The Impact of Covid-19 on the Length of Stay of the Plastic Surgery Department

Abstract

The new COVID-19 disease has swept the world in recent months, causing enormous disruption to social, economic and health systems. Given the diversity of international health systems and conditions differ from one location to another. In all cases, however, it was decided to limit the elective surgical practices considered non-urgent. Plastic surgery departments have also seen a change in their normal business. The aim of this study was to investigate how the pandemic changed the activity of the Plastic Surgery Department of the "San Giovanni di Dio and Ruggi d'Aragona" University Hospital in Salerno (Italy). In particular, starting from the hospital discharge forms for the two-year period 2019-2020, Gender, Age, Date of admission, Date of discharge, Diagnostic Related Group (DRG) weight and Hospital admission procedures for patients were extracted. Statistical analysis and logistic regression were used to compare the activity of 2019, used in this study as a reference, with that of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. The analysis showed a statically significant reduction in the Length of Stay (LOS), thus improving appropriateness and achieving a reduction in spending.