Hospital visits for non-coronavirus emergencies are down, CDC says. But is that good?
Doctors have seen fewer patients with non-coronavirus emergencies, and new data back up those observations.
Hospital trips for heart attacks and other life-threatening situations have dropped from March 15 to May 23, according to a report published Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data were collected in the 10 weeks after COVID-19 was declared a national emergency, the report said.
Compared to the previous 10-week period, visits to emergency rooms “declined 23% for heart attack, 20% for stroke, and 10% for hyperglycemic crisis,” also known as high blood sugar, according to health officials.
Health officials urge people in serious need to receive medical attention, even during the pandemic. Skipping visits to the emergency room can lead to health problems or death, according to the CDC.
“If you experience chest pain, loss of motor function, altered mental status, or other life-threatening issues, seek immediate care,” the CDC wrote Monday on Twitter.
A decline in emergency room visits has some health experts worried, while others say it may not be a bad sign.
Why are hospital visits down?
Fear of the coronavirus could be keeping people away from emergency rooms, the CDC said in its report.
“A short-term decline of this magnitude in the incidence of these conditions is biologically implausible for (heart attack) and stroke, especially for older adults, and unlikely for hyperglycemic crisis, and the finding suggests that patients with these conditions either could not access care or were delaying or avoiding seeking care during the early pandemic period,” the report said.
It echoes doctors who as early as April noticed fewer emergency room patients and worried that the risks of exposure to COVID-19 could be making people in serious need hesitant to call 911. Medical experts at the time said it was safe to go to hospitals, many of which had measures to help protect patients from the coronavirus, McClatchy News reported.
Emergency room visits also could be down due to the “unintended consequences of public health recommendations to minimize nonurgent health care, stay-at-home orders, or other reasons” according to the CDC.
Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, officials have put off some medical procedures and restricted non-essential activities to help reduce the strain on the health care system.
Could there be another explanation?
As medical experts try to understand the decline in emergency room visits, they say it’s possible that there are fewer heart attacks.
“Maybe there is some miraculous cure from all of us staying at home,” Dr. Eric Velazquez, chief of cardiovascular medicine for Yale Medicine, said last month on the hospital’s website. “Air pollution is down, and we know that impacts the risk of coronary artery disease.”
Health officials also have suggested lower workloads and fewer restaurant meals in the age of COVID-19 could make heart attack and stroke rates go down, Stat News reported in April.
But some have countered those ideas, saying stress and unhealthy eating habits during the pandemic would likely lead to more patients in serious need, outlets reported.
To create its report, the CDC says it examined 2019 and 2020 figures from 47 states and the District of Columbia. Limitations include possible seasonal differences in emergency department visits and discrepancies with data entry, according to officials.
