Surg Endosc 2022 Mar 17. Epub 2022 Mar 17.
Department of Surgery, Carolinas Medical Center, Atrium Health, 1025 Morehead Medical Plaza, Suite 300, Charlotte, NC, 28205, USA.
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health and hospital policies were enacted to decrease virus transmission and increase hospital capacity. Our aim was to understand the association between COVID-19 positivity rates and patient presentation with EGS diagnoses during the COVID pandemic compared to historical controls.
Methods: In this cohort study, we identified patients ≥ 18 years who presented to an urgent care, freestanding ED, or acute care hospital in a regional health system with selected EGS diagnoses during the pandemic (March 17, 2020 to February 17, 2021) and compared them to a pre-pandemic cohort (March 17, 2019 to February 17, 2020). Read More