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Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Musculoskeletal Care in the Emergency Room

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2022

Walter R. Frontera Open the ORCID record for Walter R. Frontera [Opens in a new window] ,
Marcos R. Latimer ,
Kevin de Jesús ,
Angel Pabón ,
Juan González  and
José G. Conde
Walter R. Frontera*
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico Department of Physiology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Marcos R. Latimer
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Kevin de Jesús
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Angel Pabón
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Juan González
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
José G. Conde
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedical Sciences Program, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
*
Corresponding author: Walter R. Frontera, Email: walter.frontera@upr.edu.
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Abstract

Objective:

Study the effect of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on emergency room (ER) utilization for musculoskeletal (MSK) complaints.

Methods:

Data from ER encounters in a teaching hospital for years 2019 and 2020 were extracted from an electronic database. The ICD-10-CM codes were used to assign the primary diagnosis. Joinpoint regression was applied to a time-series to detect changes in daily encounters (all-cause and MSK). Total number and median daily encounters were calculated by year, sex, age groups, and diagnostic codes for each year.

Results:

Overlapping intervals within March 2020 showed drops of 8.1 all-cause encounters per day (95% CI: 4.8-11.5), and 1.2 MSK encounters per day (95% CI: 0.8-1.7), resulting in net losses for the year of 33.2% for all-cause and 35.8% for MSK encounters. Reductions were observed for both sexes and all age groups. MSK codes with largest declines were low back pain, joint pain, and limb pain.

Conclusion:

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in major reductions in all-cause and MSK encounters in the ER of an academic hospital probably due to governmental restrictions and a change in patients behaviors. Persistence of the observed reduction suggests that patients requiring ER services delayed seeking care for MSK and other health conditions.

Keywords

COVID-19emergency room encountersmusculoskeletal conditionsSARS-CoV-2
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e310
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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