Since December 2019, when the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) spread throughout the world, data have been needed on the effects of the pandemic on various aspects of healthcare systems. Recommendations for social distancing and quarantine decrees made by local governments, alongside the general public fear from the spread of the virus, are presumed to have markedly affected the trends in hospitals visits. Understanding the exact nature of the effect is critical for better anticipating and preparing health systems in the event of future outbreaks and in the post outbreak period. Additionally, deferring hospitals visits can potentially put patients at increased risk for morbidity and mortality, especially in postsurgical patients. Evaluating the impact of the pandemic on patient volume can guide decision-making in future scenarios.~Previous infectious disease outbreaks have been shown to impact ED volumes: The US Hantavirus outbreak in 1993 led to a 2-fold increase in ED visits; Escherichia coli 0157:H7 outbreak in Washington state in 1993 increased ED visits by 17%; However, the 2003 SARS outbreaks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Toronto reduced tertiary care ED visits by up to 47 percent.
Since December 2019, when the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) spread throughout the world, data have been needed on the effects of the pandemic on various aspects of healthcare systems. Recommendations for social distancing and quarantine decrees made by local governments, alongside the general public fear from the spread of the virus, are presumed to have markedly affected the trends in hospitals visits. Understanding the exact nature of the effect is critical for better anticipating and preparing health systems in the event of future outbreaks and in the post outbreak period. Therefore we intend to To identify retrospectively all patients who presented to the emergency department at our medical institute between January 1 - March 31 in the following years: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. We will examine the impact of COVID-19 on the rates of surgical emergency visits, ratio of surgical visits to non-surgical visits, the ratio of severe presentations to non-severe presentations, and the impact of age on ED attendance.