Staying Home At All Costs: The Case of Dropping Emergency Department Visits

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread and cases climbed, authorities and public health officials encouraged people to stay home to avoid spreading COVID-19. While this type of message was an essential part of the public health campaign, one of the results was an apparent drop in routine visits to the emergency department for serious health conditions, such as heart attacks, appendicitis, broken bones, and strokes. A study conducted by Yale University and the Mayo Clinic and published in JAMA confirmed that a sample of emergency departments in states with spiking COVID-19 cases did experience a significant drop in emergency room visits.

This study was conducted in Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina during the spring (March and April), when COVID-19 cases were rising rapidly in these states. All five states experienced at least a 40% drop in emergency department visits and hospital admissions, with a full 63.5% drop in New York’s emergency department visits. This drop mirrors the increase in COVID-19 cases and government orders to stay at home.

While staying home can save lives during COVID-19, avoiding the emergency department for true health emergencies most certainly does not save lives. This analysis proves that public health messaging needs to specify that emergency medical care is an essential reason to leave home. Further research is needed to determine the true toll on human health and suffering of medical care avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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