PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kai Man Alexander Ho
AU  - Ananthi Anandhakrishnan
AU  - Arun Mahay
AU  - Yiwen Soo
AU  - Laurence B Lovat
AU  - Andrew P Rochford
TI  - How COVID-19 has changed the unselected medical take: an observational study
AID  - 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0483
DP  - 2020 Sep 22
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - clinmed.2020-0483
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2020/09/21/clinmed.2020-0483.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2020/09/21/clinmed.2020-0483.full
AB  - Introduction COVID-19 has had a profound effect on the NHS. Little information has been published as to how the unselected medical take has been affected.Methods We retrospectively reviewed patients who were referred to general medicine during March 2020. We compared clinical outcomes of patients with and without COVID-19.Results 814 patients were included, comprising 777 unique patients. On average, 26 patients were admitted per day. 38% of admitted patients were suspected of COVID-19, with greater numbers of COVID-19 patients in the second half compared to the first half of the month (p<0.001). Logistic regression analyses showed suspected COVID-19 was an independent predictor for inpatient mortality (odds ratio [OR] = 6.09, p<0.001) and 30-day mortality (OR = 4.66, p<0.001).Conclusions COVID-19 patients had worse clinical outcomes and increased healthcare use compared to non-COVID-19 patients. Our study highlights some of the challenges in healthcare provision faced during this pandemic.