Pediatric unit sees decline in patients during pandemic, redeploys staff

In contrast to previous pandemics, the pediatric unit of a New York City community hospital saw a 29% decline in admissions during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers reported at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition.

Nupur Assudani, MD, a pediatrics resident at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, and colleagues reviewed medical records from pediatric patients to compare admission data from Feb. 1 to April 30, 2020, with the same period in 2019.

According to the study, in 2020, there were 194 admissions to the hospital’s pediatric unit during the 3-month study period compared with 272 in 2019. The steepest decline — 80% — occurred during the seventh week of the study period, when the New York state lockdown began, Assudani and colleagues reported.

“This was contrary to our hypothesis and led to redeployment of staff to other areas of the hospital that needed support, along with expansion of the pediatric inpatient services to the age of 30 years,” Assudani told Healio.

The hospital had increased the capacity of its pediatric unit by 50% in anticipation of a surge due to COVID-19 and in accordance with the New York state mandate.

“In the third week of March, the New York state mandate of lockdown was initiated, which included the closure of schools, parks, day care centers and restaurants, leading to a decrease in gathering in public areas and environmental pollution,” Assudani said. “We speculate that this led to an overall decline in injuries, allergic and infectious disease burden.”

Assudani said that the authors speculated that the pandemic created so much fear and anxiety, parents were unwilling to seek care unless absolutely necessary.

“As clinicians, health surveillance strategies should include effective counseling to empower patients and parents to seek inpatient care, even when hesitant in the height of the pandemic,” Assudani said.