The Impact of COVID-19 on Psychiatric Emergency and Inpatient Services in the First Month of the Pandemic in a Large Urban Mental Health Hospital in Ontario, Canada
| Autor: | Vicky Stergiopoulos, Albert H.C. Wong, Helena Kyunghee Kim, David Gratzer, Shayla Gutzin, Zafiris J. Daskalakis, André F. Carvalho, M. Ishrat Husain, Benoit H. Mulsant |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Canada Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) media_common.quotation_subject RC435-571 inpatient 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Pandemic medicine Psychiatric hospital 030212 general & internal medicine hospital Psychiatry media_common Original Research business.industry emergency Addiction Social distance Medical record pandemic COVID-19 Emergency department Mental health 3. Good health Psychiatry and Mental health business 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| Zdroj: | Frontiers in Psychiatry Frontiers in Psychiatry, Vol 12 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 1664-0640 |
| Popis: | The World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) as a pandemic on March 11, 2020 (WHO). Within a couple of days, all Canadian provinces announced the implementation of social distancing measures. We evaluated the immediate effect of COVID-19 on psychiatric emergency and inpatient services in Canada's largest psychiatric hospital in the first month of the pandemic. We extracted data from the electronic medical records of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. We compared emergency department visits, inpatient occupancy rates, and length of stay in March 2019 and March 2020, and during the first and second half of March 2020. There was a decrease in the number of emergency department visits and inpatient occupancy rates in March 2020 compared to March 2019. There was also a significant decrease in the number of emergency department visits and inpatient occupancy rates in the second half of March 2020 compared to the first half. Our findings suggest that the pandemic was followed by a rapid decrease in the usage of psychiatric emergency and inpatient services in a large mental health hospital. Future studies will need to assess whether this decrease will be followed by a return to baseline or an increase in need for these services. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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