1 in 10 COVID-19 patients return home from ER and return to hospital: US study

In total, researchers said that 8.6% of patients returned to the hospital after their first ED visit with COVID-19. (New York Times / File)

Almost 1 in 10 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) (# If there is no character limit, add parentheses when it first appears According to a new study that evaluated data from more than 1,400 patients admitted during the first three months of the emergency department, they had to return to the hospital within a week of being discharged from the emergency department. Pandemic..

This study, published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine, evaluated data on COVID-19 patients from the Philadelphia region of the United States between March and May 2020.

It was found that factors such as lower pulse oximetry levels and fever were some of the most obvious symptoms that resulted in a return to hospitalization.

“Austin Chiral, lead author of research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, hopes that exchanging information with patients suspected of having COVID-19 will help emergency clinicians.

“It can be difficult to make this diagnosis and send the patient home without knowing if the patient will get sick in the near future. This study allows clinicians to determine how often and when patients need to return. And there are some guideposts to know the risk factors that need attention.

In the study, scientists examined 1,419 patients who visited the emergency department (ED) between March 1 and May 28, 2020, were discharged, and were COVID-19 positive in the seven days surrounding their visit. It was.

According to the study, 4.7% of patients returned to the hospital, were hospitalized within just 3 days of their first ED visit, and an additional 3.9% were hospitalized within a week. In total, researchers said that 8.6% of patients returned to the hospital after their first ED visit with COVID-19.

“I was surprised at the overall proportion of patients returning and requiring hospitalization, which is twice that of other illnesses,” Chiral explained. “The concern is not that the emergency physician is making the wrong decision, but that COVID-19 is unpredictable and can become severe fairly quickly,” he added.

Researchers say patients over the age of 60 were more than five times more likely to need hospitalization after being discharged from their first emergency visit than patients between the ages of 18 and 39.

The study found that people in the 40-59 age group were three times more likely to need hospitalization than the younger group.

For individual symptoms, researchers said patients of age with hypoxic measurements were about four times more likely to require hospitalization on return than patients with high measurements. ..

They said that patients with fever could be more than three times more likely than patients without fever.

“If a patient has other factors, such as abnormal chest x-rays, they are even more likely to need to come back to be hospitalized,” said M. Kit of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, lead author of the study. Delgado said. ..

However, the researchers said there were no signs of difference along the lines of race or gender.

“This further contributes to the evidence that known racial disparities in COVID mortality are not related to differences in care and outcomes for patients once treated in the same hospital system,” Delgado said.

Rather, inequality is related to high prevalence and access to care in low-income communities of black and Hispanic descent, “he added.

Scientists believe that this finding can provide better information to doctors about who is most appropriate for home recovery and the need for remote monitoring as a useful tool for caring for COVID-19 patients. I emphasized sex.

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