The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admissions, operations, heart attacks and births in the years 2018-2022 – observational study

Abstract

This article investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare system by examining the functioning of the Masovian Specialist Hospital in Ostroleka, Poland. The study included data gathered between January 1st, 2018 and July 7th, 2022. We considered March 14th, 2020 as the beginning of the pandemic in Poland and May 16, 2022 as the end. The total pool of patients admitted to the hospital in Ostroleka served as the study sample. The analyzed metrics included hospital admissions, number of surgical operations, births and myocardial infarction cases. The data from the pre-pandemic and pandemic period were compared. The study found that during 2020 the total number of hospital admissions decreased by 17.1% compared to the previous year. In 2021, the situation improved by 8.2%. In 2020 there were 19.4% fewer operations than in 2019, and in 2021 it decreased by another 4.1%. In 2019 the number of births decreased by 20,2%, it increased in 2020 by 8,4%. A decrease by 21.2% was noted in 2021. In the first half of 2022 the monthly number of births oscillated only around 40. From January 2018 to July 2022, the number of heart attacks recorded did not change significantly.