Should Comorbidities Be Considered in the Decision to Discharge COVID-19 Patients From Hospital? A Case Series

Abstract

An outbreak of COVID-19 started in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan and is now rapidly spreading across the world. We report two cases of confirmed COVID-19 with pre-existing comorbidities who were discharged from the hospital with a good clinical condition and in concordance with interim discharge protocols. However, they were readmitted and died on the discharge day. Here we discuss the importance of patient demographics in clinical management vs. the resolution of the pulmonary disease alone and raise a question about the impact of comorbidities on discharge protocols.

Keywords

• Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• Comorbidity
• Discharge protocol
• Outcome assessment
• Health care