Go to the hospital if you need emergency care, even in the era of COVID-19

In the era of COVID-19, the hospital must be a place of mystery to those on the outside. I imagine some think it’s bustling with activity, with caregivers scurrying around at a frenetic pace. Of course, we’ve seen video on the news from hard-hit New York City or Lombardy, Italy, when they were at their initial peak of the COVID-19 epidemic. But the reality is that, in most hospitals around the country, it is actually somewhat calmer than usual. This calm makes sense given the mandate for social distancing, working from home, and canceling nonessential activities. What doesn’t make sense is this: in the emergency departments where I work, daily patient visits have significantly decreased. These days, we are now treating about half the number of patients that we usually do. Although we are busy with COVID-19 patients, the absence of patients with the typical reasons for emergency department (ED) visits, like chest pain, abdominal pain, and headache are way down. This has left us scratching our heads, thinking “where are they?” People report avoiding emergency departments over fear of COVID-19 A recent article in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology describes a nearly 40% reduction in use of cardiac catheterization labs to treat acute severe heart attacks, which is shocking. This phenomenon occurred in Italy as well, where admissions for heart attacks decreased markedly. Although staying at home is likely to reduce visits for trauma — like falls or car a...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Emergency Planning Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs