Investigation of the most frequently applied 20 ICD codes and the number of applications to the emergency services of hospitals in Gaziantep in 3-month periods

AIM: With some isolation measures taken during the fight against Covid-19, there was a noticeable decrease in emergency room applications. The decrease was also experienced in the patient groups considered as red area patients according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Emergency Specialists Association (ACEP) classification. This study was organized toobserve during the COVID-19 pandemic the change in the number of red area patients who need to go to emergency services under any circumstances. MATERIAL AND METHOD:According to the WHO and ACEP classification, the red area patients with 20 ICD diagnosis codes were determined. Between the dates of15.12.2019-14.03.2020 (Period I: before the start of Covid-19), 15.03.2020- 14.06.2020 (Period II: the period of complete isolation measures due to Covid-19) and 15.06.2020-14.09.2020 (Period III: full normalization period) patients who applied to the emergency services of five public hospitals in Gaziantep were included in the study. Medcalc statistics program was used to evaluate the data obtained retrospectively. FINDINGS: During all three periods, a total of 881,711 patients applied to the relevant five hospital emergency services. It was determined that there were 389.768, 169.194 and 322.749 patient applications in periods I, II and III, respectively. Although the highest decrease was seen in the applications of patients with green area in the restriction period, a significant decrease was found in the applications of patients with red area. The numbers of applications for read area were 11026, 7787 and 12785 in terms I, II and III, respectively. The highest decrease in period II (-60.83%) was detected in those aged between 16-25 years. CONCLUSION: Due to Covid-19, it is expected for green and yellow areas patients to apply to the emergency services less often. It has been determined that patients known as red area patients also postponed their hospital applications due to fear of being infected with Covid-19 and could not receive the necessary emergency treatment. KEYWORDS: Emergency service, ICD, Covid-19, Triage, Pandemic