News: Non-COVID-19 admissions drop to 80% of predicted levels

After summer months of recovery, hospital admissions for non-COVID-19 cases have again dropped to 80% of predicted levels by the week of December 5, 2020, according to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Overall national hospital admissions dropped in the spring of 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. By mid-summer, however, these levels were recovering to 92% of predicted levels. Total hospital admissions including those for COVID-19 fell to 94% of expected admissions by the week of December 5, with the decrease between March 8, 2020, and December 5, 2020, accounting for 8.5% of total predicted admissions for the entire year.

The recent drop in admissions shows that patients may be delaying care, researchers explained, and that the drop in admissions can have implications on hospital finances. The drop was not something that hospitals could have predicted, meaning recovering from the admission drops has been difficult for some hospitals to manage. The researchers noted that smaller, public, and rural hospitals were most likely to face the financial challenges.

Editor’s note: The KFF report can be found here. To read more of ACDIS’ coverage of COVID-19, click here. To read about a study suggesting patients delayed care during the COVID-19 pandemic, click here. To read about the risk of closure for rural hospitals, click here.