Trends in Emergency Department Visits and Hospital Admissions in Health Care Systems in 5 States in the First Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US

Abstract

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread throughout the US in the early months of 2020, the delivery of acute care changed to accommodate an influx of patients with a highly contagious infection about which little was known. Initial public health messaging advised avoiding unnecessary health care use to reduce transmission of the virus and to ensure capacity to accommodate surges in COVID-19 cases.¹ An early report² suggested that use of health care services for elective and emergency conditions decreased during this period. Reductions in emergency department (ED) use could reflect (1) failure by patients with serious or life-threatening conditions to seek care, including conditions unrelated to COVID-19³; (2) avoidance of the ED for nonemergency conditions; or (3) displacement of ED care to other venues, such as telemedicine visits.⁴ We studied changes in ED use in 5 health care systems representing geographically diverse areas in 5 states in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US.