Background. It is of great importance to examine the impact of the healthcare reorganization adopted to confront the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of care provided to non-COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 national lockdown (March 9, 2020) on the quality of care provided to patients with hip fracture (HF) in Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, two large regions of northern Italy severely hit by the pandemic. Methods.Wecalculated the percentage ofHFpatients undergoing surgery within 2 days of hospital admission. An interrupted time-series analysis was performed on weekly data from December 11, 2019 to June 9, 2020 (-6 months), interrupting the series in the 2nd week of March. The same data observed the year before were included as a control time series with no "intervention"(lockdown) in the middle of the observation period. Results. Before the lockdown, 2-day surgery was 69.9% in Piedmont and 79.2% in Emilia-Romagna; after the lockdown, these proportions were equal to 69.8% (-0.1%) and 69.3% (-9.9%), respectively. While Piedmont did not experience any drop in the amount of surgery, Emilia-Romagna exhibited a significant decline at a weekly rate of -1.29% (95% CI [-1.71 to -0.88]). Divergent trend patterns in the two study regions reflect local differences in pandemic timing as well as in healthcare services capacity, management, and emergency preparedness.
COVID-19 and regional differences in the timeliness of hip-fracture surgery: An interrupted time-series analysis
Golinelli D.;
2021-01-01
Abstract
Background. It is of great importance to examine the impact of the healthcare reorganization adopted to confront the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of care provided to non-COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 national lockdown (March 9, 2020) on the quality of care provided to patients with hip fracture (HF) in Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, two large regions of northern Italy severely hit by the pandemic. Methods.Wecalculated the percentage ofHFpatients undergoing surgery within 2 days of hospital admission. An interrupted time-series analysis was performed on weekly data from December 11, 2019 to June 9, 2020 (-6 months), interrupting the series in the 2nd week of March. The same data observed the year before were included as a control time series with no "intervention"(lockdown) in the middle of the observation period. Results. Before the lockdown, 2-day surgery was 69.9% in Piedmont and 79.2% in Emilia-Romagna; after the lockdown, these proportions were equal to 69.8% (-0.1%) and 69.3% (-9.9%), respectively. While Piedmont did not experience any drop in the amount of surgery, Emilia-Romagna exhibited a significant decline at a weekly rate of -1.29% (95% CI [-1.71 to -0.88]). Divergent trend patterns in the two study regions reflect local differences in pandemic timing as well as in healthcare services capacity, management, and emergency preparedness.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
