Background It is of great importance to examine the impact of the healthcare reorganization adopted to confront the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of care provided to non-COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 national lockdown (March 9, 2020) on the quality of care provided to patients with hip fracture (HF) in Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, two large regions of northern Italy severely hit by the pandemic. Methods We calculated the percentage of HF patients undergoing surgery within 2 days of hospital admission. An interrupted time-series analysis was performed on weekly data from December 11, 2019 to June 9, 2020 (≈6 months), interrupting the series in the 2nd week of March. The same data observed the year before were included as a control time series with no “intervention” (lockdown) in the middle of the observation period. Results Before the lockdown, 2-day surgery was 69.9% in Piedmont and 79.2% in Emilia-Romagna; after the lockdown, these proportions were equal to 69.8% (–0.1%) and 69.3% (–9.9%), respectively. While Piedmont did not experience any drop in the amount of surgery, Emilia-Romagna exhibited a significant decline at a weekly rate of –1.29% (95% CI [−1.71 to −0.88]). Divergent trend patterns in the two study regions reflect local differences in pandemic timing as well as in healthcare services capacity, management, and emergency preparedness.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, surgery, Italy, Timeliness, Interrupted time series analysis, Hip fractures, Healthcare quality, Frail elderly, 【초록키워드】 pandemic, lockdown, COVID-19 pandemic, Local, Region, management, healthcare, Patient, Hospital admission, Care, Analysis, Non-COVID-19 patients, 95% CI, observation period, Piedmont, National, while, Result, proportion, provided, was performed, exhibited, calculated, adopted, Emilia-Romagna, healthcare service, 【제목키워드】 Analysis,