The reduction in operating theaters in 2020, during the toughest moments of the pandemic, led to 1,513 fewer scheduled surgeries will be performed at the Mateu Orfila Hospital than in 2019, 300 of them hospital and 1,213 outpatient, that is, those that do not require admission. However, urgent surgeries, which include oncological and more serious ones, remained practically at the same level as in 2019, when 750 interventions were performed compared to 742 in 2020.
The care needs generated by covid-19, especially by the occupation of ICU boxes, the use at times, also for covid patients, of the Post Anesthetic Recovery Unit, and the concentration of human resources in the fight against coronavirus, motivated this decrease in surgical activity, estimated at 34 percent in scheduled outpatient surgeries and 17.5 percent in scheduled hospital surgeries.
In the surgical block, the total number of operations decreased from 6,034 to 4,516, 25 percent less than the previous year, and the average delay to enter the operating room went from 67 to 72 days.
The Menorca Health Area released the 2020 balance in the Mateu Orfila and the closure is according to the positive direction, since the hospital managed to maintain 92 percent of its scheduled activity compared to the previous year. The summary indicates that in 2020, 145,808 outpatient consultations were attended, 4,516 operations were carried out and, in terms of diagnostic tests, 19,637 were performed. This global calculation means a reduction in activity of 8 percent compared to 2019. An achievement that the medical director, Tamara Contreras, attributes to the “effort and commitment of all professionals, who have managed to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the provision of services to users, and also to the adaptability shown by the organization “.
Regarding the outpatient visits, the total number was down 4.8 percent, from 153,141 to 145,808 and of these, more than 27,000 were by telephone (18%), a modality that was launched due to the pandemic. The mean time delay to have an appointment with a specialist visit increased from 27 to 39 days in the first visits, but remained unchanged in the subsequent visits, 37 days.
Another consequence of the changes motivated by covid-19 and the reduction in activity was the decrease in hospital emergencies.
The service attended a total of 20,803 visits in 2020, compared to the 28,185 registered the previous year, which represented a decrease of 26 percent. The daily average number of visits to the Mateu Orfila emergency room was 57, while in 2019 it was 77.
The number of diagnostic tests fell 22 percent last year, from 25,245 performed in 2019 to a total of 19,637, but the decline was less in mammograms and colonoscopies.
This is due to the effort made by the hospital to maintain breast and colon cancer screening programs despite the pandemic. At the same time, the number of CT scans increased, from 3,400 to 3,487. Regarding colonoscopies, 982, 130 less than in 2019, while the number of mammograms performed was 1,370, 50 less than the previous year.
During the first year of the pandemic, especially in the first months, patients were recommended to restrict their presence in the hospital, also in the emergency room. The number of visits to this service fell by 26%, from 28,185 in 2019 to 20,803 last year.
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