Between the first and second wave of the 2019 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19): Presentation and crowding of attenders for mentale disorder and intossication/substance abuse

Abstract

Introduction During the 1st wave of CoViD-19 pandemic there was a drastic reduction in total number of accesses, with more serious cases and a exorbitant increase in crowding, due to access block. Objectives evaluate population who went to ED for (1) mental disorders requesting a psychiatric visit and for (2) intossication and substance abuse, between the first and second wave of the coronavirus pandemic Methods We enrolled all patients who went at our ED from May 1 to October 20, 2020 and during the same period of 2019. We analized: vital parameters, age, sex, exit severity codes, hospitalization rate, Crowding input factors (number of access, waiting time, priority time to doc), Crowding throughput factors (LOS: Length Of ED Stay), Crowding output factors (percentage of access block; Total Access Block Time). Results The results are shown in table 1 Table 1 Mental-disorder intossication/substance-abuse May1-October 20,2020 May1- October 20,2019 May1-October 20,2020 May1- October 20, 2019 number of ED access 543 564 182 254 higher (yellow and red) priority time to doc (%) 28% 29% 50% 39% worse exit severity codes (%) 10% 6% 16% 11% rate of hospitalization (%) 26% 20% 16% 9% average waiting times (min) 60 64 76 79 LOS lenght of stay (min) 369 326 629 506 access block (%) 3% 2% 5% 4% Total Access Block Time: examination rooms (min) 11.538 8.384 8.059 8.889 Total Access Block Time: holding area (min) 8.382 3.963 182 254 Conclusions We would like to thank all employees of the IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation for their extraordinary efforts during the pandemic.

Keywords

• COVID-19 pandemic
• metal disorder
• Emergency department
• intossication and substance abuse