Comparative assessment of patients' admission to urology departments during and before the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective cohort study

Year 2023, Volume: 6 Issue: 2, 410 - 415, 27.03.2023

Ahmet Keleş , Ahmet Karakeci , Tunç Ozan , Ercan Yuvanç

https://doi.org/10.32322/jhsm.1220104

Abstract

Aim: To determine the diseases that presented to the urology department during the COVID-19 pandemic and for hospital-based comparison with the diseases that presented in the same period of the previous year.
Material and Method: In this retrospective follow-up study, patients who were admitted to the tertiary university hospital and secondary state hospital urology departments between April-July 2019 and April-July 2020 were included in the study. We searched the health administrative data using the International Classification of Diseases-10 codes. The number and variety of patients who were admitted to the urology departments in the same months of 2019 and 2020 were compared.
Results: In both hospitals, the total number of admissions decreased during the pandemic in 2020 compared to the pre-pandemic year. Also, elective admissions decreased in 2020 compared to the pre-pandemic year (p <0.001). In a significant part of the urological disease group, the decrease in the number of admissions was found to be higher for the second-level center than for the tertiary center hospital.
Conclusion: We documented that uro-oncology outpatient admissions could continue during the COVID-19 pandemic in a university hospital- not primarily served as a pandemic hospital- by taking preventive measures and prioritizing healthcare personnel and patient safety.

Keywords

COVID-19, urologic diseases, pandemics

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