With input from Dr Monica Vasudev

1070: Which Patients with COVID-19 Are Most Commonly Readmitted within 14 days for Respiratory Complications?

DG Alerts excerpts: Patients with COVID-19 who are readmitted to the hospital after discharge with respiratory complications are more likely to have COPD and/or hypertension, according to a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

In order to evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 returning to the emergency department or requiring readmission within 14 days of discharge, Sulaiman Somani, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and colleagues followed 2,864 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who were discharged from 5 hospitals in New York City. Of these discharged patients, 3.6% came back to the hospital for emergency care after a median of 4.5 days. The most common reason was respiratory distress (50%).

Compared to patients who did not return to the hospital, those who returned had higher proportions of COPD (6.8% vs 2.9%) and hypertension (36% vs 22.1%).

Patients who returned were found to have a shorter median length of stay during their first hospitalization (4.5 days vs 6.7 days), and had a lesser likelihood of having needed intensive care during their first hospitalization (5.8% vs 19%). The study also found an association between absence of in-hospital anticoagulation during first hospitalization and readmission (20.9% vs 30.9%).

On readmission, rates of intensive care and death were 5.8% and 3.6%, respectively.

As we enter a phase where COVID-19 is not a novel disease, there is an urgent need to move our attention to the post-acute phase to understand ways to keep patients well and out of the hospital.

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA