PLoS ONE (Jan 2022)

Outcomes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 during the course of the pandemic in a fully integrated health system.

  • Brian Lam,
  • Maria Stepanova,
  • Chapy Venkatesan,
  • Ivan Garcia,
  • Mary Reyes,
  • Ashiq Mannan,
  • Soleyah Groves,
  • Mehul Desai,
  • Andrei Racila,
  • Andrej Kolacevski,
  • Linda Henry,
  • Lynn H Gerber,
  • Zobair M Younossi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263417
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 2
p. e0263417

Abstract

Read online

BackgroundGiven the rapid spread of COVID-19 and its associated morbidity and mortality, healthcare providers throughout the world have been forced to constantly update and change their care delivery models.ObjectiveTo assess the outcomes of COVID-19 hospitalized patients during the course of the pandemic in a well-integrated health system.MethodsThe study used data from the electronic health medical records to assess trends in clinical profile and outcomes of hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients hospitalized in our 5-hospital health system from March 2020-May 2021 (n = 6865). Integration of the health system began in February 2020 and was fully actualized by March 30, 2020.ResultsMortality decreased from 15% during first peak (March-May 2020; the rate includes 19% in March-April and 10% in May 2020) to 6% in summer-fall 2020, increased to 13% during the second peak (November 2020-January 2021), and dropped to 7% during the decline period (February-May 2021) (pConclusionsThe creation of a fully integrated health system allowed us to dynamically respond to the everchanging COVID-19 landscape. In this context, despite the increasing patient acuity, our mortality and resource utilization rates have improved during the pandemic.