11.5), and 1.2 MSK encounters per day (95% CI: 0.8-1.7), resulting in net losses for the year of 33.2% for all-cause and 35.8% for MSK encounters. Reductions were observed for both sexes and all age groups. MSK codes with largest declines were low back pain, joint pain, and limb pain. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in major reductions in all-cause and MSK encounters in the ER of an academic hospital probably due to governmental restrictions and a change in patients behaviors. Persistence of the observed reduction suggests that patients requiring ER services delayed seeking care for MSK and other health conditions.